With just over two months to go until ballots are counted in Colorado’s primary, candidates are squaring off in high-stakes contests for their party’s nominations in statewide and congressional races approaching the midterm election.

For the first time in memory, state voters will have the chance to elect an entire new slate of state-level executive officials — from governor and attorney general to secretary of state and state treasurer — since those offices’ Democratic incumbents all face term limits.

At the same time, Democrats will decide which candidate to nominate in the state’s marquee U.S. House race, where the Republican incumbent in the 8th Congressional District is facing three potential challengers in what’s expected to be among the most competitive and expensive campaigns in state history.

On the Western Slope, voters in both parties face primaries in the Republican-leaning 3rd Congressional District, where the GOP incumbent has found himself with an 11th-hour challenge, while two Democrats are vying for the chance to take on the winner.

Meanwhile, the dean of the state’s delegation is defending her Denver-based seat in the solidly Democratic 1st Congressional District, where two challengers from widely different backgrounds are aiming to depose her.

The state’s U.S. Senate seat is up for election, though its occupant will likely be decided in the Democratic primary, which features an upstart state lawmaker attempting to unseat one of this century’s most enduring candidates.

In state-level races, voters in both parties’ primaries will see crowded ballots, with Democratic and Republican primaries for governor and attorney general, while Democrats will have to pick their nominee for secretary of state.

Primary ballots start going in the mail to voters at the end of the first week of June and are due back to county clerks by June 30.

Under Colorado’s semi-open primary system, unaffiliated voters — just over half of the state’s nearly 4 million active, registered voters — receive both a Democratic and Republican primary ballot and can vote and return one of them. In a new development, the state GOP went to court this week seeking to prevent its primary ballots from going to voters who aren’t registered as Republicans in a case that is expected to be decided soon.

While the secretary of state has yet to formally certify this year’s primary ballot — that happens next week — here’s a look at the top-ticket statewide and congressional primaries that will appear on Colorado ballots, based on party assembly and petition results.

Two Democrats and three Republicans are running to take over after term-limited Democratic Gov. Jared Polis finishes his second term in January.

Once the parties choose their nominees, the general election gubernatorial race isn’t considered competitive by national forecasters, since Republicans haven’t won a major statewide race in Colorado since 2014 and haven’t elected a governor since 2002.

The Democratic candidates hoping to succeed Polis are U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet, a former Denver Public Schools superintendent and the only senator from Colorado elected to a third term since the 1960s, and term-limited Attorney General Phil Weiser, a former dean of the University of Colorado Law School and former U.S. Justice Department official.

Weiser won top-line designation at the party’s state assembly, while Bennet petitioned onto the ballot.

The Republican primary features three candidates: state Sen. Barb Kirkmeyer, R-Brighton, who has held public office since the 1990s and made an unsuccessful run for Congress in 2022; state Rep. Scott Bottoms, R-Colorado Springs, an Assemblies of God pastor and one of the legislature’s most conservative members; and Victor Marx, a first-time candidate who runs a Colorado Springs-based Christian ministry. Bottoms won top-line at the GOP’s state assembly, where Marx also qualified for the ballot. Kirkmeyer qualified by petition.

Democratic U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper, a former two-term governor and former two-term Denver mayor, is facing a primary challenge from state Sen. Julie Gonzales, D-Denver. Hickenlooper petitioned onto the ballot, and Gonzales secured her spot in the primary at the party’s state assembly. The winner of the primary will face state Sen. Mark Baisely, R-Woodland Park, who is the lone Senate candidate from the GOP assembly.

The state’s most crowded primary is in the Democratic race for attorney general, with four candidates running for the nomination for the office being vacated next year by Weiser. The field includes Secretary of State Jena Griswold, who is term-limited; Boulder County District Attorney Michael Dougherty; former top federal prosecutor and U.S. Justice Department official Hetal Doshi; and worker and consumer rights attorney David Seligman.

Griswold landed top line, finishing ahead of Seligman at the party assembly, while Doshi petitioned onto the ballot and Dougherty successfully took both routes.

The Democratic nominee will face the winner of the Republican primary for attorney general, where 4th Judicial District Attorney Michael Allen, who prosecutes cases in El Paso and Teller counties, is running against David Wilson, an attorney who lost the 2024 district attorney primary to Allen. Both qualified for the ballot at the GOP’s state assembly, with Allen taking top line ahead of Wilson.

The Democratic primary for secretary of state is a two-way contest between Jefferson County Clerk Amanda Gonzales, a former executive director of the Colorado office of Common Cause, and state Sen. Jessie Danielson, D-Wheat Ridge. Both won their place on the ballot at the state assembly, where Gonzales finished ahead of Danielson in the delegate vote. The winner of the primary will face Republican nominee James Wiley, a former executive director of the Libertarian Party of Colorado and a former Libertarian nominee for Congress.

Republican U.S. Rep. Gabe Evans is unopposed for the nomination in the battleground 8th CD, which changed hands two years after its creation in 2024, when the former state lawmaker unseated the Democratic incumbent by one of the closest margins for a congressional race in the country.

Three Democrats are running an expensive primary for the chance to face Evans in November: state Sen. Manny Rutinel, D-Commerce City; former state Rep. Shannon Bird, D-Westminster; and private equity consultant Evan Munsing, a first-time candidate. Rutinel was the only Democrat to go through his party’s assembly after Bird and Munsing qualified by petition.

In the 3rd CD, U.S. Rep. Jeff Hurd, the Republican incumbent, is facing a primary challenge from former state Rep. Ron Hanks, R-Cañon City, who finished in second place behind Hurd in the 2024 primary and joined this year’s race in April after President Donald Trump pulled his endorsement from another Hurd challenger who suspended her campaign.

The two Democrats running in the district are Alex Kelloff, a financial executive who has been campaigning for a year, and Dwayne Romero, a former director of the state office of economic development, who joined the primary in March. Both made the ballot at the district assembly, where Kelloff finished just ahead of Romero in the delegate vote.

U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette, the longest-serving member of Colorado’s delegation, is facing two opponents in the Democratic primary: Melat Kiros, a first-time candidate who works as a barista after leaving her job at a Wall Street law firm, and University of Colorado Regent Wanda James. Kiros took top-line at the Democrats’ assembly with twice as many delegate votes as DeGette, who has survived multiple primary challenges. James qualified by petition.

First-term Republican U.S. Rep. Jeff Crank, who represents the El Paso County-based 5th Congressional District, will face the winner of a two-way Democratic primary in November. The Democrats running, both Army veterans, are Jessica Killin, a former lobbyist for a national financial firm and former chief of staff to second gentleman Doug Emhoff, and Joe Reagan, who runs local nonprofits and finished in second place in the 2024 5th CD primary. Both Democrats made the ballot at the party assembly, where Killin secured top line after already qualifying by petition.