Colorado election results started to take shape after polls closed at 9 p.m. ET, as voters chose party nominees in races for governor, the Senate, and several congressional seats. The Colorado primary election put John Hickenlooper, Bennet, Weiser, Julie Gonzales, and others into nomination fights that will decide who advances in November.
The governor’s race was open for the first time since 2018 because Jared Polis is term-limited. The Democratic primary drew attention around Bennet and Weiser, while Hickenlooper faced Gonzales in his Senate primary and Mark Baisley was unopposed for the GOP nomination.
John Hickenlooper and Julie Gonzales
Hickenlooper’s race stayed on the ballot as one of the main contests watched after the 9 p.m. ET close. Gonzales challenged him from the left, giving Democratic voters a choice between an incumbent senator and a progressive state senator.
Colorado’s Senate race had a second track on the Republican side, where Baisley ran without opposition. That left the Democratic result as the key question for a seat that will move into the general election once the primary winner is set.
Colorado Springs and the 8th Congressional District
Colorado’s 8th Congressional District stood out as the state’s most competitive seat this year. Trump carried it by less than 2 percentage points in 2024, and Gabe Evans won it by less than 1 point, making the Democratic primary there a central test.
Shannon Bird and Manny Rutinel were the two major Democratic candidates in that district. Rutinel was the top fundraiser, leaned on his family’s immigrant story, and had backing from labor unions and Ken Salazar. Bird had endorsements from EMILY's List, New Dems, Blue Dog PAC, and The Bench, and she presented herself as a moderate who could appeal to swing voters.
Only nine House races had drawn more fall ad bookings than the 8th Congressional District, according to AdImpact. The winner there was expected to advance into one of the country’s most closely watched House races in the fall, where the general-election contest will carry more weight than the primary result alone.
Jeff Crank and Jessica Killin
In the Colorado Springs-area 5th Congressional District, Republican Rep. Jeff Crank was running for a second term after Trump won the district by 9 points in 2024. He entered the race with Trump’s endorsement, while Jessica Killin ran as a Democrat.
Killin, a veteran who later was chief of staff to Doug Emhoff, was looking to make demographic changes in Colorado Springs part of her path in November. That district gives Democrats a different kind of challenge than the 8th Congressional District: the contest is not only about turnout, but about whether changing local voter patterns can narrow a Republican edge that was already measured in 2024.
The immediate next step is simple. Primary winners move toward the general election, and the most closely watched outcome remains who emerges from the Democratic fights for governor, Senate, and the 8th Congressional District.
