Voters on Tuesday gave Democratic Attorney General Phil Weiser a second term as Colorado’s top law enforcement official.

The Associated Press called the race in Weiser’s favor 20 minutes before midnight on election night. Weiser has an 9 percentage point lead over Republican challenger John Kellner in unofficial returns as of Thursday.

The latest pre-election polling, from Global Strategies, a Democratic-leaning polling firm, showed Weiser ahead by as much as 13 percentage points. An Elections Daily analysis also said Weiser was likely to “cruise” to victory Tuesday night, based in part on an expected strong showing among statewide Democrats. 

Weiser won endorsements from standout Republicans during the campaign, including his predecessor, Cynthia Coffman, state Sen. Don Coram of Montrose and from a host of former Republicans, including former Speaker of the House Russ George of Rifle, former Assistant Minority Leader Cole Wist and former state lawmaker Rob Witwer.

Kellner’s most notable Democratic endorsement came from former Denver District Attorney Mitch Morrissey.

Kellner’s campaign lacked the national attention – and money – that Republican candidates for attorney general in other states garnered, such as in Arizona and Wisconsin, where the Republican Attorneys General Association (RAGA) spent millions, according to Open Secrets. 

Republican candidate for Attorney General, John Kellner, concedes to incumbent democrat Phil Weiser

RAGA, through the Colorado Freedom independent expenditure committee, contributed almost $850,000 to back Kellner, with nearly half of that in the last week.

The Democratic counterpart, the Democratic Attorneys General Association, contributed nearly $3 million to support Weiser’s re-election, including more than $500,000 in the last week of the campaign season.

Kellner also struggled to fundraise on his own, raising just one-tenth of what Weiser was able to generate. Weiser’s most recent campaign finance reports showed he had raised about $4.7 million to Kellner’s $347,000.

Weiser found himself on the opposite side of legislative Democrats in the 2022 debate over what to do about the state’s fentanyl crisis, advocating for the same position as many of the state’s law enforcement officials and district attorneys, to seek harsher criminal penalties for those who distribute the street drug. 

He campaigned on his efforts to obtain settlements from a variety of corporations, including opioid manufacturers, and safeguarding the state’s air, land and water, with the latter a rising priority in a time of crisis on the Colorado River.

Kellner campaigned on battling Colorado’s rising crime rate, particularly on auto theft, where the state rates No. 1 in the nation.  

Both Weiser and Kellner were dogged by campaign finance complaints this year. The complaint against Weiser was dismissed based on insufficient evidence. Two of the three complaints against Kellner found he had violated campaign finance laws but the campaign was allowed to “cure” those violations. A third complaint, tied to a RAGA fundraiser for Kellner, had a Nov. 1 deadline for curing. 

According to The Denver Gazette investigation, Weiser’s campaign took in more than $60,000 in contributions from people tied to Dish Network. The company was one of three, including Comcast and DirecTV, that settled claims brought by Weiser’s office that they wrongly assessed fees to consumers, but Dish was the only one that did not have to refund the money it allegedly pocketed or explain to its customers what had occurred, the investigation revealed.

The Gazette’s David Migoya also contributed to this report.