This live-updating story will feature updates on local, state and federal elections throughout Tuesday’s midterm election. Check back for updates.
RESULTS: Click here to see a list of Colorado’s full election results for the 2022 midterms.
10:14 p.m. Democrats are poised to hold on to the majority of seats on the Colorado State Board of Education — results show Republicans are trailing in races for seats they’d need to flip.
10:10 p.m. Democrat Yadira Caraveo is holding a narrow lead over Republican State Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer in the race for Colorado’s 8th Congressional District.
10:02 p.m. Voters are split almost exactly down the middle on whether grocery and convenience stores should be allowed to sell wine, with 50.1% in favor and 49.9% against.
9:54 p.m. Proposition 122, a measure to legalize medicinal psychedelics, remains too close to call, with 51% of voters in favor and 44% against in the latest returns.
9:47 p.m. Democrat Joe Neguse won a third term in Colorado’s 2nd Congressional District after surging ahead of Republican Marshall Dawson early and holding onto an insurmountable lead.
9:45 p.m. Democratic incumbent Jena Griswold claimed victory in the race for Colorado’s Secretary of State and Republican candidate Pam Anderson conceded.
9:40 p.m. Treasurer Dave Young won re-election over Republican challenger Lang Sias, winning what was considered the most vulnerable statewide seat held by Democrats.
9:30 p.m. The race between incumbent U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert and challenger Adam Frisch for Colorado’s massive 3rd Congressional District is too close to call, with Frisch holding a narrow lead.
9:27 p.m. Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser retained his seat, defeating John Kellner, the Republican prosecutor challenging him, by 11 percentage points.
9:25 p.m. Democratic State Sen. Brittany Pettersen won the race for Colorado’s 7th Congressional District, defeating Army veteran Erik Aadland.
9:20 p.m. Eight-term U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn won reelection by defeating Democratic challenger David Torres.
9:14 p.m. Rep. Diana DeGette won a 14th term representing Colorado’s First District in Congress, handily defeating political newcomer Jennifer Qualteri.
9:10 p.m. Democratic incumbent Rep. Jason Crow won a third term representing Colorado’s 6th Congressional District. He defeated Republican challenger Steve Monahan.
9:03 p.m. Republican incumbent Rep. Ken Buck won the race to keep his seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, defeating Democratic opponent Ike McCorkle.
8:52 p.m. Colorado voters were favoring, early, Proposition FF, which would provide the state’s students with free school meals — no matter their families’ incomes.
8:45 p.m. Early voters looked down, 61% — or 890,403 votes — against Amendment F, a measure to open up bingo and raffle games for charitable purposes to newer nonprofits.
8:40 p.m. Eight-term U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn leads Democratic challenger David Torres in early election returns; of the more than 186,000 ballots counted as of 8:13 p.m., Lamborn had 56% with more than 103,000 of the votes.
8:33 p.m. Colorado Proposition 123, a measure to redirect 0.1% of state income tax revenues toward a range of affordable housing efforts, held a slight lead in early results.
8:31 p.m. U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet wins his reelection bid, setting him up to be one of the longest-serving senators in the state’s history. As of about 8 p.m. Tuesday, Bennet led Republican candidate Joe O’Dea with 801,025 votes to 591,434. About 1.4 million had been tallied.
8:27 p.m. State Sen. Brittany Pettersen jumped out to an early, decisive lead in the race for Colorado’s 7th Congressional District, as preliminary results showed her with a 22% edge — 60% to 38% — on Republican challenger and Army veteran Erik Aadland.
8:23 p.m. Colorado Proposition 124, to allow Colorado liquor license holders the ability to expand the number of storefronts they can operate, was trailing early Tuesday night after the initial batches of vote were counted.
8:19 p.m. Democrat Yadira Caraveo has a tight lead over Republican State Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer in the race for Colorado’s 8th Congressional District.
8:00 p.m. Gov. Jared Polis is declared winner in a convincing and expected re-election victory over challenger Heidi Ganahl.
7:31 p.m. Colorado’s Proposition 122, which would legalize psilocybin, with about 54% of the vote as of 7:13 p.m. Just 13% of the state’s votes have been tallied so far, the Secretary of State’s Office reported.
7:28 p.m. U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert took an early lead over challenger Adam Frisch for Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District race. Early and unofficial election results show that Boebert, Republican of Silt, leading Frisch, Democrat of Aspen, 53% to 47% as of 7:20 p.m., Tuesday.
So far, 89,962 votes have been counted, .
7 p.m. Election officials across Colorado closed their polling places at 7 p.m. and the Secretary of State’s Office will soon release their first round of vote counts for races across the state. Early results are unofficial and the Secretary of State’s Office will update their counts regularly throughout the evening.
Keep in mind that in Colorado, early rounds of election results reflect early in-person voting and mail ballots received before Election Day. The results of those who voted on Election Day, or mail ballots received on Election Day, come later.
6:44 p.m. Former White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders will serve as the next governor of Arkansas, . Huckabee Sanders, a Republican, took the seat in a landslide victory (with more than 72% of the vote) against Democrat Chris Jones.
6:34 p.m. A quick series of firsts: Democrat Wes Moore after winning his bid against Republican Dan Cox. Moore will be the third Black governor to head any state in the country.
Twenty-five-year-old Democrat Maxwell Alejandro Frost won a seat in Florida’s 10th Congressional District against Republican Calvin Wimbish, . Frost will be the first Generation Z representative elected to Congress.
And finally, Democrat Maura Healey against Republican Geoff Diehl, which will make her the country’s first openly lesbian governor in the country.
6:13 p.m. If you’re twiddling your thumbs Tuesday night waiting for the polls to close, here’s a quick list of 10 interesting races to watch in Colorado. The results of these races could help determine who controls Congress, whether new state programs are authorized or eliminated and whether the state’s income tax falls or stays the same.
6:06 p.m. Florida’s incumbent Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis won another term in Tuesday’s election over his Democratic challenger and former (Republican) Florida Governor Charlie Crist, the Associated Press reported.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican Ron DeSantis wins reelection for governor in Florida.
— Michael Tackett (@tackettdc)
5:59 p.m. Multiple voting centers in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, will remain open until 10 p.m., after a paper shortage affected the voting precincts, .
People across the country are watching the between Democratic Lt. Gov. John Fetterman and Republican television personality Mehmet Oz as a possible indication as to which party will control the upper chamber in Congress in the coming term.
5:48 p.m. With just over an hour before polls close in Colorado, Denver election officials are warning that people hoping to cast their ballots in-person at the Emily Griffith Technical College location can expect waits longer than 70 minutes. The closest alternative voting centers are at West High School, Saint John’s Cathedral and the Glenarm Rec Center, the Denver Clerk and Recorder’s Office tweeted.
UPDATE: Wait times at Emily Griffith are exceeding 70 minutes. Please plan to vote at an alternate location.
— Denver Elections (@DenverElections)
5:43 p.m. Two time zones ahead of Colorado, election officials in Florida have already counted more than 2 million ballots, . The experts there are expecting a good night for Republicans and so far incumbent GOP Sen. Marco Rubio is holding a slight lead over his Democratic challenger Val Demings.
5:20 p.m. Ballots are still coming in to county clerks across Colorado and voters have until 7 p.m. when the polls close. An early report from Secretary of State Jena Griswold’s office said that as of 3:30 p.m., a total of 2,039,527 ballots had been returned.
Typically the vast well before election day, though many still prefer to vote in person.
Background about Colorado’s 2022 midterms
Historically speaking, the party in power but these are not ordinary times.
Democrats across the country are hoping to defend their majorities in Congress from vowing to reverse major initiatives passed during the first two years of President Joe Biden’s term.
In Colorado, most of the higher-profile races don’t necessarily appear primed for major upsets. The state is peppered with incumbents – both Democrats and Republicans – running to hold their seats. Those include Gov. Jared PolisԻ U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet, looking to stave off challenges from Republicans Heidi Ganahl and Joe O’Dea, respectively.
In addition, six of the state’s seven U.S. representatives are seeking reelection. Democratic Reps. Jason Crow, Diana DeGette and Joe Neguse alongside Republican Reps. Lauren Boebert, Ken Buck and Doug Lamborn, all appear to have the advantage in their races.
Of those races, Boebertap caught the most national attention as her Democratic challenger, Adam Frisch, has raked in millions in campaign contributions in his quest to flip the district.
The big unknowns for Colorado’s congressional races rest with Democratic state Sen. Brittany Pettersen and Republican businessman Erik Aadland, who are both vying to replace Democratic Rep. Ed Perlmutter in Colorado’s 7th Congressional District, who did not seek reelection. And then Republican State Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer and Democratic state Rep. Yadira Caraveo are both running to be the first representative elected to Colorado’s newly created 8th Congressional District.
Colorado Republicans are also hoping to retake control of one – or both – chambers of the statehouse, though the party has suffered from infighting in recent years, followed by a trail of controversy and even the recent death of its House Minority Leader, Hugh McKean, late last month.
A slew of statewide ballot measures are also on the table, which propose to do everything from legalizing psilocybin mushrooms and allowing grocery stores to sell wine to cutting the state’s income tax and adding funding for affordable housing.
Broadly speaking Democrats across the country face the challenge of holding on to the hard-fought ground they won in 2020. On the other hand, Republicans are struggling to confront the most extreme members of their party, led by former President Donald Trump, who continues to spread misinformation and falsehoods about the country’s election security.
