Attorney General Phil Weiser won the Democratic nomination for governor Tuesday night, defeating U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet and the almost two decades of Washington, D.C., connections he brought to the fight.
Weiser took shots at pundits who had declared the race a “coronation” for Bennet, and at the “out-of-state billionaires” backing Bennet’s campaign. His victory was a win for the grassroots, he declared, and for the hundreds of people who volunteered and powered the campaign.
“We the people — not the establishment — choose our leaders,” Weiser said in his victory speech at a restaurant in Denver’s Uptown neighborhood.
The Associated Press called the race for Weiser shortly after 8 p.m. Bennet called Weiser to concede shortly after, Bennet’s spokesperson said. Weiser, a two-term attorney general, led Bennet by 11.7 percentage points, drawing nearly 56% of the votes statewide in the two-man race as early Wednesday afternoon.
“People want to know that they’re electing someone who’s in this work to fight for them, who they know cares about them,” Weiser said after his speech. For the victory, he credited his campaign with “breaking through a lot of negative ads, a lot of noise,” a reference to the more than $10 million in outside money that flooded airwaves to support Bennet.
Weiser will face the winner of the three-way Republican primary, which still has not been called, in the first open race for governor since the term-limited Gov. Jared Polis was elected in 2018. Weiser promised to run the same campaign as he did in the primary, one focused on “how I fight for the people of Colorado.”
The Democratic nominee will have history on his side when it comes to the November election. Democrats have a strong track record for more than 50 years, winning all but two contests for the state’s top job in that time, and every one since 2006.
“When you engage people in an authentic way, they feel inspired,” Weiser said. “We’ve got a lot of work to do. That work won’t even end with winning in November. It’s gonna be part of how I govern.”
The race settled the question of whether Bennet or Weiser would represent their party in the fall’s general election for governor. Weiser, the sitting attorney general, ran a relatively insurgent-flavored campaign against Bennet, a senator who made the rare decision that he wanted to leave Washington, D.C., for the governor’s mansion in his home state.
“Tonight the results were not what we wanted; we came up short,” Bennet said at his watch party shortly after 8:30 p.m. “And while that is disappointing — and I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t — I do not regret for a second the campaign that we ran or the cause we fought for.”
Map: Who’s leading in the Colorado primary race for governor?
Neither candidate entered the home stretch with a sense he had a commanding lead in the lightly polled race. The contest included barbs over whose experience would best translate to success leading Colorado over the next four years. Both candidates made economic mobility and affordability central to their messages for voters.
Weiser, first elected during the 2018 blue wave after winning a tight primary contest then, argued nearly eight years as the state’s top lawyer showed he’s able to lead a large office, work with lawmakers, administer programs, and craft and enforce regulations.
He's also cited the dozens of lawsuits he's filed or joined against the Trump administration as proof he’s the fighter Colorado wants. The state voted heavily against Donald Trump in the 2016, 2020 and 2024 presidential elections.
Bennet entered the governor’s race in April 2025, a few months after Weiser. His name recognition and popularity among the Democratic base as a thrice-elected U.S. senator -- and the fundraising and campaign infrastructure connections that entailed -- helped clear the field.
Bennet framed his pitch of building a more affordable Colorado as necessary “to drive a stake through Trumpism.”
Millions of dollars flowed into each campaign throughout the primary. Weiser beat out Bennet in direct cash contributions, with about $6.5 million to the senator’s $4.8 million. Bennet also loaned his campaign nearly $1 million.
The super PAC backing Bennet through outside spending, Rocky Mountain Way, more than made up the gap. Rocky Mountain Way has reported a haul of more than $11.4 million. Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg alone accounted for $5.1 million of that.
The super PAC backing Weiser, Fighting for Colorado, reported raising $1.3 million. The super PACs are allowed to raise and spend unlimited amounts of money, including from groups that do not have to disclose their donors, but can't coordinate with the campaigns.
