The race between U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper and state Sen. Julie Gonzales has emerged as one of Colorado’s most intriguing Democratic primaries.

Gonzales is running on a message of generational change, arguing that Democrats need a more aggressive approach and that a vote for Hickenlooper will just mean “more of the same.”

Hickenlooper, a fixture in politics for decades, is campaigning on experience and stability, highlighting his work in the U.S. Senate and his record as Denver’s mayor and Colorado governor.

Hickenlooper maintains strong name recognition and favorability among Democratic voters, though Gonzales has gained traction with progressive groups, including a national endorsement from Indivisible.

The contest has become an ideological matchup: Hickenlooper represents the party’s centrist establishment, and Gonzales offers a progressive alternative.

Julie Gonzales

Julie Gonzales website

Sen. Julie Gonzales is a progressive Democrat representing north, west, and downtown Denver in the Colorado Senate. A longtime organizer with deep Colorado roots, she comes from a multigenerational family that lived in the state before statehood.

She was elected to the state Senate in 2018, where she has championed legislation, including establishing abortion as a fundamental right, expanding voting access, investing in affordable housing, strengthening protections against what she described as federal overreach, controlling prescription‑drug costs, and repealing the death penalty.

Gonzales serves as chair of the Judiciary Committee, vice chair of Local Government and Housing, and sits on several other key committees. She also co‑chairs the Colorado Democratic Latino Caucus.

She says she’s running for higher office because too many Coloradans are working hard without getting ahead, arguing that the system favors the wealthy and well‑connected.

Her campaign focuses on lowering costs and ensuring every family can afford housing, healthcare, and a dignified future.

In launching her campaign last year, Gonzales stressed that Colorado “needs a fighter, not a bystander.”

Pitching her campaign as a departure from “old-playbook politics,” Gonzales said she’s appealing to voters who are “sick and tired of Democrats trying to manage primaries from the top down, instead of trusting voters.

“Sen. Hickenlooper is a nice man, but his ‘go-along-to-get-along’ politics haven’t delivered affordability, accountability, or protection for Coloradans who are threatened by the Trump nominees that he voted to confirm,” Gonzales said.

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John Hickenlooper

John Hickenlooper website

John Hickenlooper built an unconventional path to public office, starting his career as a geologist before opening Colorado’s first brewpub after being laid off in the mid‑1980s. As a small‑business owner, he helped revitalize Denver’s Lower Downtown by renovating historic buildings and developing mixed‑use projects that included affordable housing — an experience he often cites as shaping his collaborative, community‑focused approach to leadership.

Hickenlooper later served two terms as governor, from 2011 to 2019, overseeing Colorado’s recovery from the Great Recession and its rise to the top of national economic rankings. Before that, he was mayor of Denver.

His administration set climate‑pollution limits that became a national model, enacted gun‑safety measures, and created the country’s first regulatory framework for legal recreational marijuana.

Now a U.S. senator, Hickenlooper says he brings the same emphasis on collaboration and problem‑solving to his work in Washington, meeting with Coloradans across the state and focusing on issues affecting farmers, small businesses, and families.

On the campaign trail, he has highlighted pushing back against the Trump administration. His first primary‑season ad centers on protecting public land, using a rapid walk‑through of his career — from brewpub founder to mayor, governor, and senator — to underscore his record.

“We expanded health care and cut pollution in order to fight climate change,” he says in the ad, adding that, in the Senate, he worked to stop Trump from selling public land and has pushed to overhaul ICE and lower costs.

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Ernest Luning contributed to this report.

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