Colorado Democrats choose between insurgent progressives and veteran incumbents
Democratic primaries in Colorado on Tuesday are helping answer a question the party has increasingly faced nationally: Are voters gravitating toward a younger, more progressive generation of leaders or sticking with established veterans?
That choice is starkly reflected in the fight to represent the state's 1st Congressional District, where incumbent Rep. Diana DeGette has been in office for as long as her challenger, a 29-year-old democratic socialist named Melat Kiros, has been alive. Kiros had a small lead over DeGette with an estimated 65% of the vote counted.
In a similar faceoff, Sen. John Hickenlooper successfully fended off a primary challenge from self-fashioned “insurgent progressive" state Sen. Julie Gonzales.
And a smaller ideological divide separated the two Democrats competing for the U.S. House in the state's lone swing district, one of the key's to party control of Congress. The candidate considered more progressive, state Rep. Manny Rutinel beat Shannon Bird, another state representative with a more moderate record in the Legislature.
In the governor's race, however, the opposite was the case: Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser and U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet struggled to meaningfully distinguish their agendas. Instead, the two Democrats accused each other of pulling punches against Trump. Weiser won Tuesday.
DeGette comfortably controlled her House seat in Denver for nearly 30 years, then came Kiros.
In a March Democratic assembly, a process to decide which candidates get on the primary ballot, DeGette barely qualified as Kiros, a first-time candidate, blew past her with more than double the votes.
While the assembly process is far from determinative of who will win Tuesday, it was a jolt for the Democratic establishment and DeGette, who's been a progressive lawmaker herself.
Then, in New York last week, two democratic socialists and a progressive beat out establishment-backed candidates — two of whom were incumbents — in Democratic primaries for U.S. House, energizing a movement that's just finding some political purchase.
Similar to the New York races, Kiros had the endorsement of Sen. Bernie Sanders, while DeGette was backed by Colorado’s established Democratic House delegation.
A victory by Kiros in Colorado, while far from guaranteed, would work toward cementing the nascent but clear uprising of democratic socialist candidates, which has filled some Democratic leaders with anxiety.
DeGette argued that experience in Congress is needed right now to combat Trump, while Kiros, a former attorney, accused DeGette of ineffectiveness. Also running was University of Colorado Regent Wanda James, who may split the anti-DeGette vote.
Gonzales, the state senator, tried and failed Tuesday to kick Hickenlooper, the more centrist former governor of Colorado, out of his U.S. Senate seat.
A former member of the Democratic Socialists of America, Gonzales leaned into the same arguments that others used in challenging establishment incumbents, including that Hickenlooper was an “incrementalist."
After his victory, Hickenlooper quickly turned his attention to Trump and said he'd never lost an election and didn't intend to in November.
“Coloradoans have once again made their voices clear. We are not going to accept Trump’s broken promises and cost of living emergency, or his constant corruption,” Hickenlooper said in a video posted to YouTube.
Colorado's 8th Congressional District is relatively new and stretches from the northern suburbs of Denver up through farming country, but it's drawn national focus as a highly competitive swing district as Democrats seek to retake control of the House.
Initially, party leaders though the more moderate Bird was best equipped to challenge Republican Rep. Gabe Evans. But Rutinel, who had the more progressive record, beat Bird Tuesday night.
The district is also heavily Hispanic and poorer than much of the rest of the state, and that's where Rutinel, who is Latino, planted a flag, arguing his personal story and more aggressive economic agenda would be more potent against Evans.
“This is the moment for all the kids out there who had the deck stacked against them,”Rutinel said in his victory speech. “I’m going to work with everything I have so that those kids have the same opportunities to live out the American Dream that I did.”
Weiser and Bennet slugged that question out in the governor's race after struggling to show major differences in their political agendas and Weiser came out on top.
Weiser, who became attorney general in 2019 after serving in the presidential administrations of Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, had attacked Bennet for voting for Trump nominees. Bennet had lambasted Weiser for not joining state lawsuits against the first Trump administration.
Bennet did not resign his seat, so he will continue on in the U.S. Senate.
A crowd of supporters gathered for Weiser on Tuesday night, shouting his name, waving campaign signs and clapping as they eagerly awaited his arrival. Weiser will be seen as the favorite to defeat the winner of the GOP primary and take over from term-limited Gov. Jared Polis.
The three main candidates seeking the Republican nomination included state Rep. Scott Bottoms, a further right state lawmaker. State Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer was considered the more conventional Republican, while Victor Marx was something of a wild card candidate with an eclectic past. ___ Associated Press reporter Mead Gruver in Fort Collins, Colorado, contributed to this report.
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