Progressives Dominate Colorado Primaries, Unseating Longtime Congresswoman and Undoing a Sitting Senator’s Gubernatorial Bid

If anyone had doubted the strength of the progressive movement in the United States, Colorado Democrats have proven that left-wing politics are gaining traction this year. On Tuesday, progressives won a host of victories across the state. Many Democrats became nervous following the victory of Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s chosen candidates to represent New York City in Congress. Brad Lander, Claire Valdez, and Darializa Avila Chevalier all upset the political establishment on a message in opposition to billionaires, ICE, and Israel — a message which resonated with Coloradans nearly half-a-continent away.The greatest upset on Tuesday was the defeat of Congresswoman Diana DeGette, who has represented Denver in the House since the Clinton administration. After nearly three decades in Congress, her progressive bona fides and her record as a Trump antagonist were not enough to carry her over the finish line. As of Wednesday morning, Ms. DeGette trails her progressive challenger, Melat Kiros, by about five points in the tally. Ms. Kiros is a PhD student and lawyer who moved to Denver as a young child from Ethiopia. Much of her campaign focused on Ms. DeGette’s donations for corporate interests and her past support for military aid being sent to Israel. Early Wednesday, Ms. DeGette had yet to concede the race, saying in a post on X that she and her team would “keep monitoring the returns as they come in.”Ms. Kiros was not the only left-wing challenger to win an upset primary. Last year, Senator Michael Bennet — who has represented Colorado in Congress for more than 17 years — made the unusual decision to announce a run for governor in an attempt to make a lateral move from the Senate. Usually, governors are considered prime candidates to be elevated to the Senate, though this year, four senators — including Mr. Bennet — made the reverse decision to run to become their home state’s governor. Even though Mr. Bennet commanded an early polling lead, he ended up losing the Democratic primary on Tuesday to the state’s attorney general, Phil Weiser. Mr. Weiser, who was considered the odds-on favorite to win before Mr. Bennet announced his bid, attacked Mr. Bennet as a Washington insider who had not done enough for the people of Colorado. In the end, Mr. Bennet lost the primary by about 10 points. In Colorado’s Eighth Congressional District, Democratic voters again sided with a political outsider over a known moderate. State Representative Manny Rutinel — a Yale Law School-educated Millennial — won the Democratic nomination in the state’s lone swing district currently represented by a member of the GOP. Mr. Rutinel has been criticized for abandoning some of his past, more left-wing positions on things like Medicare for All, though he was seen as the far more progressive choice compared to his chief primary opponent and a former state representative, Shannon Bird. One of the more surprising results of the night came in the U.S. Senate race, where incumbent John Hickenlooper did win the nomination for a potential second term. Mr. Hickenlooper has been a fixture in Colorado politics for the last two-and-a-half decades, having served as Denver’s mayor, the state’s governor, and since 2021 as Colorado’s junior senator. On Tuesday, he won the Democratic primary, defeating a state senator, Julie Gonzales, by 13 points — 56.5 percent to 43.5 percent.

Progressives Dominate Colorado Primaries, Unseating Longtime Congresswoman and Undoing a Sitting Senator’s Gubernatorial Bid

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