Progressive statehouse candidates raced to victory in several Democratic primary contests in metro Denver, unseating two sitting lawmakers and overcoming millions of dollars in opposition spending amid a marquee night for more liberal candidates across the Front Range.
The wins in Tuesday’s primary amounted to a clean sweep for the outside spending group funded by the state’s largest labor unions, with progressives toppling four candidates backed by a network of largely opaque PACs that spent well over $2 million on the races this year.
The liberal primary victories in races for safe seats reverse, in part, gains made by the centrist organization One Main Street two years ago. That’s when the dark-money group, which doesn’t disclose all of its donors, won nearly every race in which it engaged to support “pragmatic” Democrats.
The latest results came amid an ongoing power struggle within the state legislature’s dominant Democratic Party, which has played out in primary campaigns for several years.
“This is a warning sign to any politician who thinks their political future lies in corporate money rather than the interests of working people across the state,” Dennis Dougherty, the executive director of the Colorado AFL-CIO, which funded the labor PAC, said in a statement Wednesday.
One of the candidates who won two years ago, Rep. Sean Camacho in Denver’s House District 6, fell to progressive challenger Iris Halpern on Tuesday night. Camacho had unseated one of the Capitol’s most left-wing — and controversial — lawmakers in 2024, former Rep. Elisabeth Epps, only to fall himself in another deep-pocketed primary.
Camacho was behind by roughly 1,300 votes as of Wednesday morning, when he conceded. District 6 roughly follows the East Colfax corridor from the state Capitol to the Aurora border.
His loss will be a blow to moderate Democrats in the legislature, where Camacho was the co-chair of the One Main Street-linked Opportunity Caucus. That group is composed of more business-friendly lawmakers. The caucus has been heavily criticized by more liberal legislators and groups, and Camacho’s loss gave a win to the labor groups, which wanted to knock the caucus back on its heels.
More than $1 million in outside spending poured into the race.
Elsewhere in Denver, Chela Garcia Irlando crushed Andrés Carrera for the soon-to-be-vacant Senate District 34 seat. More than $1.5 million was spent on that race. Most of that came from the unions-versus-One Main Street conflict, though Conservation Colorado also backed Irlando while an outside group funded by sports betting companies came in for Carrera. The seat covers part of downtown and west and northwest Denver, and it attracted national attention, with Irlando endorsed by U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders and labor icon Dolores Huerta.
Despite the deep spending, Irlando more than doubled Carrera’s vote total as of Wednesday, beating him by nearly 10,000 votes.
In Broomfield, Rep. Kenny Nguyen held off One Main Street-backed challenger Heidi Henkel, who serves on the city’s council. Nguyen narrowly beat Henkel earlier this year for a vacancy appointment to the legislature, and he drew One Main Street’s ire after criticizing the group on Facebook.
In Aurora, Rep. Jamie Jackson — also a vacancy appointee — overcame Anne Keke, who sits on the local school board, despite similar outside spending.
Perhaps the most surprising win of the night came from Gabriel Cervantes in Thornton. He beat Democratic Rep. Jacque Phillips, another Opportunity Caucus member, by nearly 600 votes, despite little outside support and negative attacks about past social media comments.
Like Camacho, Phillips had unseated a sitting lawmaker two years ago with the backing of One Main Street-aligned groups.
In one of One Main Street’s few wins Tuesday, Sarah Woodson cruised to victory in the primary over Rep. Mandy Lindsay. Lindsay, who represents Aurora, received no outside support and fell to Woodson by a roughly 2-to-1 vote margin.
Outside of metro Denver, another contested Democratic primary to represent Summit County in the House was still too close to call Wednesday. But Chris Floyd, who is also backed by One Main Street, narrowly led Consuelo Redhorse, with a 164-vote margin as of late morning.
Another sitting lawmaker lost on Tuesday. Sen. Lynda Zamora Wilson, who entered the legislature on a vacancy appointment last year, lost to Terri Carver in the Republican primary for a Senate seat in El Paso County. Carver comfortably toppled Zamora Wilson, earning nearly 15,500 votes to double the incumbent’s haul.
