Colorado Democrats looked set to maintain their supermajority in as of Wednesday afternoon, though they fell short of reaching the same threshold in the Senate.
Democrats entered Election Day just one seat shy of a two-thirds supermajority in the Senate to match their margin of control in the House, with an eye on flipping three seats in particular. By Wednesday afternoon, they still led in the race to flip one of those seats — Senate District 12, in El Paso County. But they lost an expected race in the suburbs northeast of Denver, and lost or were trailing in two rural, Republican-held districts they’d hoped to take.
The two Republicans running in those rural districts — state Rep. Marc Catlin and Sen. Cleave Simpson — both led their Democratic challengers. Simpson’s victory was clear late Tuesday night. Catlin led by more than 3,000 votes Wednesday afternoon.
ELECTION RESULTS: Live Colorado election results for the 2024 election
The Democrat in a third targeted race, El Paso County’s Senate District 12, was ahead: State Rep. Marc Snyder led Republican County Commissioner Stan VanderWerf by fewer than 1,700 votes Wednesday. But Democrats needed to beat either Catlin or Simpson to hit 24 seats in the Senate and thereby gain supermajority control.
Since Democrats lost Senate District 13, they needed to win two of the other three races. The SD13 seat was held by term-limited Sen. Kevin Priola, a one-time moderate Republican who flipped his party affiliation to Democratic in Aug. 2022.
Still, even without total supermajority control, Democrats held their otherwise firm grasp in the Senate, two years after they surprisingly surged to near-supermajority status in a 2022 election that had been billed as a red wave.
In the House, Democrats’ power was similarly not in doubt, though Republicans had hoped to flip at least three seats and break their supermajority control. While two House races remained too close to call even Wednesday afternoon, Democrats could lose both and still hold their supermajority.
Democratic Rep. Mary Young trailed Republican challenger Ryan Gonzalez by just 58 votes in her Greeley-based House District 50. Democratic Rep. Stephanie Vigil, who surprisingly won an El Paso County seat in 2022, led her Republican challenger by fewer than 500 votes Wednesday afternoon.
Democratic House Speaker Julie McCluskie declared victory Tuesday night.
“We are a pro-choice state,” she said, while referring to House Republicans as “lost in the wilderness.” “We are a pro-public education state. And in Colorado we believe in climate science. And tonight, we are electing a pro-climate action majority.”
Democrat Rep. Tammy Story, another surprise 2022 winner, was also ahead Wednesday morning, as was Rep. Bob Marshall, whose Highlands Ranch seat made him another blue lawmaker in an otherwise red area.
Jillaire McMillan, who has been the Democratic candidate in House District 19 for fewer than 100 days, was beating former Republican state Rep. Dan Woog by more than 1,800 votes.
Republican Minority Leader Rose Pugliese told The Denver Post on Tuesday night that she still had hopes of picking up seats in the chamber. At that point, Young was narrowly winning in Greeley.
Supermajorities allow the legislature to override the governor’s vetoes on a purely partisan vote — not necessarily a huge leverage point within a Democratic trifecta like Colorado has now — but more importantly, they allow one party to send constitutional amendments directly to voters and to further stack committees with like-minded legislators.
All told, more than $17 million has been spent by outside groups alone, mostly from party-affiliated committees, to influence the outcome..
