Colorado Politics

Progressive Democrats, traditional Republicans secure state House victories in Colorado

With ballots still being counted, results from Tuesday’s primary election remained up in the air for several candidates for the Colorado General Assembly.

Still, the preliminary results as of Wednesday morning showed progressive Democrats had a good night, as did more traditional Republicans. 

The closest race, as of the latest tally, is in House District 13, which term-limited House Speaker Julie McCluskie, D-Dillon, represents.

As of 8:15 a.m. Wednesday, Consuelo Redhorse has taken a one-point lead, or 164 votes, over former Judge Chris Floyd. 

Results on Tuesday in House District 60, which covers five counties from Pueblo to Custer, also flipped throughout the night between Pueblo County Republican chair Michelle Gray and Matt Alexander.

Alexander had a lead of 239 votes, or just under 1.5 percentage points.

It was a rough night for incumbents and for candidates backed by affiliates of One Main Street Colorado, which supported more centrist Democrats.

In House District 6 — in a race that attracted the most outside spending — Rep. Sean Camacho, a Denver Democrat, lost a bid for a second term to progressive civil rights attorney Iris Halpern.

Rep. Mandy Lindsay, D-Aurora, who is under an ethics investigation over allegations of mismanagement of House Democratic caucus funds, was soundly defeated in her bid for a third term in House District 42 by Sarah Woodson. Woodson won by more than 37 points.

Rep. Jacque Phillips, D-Thornton, also won’t be coming back for a second term for House District 31 after losing to Gabriel Cervantes by seven points.

All three districts are safe Democratic seats, so Cervantes, Halpern and Woodson are favored to win in November.

Reps. Kenny Nguyen, D-Broomfield, and Jamie Jackson, D-Aurora, both joined the legislature via vacancy elections earlier this year. Both are likely to return, after surviving strong challenges from candidates who were supported by One Main Street Colorado affiliates.

The group is linked to roughly two dozen ethics complaints filed with the state ethics commission after it covered the cost of a Vail retreat for moderate Democratic lawmakers last October.

One Main Street affiliates, such as Colorado Mountain Progressives, which received the bulk of its funding from One Main Street, also backed Floyd.

Camacho was among the lawmakers accused in the ethics complaint involving One Main Street.

Independent expenditure groups backing Camacho included Denver Progressives United, which ran attack ads against Halpern and accused her of being an unregistered lobbyist, a complaint that was dismissed by the Secretary of State’s Office.

The other major battle waged by outside groups occurred between the Colorado Conservative Leadership Fund and Rocky Mountain Gun Owners.

The Rocky Mountain Gun Owners backed Sen. Lynda Zamora Wilson, a Colorado Springs Republican, who won the seat last year in a vacancy election. The conservative leadership fund backed her opponent, former state Rep. Terri Carver.

Unofficial results showed Carver up by 34 percentage points.

Meanwhile, the leadership fund backed former state Rep. Amy Parks in the Republican primary for Loveland’s House District 51. The Rocky Mountain Gun Owners backed her opponent, Thompson School District board member Nancy Rumfelt.

As of Wednesday morning, Parks was up by 29 percentage points, based on unofficial results. 

The race in Parker’s House District 44 was also a contest between the two outside groups.

Republican Rep. Anthony Hartsook, backed by the leadership fund, holds a 15-point lead over Bob Davis as of Wednesday morning.

Rocky Mountain Gun Owners may have scored one victory: In House District 54, Jason Bias, who founded the Turning Point USA chapter at Mesa State University, holds a 500-vote lead over Nina Anderson as of Wednesday morning.

Bias was endorsed by Rocky Mountain Gun Owners and backed by its independent expenditure arm, while the leadership fund supported Anderson.

In the Senate, the big win for the progressive Democrats — and by Colorado Labor Action IEC — occurred in Senate District 34, where Chela Garcia Irlando appeared to have won the seat over Andres Carrera to succeed term-limited Sen. Julie Gonzales. The west Denver-based seat is safe for Democrats, so Irlando is likely to join the Senate in January.

The Colorado Labor Action IEC also backed Halpern over Camacho. 

Sports betting companies that fund the IEC American Future — DraftKings and FanDuel — also had a good night. American Future backed Justine Sandoval in the Democratic primary in House District 5 and Woodson in House District 42.


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