Primary voters set major-party matchups for three open congressional seats, chose a challenger for an incumbent in a battleground district, and weighed in on state and local races across Colorado in Tuesday’s elections.
It was all a prelude for the November general election — though voters also selected likely winners in areas dominated by one party. And in the 4th Congressional District in eastern Colorado, they gave U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert new political life by selecting the formerly Western Slope-based congresswoman as the Republican nominee in an even more GOP-favored district.
Without a U.S. Senate seat up for election this year, turnout was lower in the state’s open primaries, which allow unaffiliated voters to cast a Democratic or Republican ballot. As of early Wednesday morning, the Colorado Secretary of State’s Office reported that 938,308 ballots had been cast, amounting to about 21% turnout among registered voters — or nearly 25% of voters whose status is active.
RELATED: Primary election results
Those figures will rise as vote-counting continues this week, but ballot returns were pacing behind the state’s primaries in 2022 and 2020.
Here are five takeaways from the results:
Boebert is likely headed back to Congress
Boebert, who now represents the 3rd Congressional District, barely won reelection in 2022 in a district that leans Republican. Now she will be the nominee in the 4th, which favors the GOP by nearly three times as much, according to an analysis produced for Colorado’s redistricting commission a few years ago. (The Democratic nominee will be Trisha Calvarese, who won her primary but lost a special election Tuesday to fill the vacant seat for the rest of this year.)
But not only that: Boebert’s move opened up the 3rd District race. And on Tuesday, Jeff Hurd’s Republican primary victory there showed, he said, that voters who backed the more moderate nominee were “serious about keeping this district Republican” against Democrat Adam Frisch, who nearly defeated Boebert two years ago.
State Rep. Gabe Evans embraces his sons Bruce, 12, left, and Sammy, 7, and his wife, Anne, following a victory speech he delivered after being declared the winner of the 8th Congressional District Republican primary at Satire Brewing Company in Thornton on Tuesday, June 25, 2024. (Photo by Zachary Spindler-Krage/The Denver Post)
In other contested primaries, Colorado GOP Chairman Dave Williams lost big to conservative activist Jeff Crank in the Republican primary for a Colorado Springs-based congressional district. And in the 8th Congressional District north of Denver — potentially one of the most competitive in the nation — Republicans picked state Rep. Gabe Evans to challenge U.S. Rep. Yadira Caraveo, a freshman Democrat who was unopposed in her primary.
Progressive Dem legislators lose seats
It wasn’t a good night for some outspoken progressives in the statehouse. Two of the most visible left-wing Democrats, Denver Reps. Elisabeth Epps and Tim Hernández — both of whom have been vocal in their support of Palestinians and a failed assault weapons ban — lost their primaries.
But dynamics were less clear cut in …read more
Source:: The Denver Post – Politics
