Today is Dec. 29, 2023, and here’s what you need to know:

If years earned grades, 2023 might get an incomplete.

Punctuated by a slew of off-year elections – congressional, municipal, party leadership and statewide – Colorado’s political news was marked by interim steps, open-ended solutions and plenty of unfinished business.

The year also saw fresh starts and new beginnings as more than a few pages turned, setting the stage for what promises to be a barnburner of a 2024 presidential election.

In roughly chronological order, here are 10 stories that defined a decidedly off-kilter political year.

The state Capitol this year saw intense disagreements between Republicans and Democrats and an extraordinary intraparty feud among Democrats, fueled in part by first-year legislators, who perennially challenged leaders and their colleagues.

Meanwhile, the trend of lawmakers resigning persisted into the New Year, some of them citing the toxic environment their colleagues readily engaged in.

Outside of the Capitol, voters rejected Gov. Jared Polis’ proposed solution to soaring property valuations, compelling the governor to call for a special session.

The Colorado legislature this session featured a lot of first-year lawmakers and a short stint in which women held the majority. Here are the highlights.

Donald Trump will appear on Colorado’s presidential primary ballot after the state Republican Party appealed the court’s conclusion that the former president is ineligible to run for the country’s highest office.

“With the appeal filed, Donald Trump will be included as a candidate on Colorado’s 2024 Presidential Primary Ballot when certification occurs on January 5, 2024, unless the U.S. Supreme Court declines to take the case or otherwise affirms the Colorado Supreme Court ruling,” Secretary of State Griswold said in a statement.

The Colorado Republican Party filed the appeal on Wednesday, the potential first step to a showdown at the nation’s highest court over the meaning of a 155-year-old constitutional provision that bans from office those who “engaged in insurrection.”

Colorado’s justices had stayed their 4-3 ruling that disqualified Trump until Jan. 4, the day before the state’s primary ballots are due at the printer, or until an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court is finished. Trump himself has said he still plans to appeal the ruling to the nation’s highest court, as well.

The day after his primary opponent switched to run in another congressional district across the state, Republican Jeff Hurd unveiled new endorsements from two Colorado state lawmakers.

The statements of support from state Senate Minority Leader Paul Lundeen, R-Monument, and state Sen. Barb Kirkmeyer, R-Brighton, are the latest in a string of endorsements Hurd has received from current and former GOP elected officials since the Grand Junction attorney launched a primary challenge against U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert in the Western Slope-based 3rd Congressional District.

Boebert dropped a political bombshell late Wednesday when she announced she will instead seek a third term in Congress in the more favorable 4th Congressional District, the state’s most heavily Republican seat, covering Douglas County, parts of Larimer and Weld counties and the Eastern Plains.

Lundeen and Kirkmeyer each characterized Hurd as a “leader of character” in statements released on Thursday by Hurd’s campaign.