There are several statewide and federal races that pundits have their eye on in the Centennial State, from primaries in toss-up House districts to the race to replace term-limited Gov. Jared Polis (D-CO). Colorado has not elected a Republican to statewide office in a decade, nor has it voted for a Republican presidential nominee since George W. Bush in 2004. However, state Republican politicos have said the statewide primaries remain just as crucial as the down-ballot primaries for electing a strong top of the ticket to bring out voters.
“Even if the Republican nominee for governor is not winning, they have to be somebody who’s not dragging down the rest of the ticket,” Dick Wadhams, former state Republican Party chair, told Colorado Public Radio. “And that matters a great deal.”So, here’s which primary races to watch up and down the Centennial State Ballot on June 30.Socialist and former socialist challenge incumbent Dems in CO-01 and the U.S. Senate race
National Democrats will be the most keenly tuned into the Democratic primary in Colorado’s 1st Congressional District, where socialist Melat Kiros is challenging incumbent Rep. Diana DeGette (D-CO), who has held her Denver-area seat for nearly three decades.Kiros, who is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America party, is endorsed by big names in the leftist wing of the Democratic Party, like Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and the DSA itself. She has built her platform around priorities like abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement, passing Medicare for All through Congress, and an arms embargo on Israel. Despite DeGette co-sponsoring the House’s original Medicare for All Act, calling for the abolition of ICE, and earning the endorsement of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, she is seen as the more centrist candidate in the race compared to Kiros. DeGette has put a focus on her priority of standing up to the Trump administration, which establishment Democrats have highlighted across the board. This is Kiros’s first time running for public office, but her social media strategy and discontent with the Democratic party’s status quo have made the polls in the primary race tight, as the Colorado Sun reports. In the deep-blue district — DeGette won the Denver district by over 54 percentage points against her Republican general election opponent in 2024 — a victory in CO-01 would be quite the difficult feat for a Republican to pull off. But with the possibility of a socialist on the Democratic ticket, Republicans could eat away at the margin in November. Christy Peterson, the presumptive GOP nominee for the seat, told the Denverite of the general election, “I’m ready for it.”In Colorado’s Senate race, incumbent Sen. John Hickenlooper (D-CO) is facing a primary challenge from former socialist State Sen. Julie Gonzales, who dropped her affiliation with the DSA when she decided to challenge him in the Democratic primary. Gonzales told local NBC station 9News that her membership lapsed and she now identifies as a Democrat, while advocating for universal health and childcare and an arms embargo on Israel. Hickenlooper, who is running for his second term in the Senate and served two terms as governor, has prioritized issues like fighting the Trump administration and ICE and lowering costs for Americans.Hickenlooper has held the lead over Gonzales in the limited available polling on the race, though his margin narrowed in an early June poll, which had him at 41% compared to her 34%.The winner between Hickenlooper and Gonzales will face off against the presumptive Republican nominee for the seat, State Sen. Mark Baisley, who is running unopposed in the primary. Baisley had previously been a candidate in the GOP gubernatorial primary, but dropped his bid to move to the Senate race, where he felt he was “more suited” as a public official with legislative experience.TRUMP ENDORSEMENT TRACKER: HERE’S WHO THE PRESIDENT HAS PICKED IN GOP MIDTERM ELECTION PRIMARIESThe Race to Replace Polis
