Colorado Primary Results: Rough Night for Washington
After seeing House members in Georgia, South Dakota, South Carolina and Iowa fail to make the jump to statewide office and a pair of House incumbents losing primaries in New York last week, there was increased national attention on a handful of races in Colorado to see if Washington is a visible stain on candidates’ resumes.
Here’s what happened in the Centennial State on Tuesday:
Senate. John Hickenlooper (D), elected 2020 (54%). Hickenlooper won re-nomination for a second term over progressive state Sen. Julie Gonzales by an underwhelming 57-43 percent. That’s a similar margin to six years ago, when the former governor defeated former state House Speaker Andrew Romanoff, 59-41 percent, in his initial primary. He is a prohibitive favorite in the general election against state Sen. Mark Baisley, who won the Republican nomination at the party convention in April. Solid Democratic.
Governor. Open; Jared Polis (D), term-limited. Sitting House members from Dusty Johnson in South Dakota to Randy Feenstra in Iowa to Nancy Mace and Ralph Norman in South Carolina have struggled to translate their electoral success in Congress to gubernatorial primaries this year. That streak now extends to the upper chamber, as Sen. Michael Bennet was defeated by state Attorney General Phil Weiser. Weiser captured 55 percent of the vote to Bennet’s 45 percent.
Bennet began the race as the front runner thanks to his three high-profile Senate bids and national fundraising network. But…
