U.S. Sens. Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper have each qualified for the June primary ballot, the Colorado Secretary of State’s Office announced Tuesday — albeit for different contested races.
Bennet, the three-term senator, is the first candidate for governor to officially qualify for the primary ballot. His chief opponent for the Democratic nomination, Attorney General Phil Weiser, plans to qualify for the ballot through the Democratic state assembly on Saturday.
Republican candidates Victor Marx and state Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer have also submitted signatures to qualify for the primary ballot, but the secretary of state’s office has not yet validated their petitions. A slew of other Republicans are vying for the nomination through their party’s state assembly in April.
Hickenlooper, who served two terms as governor and was first elected to the Senate in 2020, is seeking reelection. He is the first Senate candidate to qualify for the June primary ballot. His Democratic opponents — Karen Breslin, state Sen. Julie Gonzales and Jessica Williams — are looking to the assembly to win ballot access.
No Republican has submitted signatures to qualify for the Senate primary. George Washington Markert, Janak Joshi, Dathan Jones, state Sen. Mark Baisley, Sean Pond and Amanda Calderon have filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission, meaning they’d need to qualify through the GOP assembly to win ballot access.
Bennet submitted 14,851 valid signatures across the state’s eight congressional districts to qualify. Hickenlooper submitted 14,905. They each needed 1,500 qualifying signatures from Democrats in each congressional district to qualify for the ballot via petition.
