Gonzales, who represents north, west and parts of downtown Denver, is one of the legislature’s most progressive members. The fate of her U.S. Senate candidacy will depend on how much the rising tide of Democratic discontent has reached Colorado — and whether the swell can sink one of the state’s most established politicians.

“We have seen so many communities being impacted by (President) Donald Trump’s corporate cronies treating our government like a piggy bank for their bottom lines, while millions of American families, and certainly families all across the state, are just trying to make ends meet,” Gonzales said in an interview ahead of her formal announcement. “And there has not been a response from the Democratic Party to be able to ensure that we are fighting back, using all the tools we have available to us.”

She’ll take on Hickenlooper in the Democratic primary in June as he pursues his second — and what would be his final — term in the U.S. Senate. Hickenlooper is a former two-term Denver mayor, two-term governor and one-time presidential candidate with near-universal name recognition in the state and formidable financial resources. What’s more, his supporters have been trying to fortify him against a primary challenge since the late summer.

The race will test whether that prominence is a bulwark or an albatross. Polls show Democratic voters are unhappy with the party’s direction and, in Colorado, half-hearted in their support of Hickenlooper and other politicians.

In a statement Monday morning, Hickenlooper spokesperson Jess Cohen did not directly address Gonzales’ candidacy.

“Senator Hickenlooper is focused on delivering for Colorado,” Cohen wrote. “He helped defeat the Trump and MAGA plan to auction off our public lands and is relentlessly fighting to lower costs for working families. John Hickenlooper has spent his time as mayor, as governor and as U.S. senator uniting us, and now fighting against the illegal chaos and outright corruption that has come to define MAGA and our President.”

Gonzales represents a credible threat to Hickenlooper, said Seth Masket, a political scientist at the University of Denver.

“This is a state senator, this is someone who has a following and can raise money,” he said Monday. “I still don’t get the impression that Hickenlooper is in a whole lot of trouble in the primary, but I think this is more emblematic of a lot of the Democratic base’s frustration with many centrist incumbents.”

Buoyed by progressive wins

If she beats Hickenlooper, Gonzales would be in pole position to become Colorado’s first female U.S. senator. Gonzales, 42, said her decision, which has been rumored for weeks, was solidified after last month’s elections.

In New York City, “Zohran (Mamdani) is a demonstration of what can happen when you reengage people who either have been tokenized or forgotten altogether by the Democratic Party,” she said. The left-wing state lawmaker’s laser focus on affordability helped him become mayor-elect of America’s largest city.

But Mamdami’s win wasn’t as impactful on her decision, she said, as progressive wins on Aurora’s City Council and Denver’s school board, plus the toppling of the Douglas County school board’s conservative majority.

Gonzales framed the race as a choice for a party at a crossroads: more “poll-tested incrementalism,” as she put it, or “a fighter who is clear in her values, who has a track record of taking on big fights and winning.”

Though she’s the most prominent, Gonzales is this year. She joins other candidates who include Karen Breslin, a political science professor and attorney; Brashad Hasley, a Navy veteran and software engineer; and A.J. Zimpfer, an accountant.

Gonzales was born to a big family on an Apache reservation in Arizona, where she spent her early childhood before moving to South Texas. She attended Yale University and, after graduating, moved to Denver to work as an organizer.

She later worked for a prominent immigration law firm before winning a state Senate seat in 2018. Her political resume includes a slew of laws intended to improve tenant protections in housing and to limit what kinds of information can be shared with federal immigration authorities.

Gonzales sponsored gun-control legislation earlier this year that put limits on sales of a swath of semiautomatic firearms, and she served as a primary sponsor of a 2022 bill that enshrined access to abortion services in state law, several weeks before the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade. The state’s voters .

As she eyes a seat in a different Senate, Gonzales lists universal health care and universal child care as core policy goals, in a rejoinder to moderate Democrats’ incrementalism.

She blasted Hickenlooper for voting earlier this year to confirm Trump cabinet picks like , the Agriculture secretary whose office recently threatened to withhold funding from Democratic-led states that wouldn’t turn over immigration-related information on food assistance recipients. Hickenlooper has voted to confirm 10 Trump cabinet picks in all, tying with several other senators for the most among Democrats, . (U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet wasn’t far behind, with eight.)

But as Democrats faced pressure from the base not to cave to Republicans, Hickenlooper did not join the handful of Democratic colleagues who supported a stopgap spending measure in May and a November measure that ended this fall’s record-long partial government shutdown.

‘Basically everyone knows him’

Gonzales faces a difficult road against the 73-year-old senator, who returned to elected office in 2020 by dislodging then-U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner, the last Republican to hold a major statewide office.

A November poll that showed Hickenlooper’s net favorability slipping — from positive 13 to 5 percentage points — also noted that only 6% of Coloradans didn’t know who he was, pointing to near-universal name recognition, a factor that’s often decisive. He’s also already amassed a significant war chest to buttress his reelection defense: , as of the end of September.

His most prominent Republican opponent thus far is Janak Joshi, who’s lost several successive races, most recently a 2024 congressional primary.

Barring a late Republican entry, Hickenlooper’s most serious threat may well come in the primary election next June, which will be decided by Democratic and unaffiliated voters. If he prevails, he won’t need to hoard cash for the November general election.

It’s unclear if Gonzales can pose a mortal threat to Hickenlooper, said Masket, the DU analyst.

Gonzales will have to work hard to get media attention and can do so by mounting a more confrontational campaign, he said. Hickenlooper is well known, and his name recognition provides a significant advantage, Masket added.

But it will only go so far.

“Basically everyone knows him,” Masket said of Hickenlooper. “But I don’t think many people could point to something he’s done in the last few years in the Senate. At this point, he’s kind of famous for being famous. Obviously, name recognition is huge in a primary, but it����ap not the only thing, especially when incumbents are not that popular.”

The rumors of Gonzales’ coming candidacy have given Hickenlooper’s supporters time to prepare. In September, he raised $100,000 for the state Democratic Party. The party announced the “unprecedented” donation just as a poll circulated that tested both Gonzales and Hickenlooper and touted the former governor’s accomplishments.

A week before, someone registered at least three website addresses related to a prospective Gonzales run. Anyone visiting them was instead redirected to Hickenlooper’s campaign site.

Starting in early 2017, after Donald Trump first became president, around the life-sized cutout, hosting mock town halls with it while, for over a year, Gardner wouldn’t organize one of his own. When Gardner finally buckled to the pressure and hosted three in-person town halls in one day, he was shouted down and drowned out by angry voters. He would go on to lose the 2020 election to Democrat John Hickenlooper, drawing only 44% of the vote.

Nearly eight weeks into Trump’s return to office, Colorado Democrats want to use that sort of tactic again.

“That����ap the kind of thing we’ve got to do at town halls all around the state,” Hickenlooper said during his own virtual town hall last week, in reference to “Cardboard Cory.” “I think then they become more afraid of you — of us — than of Trump.”

Political operatives on both sides of the aisle have long seen town halls as a tool to make waves and regain their footing in the public square when they lack legislative power. While Republicans have faced the pressure of town halls in years when Trump is in office, in 2009, it was Democrats whose forums began being swarmed by the conservative Tea Party movement during President Barack Obama’s first term.

This winter, after several instances of intense backlash over Trump’s policies at town halls throughout the country, national to host virtual town halls instead of in-person events. They’ve accused Democrats of organizing protests and to attend.

While liberal groups to attend town halls and offer strategic tips on how to prepare for the events, there hasn’t been evidence made public of people being paid to attend.

In Colorado, Republicans are so far following the advice from national GOP leaders. Two of the four Republican representatives from the state, and Jeff Hurd, have both hosted events only virtually. The other two, Lauren Boebert and Gabe Evans, haven’t hosted any this year.

Spokespeople for Boebert and Evans have said both plan to host events soon.

“We will do townhalls and we will do them in a way that allows constituents’ concerns to be heard without being drowned out by yelling activists,” said Delanie Bomar, a spokeperson for Evans.

Evans, who narrowly defeated Rep. Yadira Caraveo in November to represent Colorado’s 8th Congressional District, is one of the most vulnerable Republicans in Congress. Protests and demanding that he host a town hall have already begun.

Republican seeks “a productive dialogue”

Hurd, who succeeded Boebert in Congress in January after she moved to another district, hosted his first town hall on Tuesday night, answering both friendly and pointed questions in a virtual hearing. About 1,000 of the 7,500 people who took part were people from outside the district, according to his staff.

Laila Elagamy, a spokesperson for Hurd, said the congressman’s staff didn’t vet questions before the event.

Hurd, who lives in Grand Junction, answered questions about the firing of U.S. Forest Service employees and other stewards of federal public lands and about immigration, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, firearms and Medicaid.

He also faced direct questions asking when he would host an in-person town hall.

He opened the hearing with an emphasis on how vast his district is — stretching from Trinidad, near the New Mexico border, up to northwest Colorado’s Moffat County and the borders of Wyoming and Utah. He said a tele-town hall allowed him to hear from constituents across the district.

“I think it����ap important for me to see folks face-to-face,” Hurd said in response to a caller’s question. “What I would say is, I want to make sure that it����ap a productive dialogue and that we’re talking about issues that I’m hearing from my constituents — and that we’re not devolving into political theater.”

Several Colorado Democrats have seized on the line that Republicans aren’t hosting enough town halls.

Attorney General Phil Weiser, who in January announced he’s running for governor in 2026, said it plainly at an in-person town hall hosted by at a Lakewood high school.

“Here’s the split screen I want: Thousands of people here to support Brittany Pettersen flying to D.C. with her baby to stand up for the rule of law. On the other screen is Republican members of Congress, afraid to hold town halls because they don’t want to answer to the harms that they are complicit in,” he said, according to a video of the event. Pettersen’s office said more than 1,800 people attended.

Rep. Jason Crow made a similar comment to a packed auditorium at an Aurora high school, an event that was also streamed online.

“If they make a decision to stop doing town halls — to stop showing up — then don’t let them go anywhere without you showing up,” he said.

Democrats face pressure, too

Republicans aren’t the only ones susceptible to attacks at town halls, though. Colorado Democrats are facing their own pressures and concerns over the events.

At the in-person town hall for Pettersen, former Congressman Ed Perlmutter opened the event by warning any protestors they would be removed.

“We should just be prepared,” he said. “In the past, they’ve been very loud and boisterous. Their goal is to interrupt.”

Democrats and Republicans have also prescreened at least some of the questions asked at forums. In part, that����ap to avoid meandering, repeated or hyperspecific questions during a time-constrained hearing. But it also allows them to maintain control over what is asked.

In their recent town halls, whether convened in person or remotely, staffers for Hickenlooper, Pettersen, Crow and U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet all screened the questions asked.

While Bennet’s office said staffers don’t do any question-choosing for in-person events, they do so during because of how many more people chime in.

For the in-person events, the senator takes unfiltered questions because he’s “old school,” said spokesperson Larkin Parker. He’ll get chances to do that on three evenings this week, with in-person town halls announced for Tuesday in Greeley, Wednesday in Golden and Thursday in Colorado Springs.

“If someone takes the mic and yells at him, he’s totally fine with that,” she said. “It seems to bring the temperature of the room down when everyone knows it����ap an at-random process.”

In 2010, Bennet was one of the senators who faced immense criticism from Tea Party devotees at his town halls over his votes supporting Obama’s agenda. The group across the country opposing government initiatives like the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.

Speaking to his constituents over YouTube this week, Hickenlooper apologized for not hosting the event in person, saying he hadn’t returned to Colorado because the Senate was in session.

Throughout the hourlong event, Hickenlooper faced mounting pressure from voters who said he wasn’t doing enough to stop Trump’s agenda.

As Colorado’s junior Democratic senator described the many lawsuits challenging Trump’s slashing of the federal government, one viewer replied: “Be angrier. The country is dying.”

When Hickenlooper said Democrats should use social media to apply pressure on Republican lawmakers, another commenter quipped, “Oh good, Hickenlooper is retweeting. We’re saved.”

Hickenlooper’s messaging — decrying the slashing of grant dollars, the “insulting” cuts to the Department of Veterans Affairs, Trump’s criticism of Ukraine — appeared to land with a thud. Midway through the town hall, one woman was filling the YouTube comment section with an all-caps response to Hickenlooper’s explanations: “WE KNOW.”

The senator had drawn heat on social media earlier Wednesday when he told the Washington Post that he didn’t know how he would vote on the budget showdown. By the town hall, he’d shifted, pledging to vote no on Republicans’ spending bill and on a procedural vote that would end the Democratic filibuster.

He and Bennet continued to oppose it later in the week as some other Democrats’ opposition .

Pettersen also faced harsh questions last weekend over the party’s strategy to combat Trump.

The congresswoman was interrupted by a shouting audience member when she was answering a question about whether party leadership was accepting defeat.

“We are limited — I think that����ap trying to set expectations,” she responded. “But we are not powerless. It is really all of you who are going to help elevate the voices of people. People like you showing up across the country.”

While delivered with a smile, the question was deadly serious in a congressional district with such an even partisan split that anything could happen to knock the future incumbent off kilter two years from now, as just happened to Democratic first-term Rep. Yadira Caraveo. Chief among those potentially destabilizing forces is that a fellow Republican will be in the White House — a reliable drag on GOP members of Congress during midterm elections.

“Midterm elections play worse for the party that controls the White House,” said Mike Dino, a Democratic political analyst. “When you get to the midterms, there’s going to be some fatigue. 2026 is going to be all about (Donald) Trump.”

And in a state that has shown overwhelming distaste for the president-elect over the last three election cycles — including last Tuesday — that could be enough to turn Evans into a one-term congressman, Dino said.

The potential of a short stint in Congress was the furthest thing from Evans’ mind Monday as he spoke in front of a scrum of reporters and TV cameras crowded into a room at his Thornton campaign headquarters.

The latest results have Evans, a Republican, winning last week’s election for the 8th Congressional District by fewer than 2,600 votes after five days of ballot counting, with a smattering of ballots remaining.

“I am so excited. This is the honor of a lifetime to be able to represent this district in Congress — to be your voice, to continue the fight to make us a safe, affordable place to live, to work, to raise families. To achieve that American dream that we all love, that we all know and that we all treasure,” said Evans, who entered the congressional race as a freshman state representative.

His victory, cemented Sunday when Caraveo conceded defeat to the Army vet and former Arvada police officer, brings Colorado’s congressional delegation to an even 4-4 partisan split for the next two years. That’s despite Democrats having strong majorities in the General Assembly and holding all statewide offices.

“In many ways, this was a tremendous victory for Colorado Republicans, and for balance and for dialogue in the state,” Evans said. “This is probably one of the — if not the — biggest race in Colorado since 2014, when (Republican) Cory Gardner flipped a U.S. Senate race,” unseating Democratic Sen. Mark Udall.

Colorado’s 8th District, the state’s newest congressional district, stretches from Denver’s northern suburbs to Greeley in Weld County. Created during the 2021 redistricting process, it was designed to be an evenly split swing district.

Caraveo barely won it two years ago against her Republican opponent.

Erin Covey, the House editor for the nonpartisan Cook Political Report, called the district “one of the best Republican pick-up opportunities in the country.” As the state’s most heavily Latino district, and with Hispanic voters having gone for Trump on Tuesday more than they ever have — though a majority still voted for the Democratic nominee — the tailwinds from that shift may have been a boost to Evans.

“Working-class Latinos are moving toward Republicans,” Covey said. “Gabe was in a good position to take advantage of that trend.”

But the extent to which that national trend was a factor in the 8th District was unclear. Last week, an exit poll of Latino voters in Colorado found that they didn’t move away from Democrats much here — though there was a significant shift in the Caraveo-Evans race. Pollster Gabe Sanchez, of BSP Research, chalked it up more to the fact that both candidates this time were Latino.

Immigration and the economy, dominant themes across the country in this year’s election, played in Evans’ favor, Covey said. Those issues drowned out abortion rights — a reliable rallying cry for Democrats — as the key issues on voters’ minds.

“The fact that abortion is protected in Colorado, I think voters knew that and it may have made them less willing to have it be their No. 1 issue,” she said.

On Monday, Evans made it clear that his focus on immigration, especially the controversial call by Trump to carry out mass deportations of people in the country illegally when he takes office in January, is more tempered than the president-elect’s. His first moves, he said, will be to secure the border and deport migrants convicted of crimes.

“After we’ve got those priorities done, then we can absolutely continue to have that conversation about what do we do with the millions of folks who are present illegally in the United States but who aren’t committing crimes — and who aren’t really causing massive problems in our society,” Evans said.

Evans said the first bill he planned to work on in Congress after being sworn in would allow local police departments to more closely cooperate with federal immigration authorities in dealing with migrants charged with crimes. Colorado lawmakers have placed restrictions on such arrangements in recent years, drawing lawsuits from Douglas and El Paso counties.

As of Monday afternoon, Evans’ victory was set to give Republicans 215 seats in the House to the Democrats’ 204, , which still had not called the race. The GOP needs 218 seats to keep its majority, and several tight races across the country remained unresolved.

Longtime radio host and conservative activist Jeff Crank, 57, hopes to answer the question in the Nov. 5 election with a deep crimson result befitting the historic GOP stronghold, which now covers most of El Paso County.

Democrat River Gassen, 27, an instructor and research assistant at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs’ BioFrontiers Center, hopes to turn recent streaks of blue there into an azure upset — and, in the process, become the district����ap first-ever Democratic member of Congress.

For nine terms, U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn has reliably won reelection, representing the state’s second-largest city. He announced in January that he wouldn’t seek another term, opening the seat for a fresh contest — though it’s still a district the nonpartisan Cook Political Report rates as “solid Republican.”

On issues typically at the top of voters’ concerns, the two fall along expected partisan lines.

Gassen lists federal protections for abortion rights as a top priority; Crank describes himself as “a proud pro-life advocate.”

“I’m getting a little tired of hearing this ‘states’ rights’ narrative,” Gassen said. “I don’t think states’ rights really has anything to do with women’s rights. I think it’s just kind of an escape so people can say they’re pro-life, so to speak, without trying to sound sexist.”

On immigration, Crank called the bipartisan border bill that died in Congress earlier this year “a ruse.” He advocates for more aggressive deportations of convicted criminals and stricter limits on how many people can cross the border.

Gassen supported that bill as a way to provide resources for asylum seekers and border security, though she said she’d rather it be “a little bit more progressive” by focusing on boosting resources to process asylum requests.

“I know people want to say, ‘Are you for or against mass deportations?’ ” Crank said in a recent interview. “Starting with the criminals who came here, the terrorists, others — let’s figure out who those people are, and let’s get them the heck out of here. They don’t belong in the United States. Let’s start with that, and then we’ll keep working through the list.”

On economics, Gassen defends the Inflation Reduction Act, a signature accomplishment from President Joe Biden’s administration, and the strategy of using government spending to spur economic activity. Crank sees government spending as spurring the recent inflation crisis.

Crank calls himself a Republican close to the mold of former President Ronald Reagan, while Gassen says her politics most closely align with those of Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren.

Three other candidates are on the ballot: Christopher Mitchell, affiliated with the American Constitution Party; Christopher Sweat, from the Forward Party; and Michael Keith Vance, a Libertarian.

Among the major-party candidates, the district’s recent history suggests Crank has a distinct advantage. Lamborn, the outgoing Republican, is retiring following the narrowest general election win of his career: A 16-percentage-point shellacking of his Democratic opponent in 2022.

In 2020, then-President Donald Trump by 11 percentage points while losing the state by a 13.5-point margin to Biden.

But both candidates see a crossroads in this election.

Gassen sees a strong local Democratic ticket, from state House races to county commissioner bids, as a group effort that supports all the candidates. The district has been seeing pockets of blue, particularly in Colorado Springs, that just haven’t spread to federal elections yet, Gassen said.

It����ap a presidential year, too, which typically bodes well for Democrats, and voters in Colorado will be seeing abortion on the ballot with Amendment 79, which could galvanize abortion-rights supporters who want to elevate protections to the state constitution. Anecdotally, she says she’s seeing fewer Trump flags than years past.

“I do feel like even the Republicans here in Colorado Springs are tired of the Trump party,” Gassen said.

Crank, for his part, steers away from the label of MAGA Republican — short for the Trump campaign slogan, “Make America Great Again” — even as he has celebrated Trump’s endorsement and many of the former president����ap achievements as he seeks the White House again. In June, Republican primary voters likewise soundly rejected Dave Williams, Crank’s primary opponent — and the state GOP’s chairman — who tied himself as closely as possible to Trump.

Crank instead styles himself as a “happy warrior,” closer to the style of Reagan and former U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner, the last Republican to win a statewide federal election in Colorado, than the combative conservatism of today.

The race also proves a test for the future of the party in Colorado, he said. Historically, for Republicans, winning a statewide victory has meant running up the tally in El Paso County. If Crank loses, the party’s “in pretty, pretty bad shape” across the board, he said. A loss would also disprove his theory of positive, principled conservatism.

“The Republican Party has gotten away, in some cases, from nominating good candidates — from nominating candidates that can appeal to the voters of Colorado,” Crank said. “I would argue you don’t have to give up your principles to do that.”

On Monday — 12 days after those rally comments — there didn’t appear to be any plans developing for the Republican presidential candidate to visit Colorado’s third-largest city. The only Trump event in the offing is a campaign fundraiser in Denver next week that is set to feature Ohio Sen. JD Vance, Trump’s running mate.

Reached by email, a Trump campaign spokesperson would not comment on the record about the possibility of an Aurora event for Trump. Aurora city spokesman Ryan Luby said Monday that the city had heard nothing from Trump’s campaign about a potential visit.

Steve Peck, the chair of the Douglas County Republican Party, wrote in a text message that he hadn’t “received any communication that the Trump campaign is coming to Aurora,” though he said state party officials might know more. Dave Williams, the chair of the Colorado Republican Party and a Trump supporter, did not return a message seeking comment.

A message left for the Arapahoe County GOP was also not returned Monday afternoon.

Trump voiced his apparent desire to visit Aurora after he’d inaccurately described the immigration and gang situation in the city, including on a prime-time debate stage earlier in September. The city drew national attention in recent weeks amid claims that several dilapidated apartment buildings had been overrun by Venezuelan gang members. At times, Trump has claimed that the entire city of 400,000 has been taken over.

City leaders have said the gang’s presence is limited — and most of the identified members have been arrested — but they have said certain properties were “significantly affected” by gang activity.

The properties, owned by CBZ Management, have also been the subject of years of complaints by tenants and investigations by city inspectors over their conditions. Those complaints and inspections predate the gang reports, and tenants have laid much of the blame on CBZ’s owners.

Trump’s claim during his Sept. 18 rally in Uniondale, New York, that he would visit Aurora — as well as Springfield, Ohio, which was the subject of its own strain of anti-immigrant conspiracy theories — drew criticism from a number of elected officials in the Colorado city.

Several signed on to an op-ed in The Denver Post accusing Trump of coming to Aurora to spread “ugly invective and continued falsehoods.” Mike Coffman, Aurora’s Republican mayor, previously told The Post that he was excited to tell Trump that the more exaggerated gang-takeover narrative “is false.”

that Trump also has apparently dropped any plan to visit Springfield.

Though Trump may not come to Colorado, his running mate is.

Vance is set to attend an “evening reception” fundraiser on Oct. 8 in Denver, according to a flyer for the event. It is being hosted by former Republican U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner and Republican megadonor Larry Mizel, a Denverite who co-hosted an Aspen fundraiser that Trump attended in August. (Mizel’s office previously said that Mizel “does not speak to the press.”)

Entry to the Oct. 8 fundraiser in Denver starts at $3,300 per person and rises to $50,000 per couple to be on the “host committee,” which includes a seat on a roundtable, plus a photo and a reception.

The Colorado Sun first reported the Vance fundraiser.

Hickenlooper, a Democrat who first won election to the Senate in 2020, about his plans Wednesday and said he would only serve two terms. He told Colorado reporters last year that he intended to run for reelection in 2026.

A campaign spokesman confirmed the senator’s plans to The Denver Post and declined to comment further, beyond pointing to previous statements Hickenlooper made endorsing term limits.

Should Hickenlooper, 72, win a second term in 2026, he will be 80 when his seat will next be up in 2032. In response to a Post question last year about the age of key congressional leaders, Hickenlooper said he supported a two-term limit for U.S. senators (neither chamber of Congress has any such limit).

Before serving two terms as Colorado governor, Hickenlooper was the mayor of Denver. He comfortably unseated Republican U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner in 2020, two years after leaving the governor’s office. Before announcing his Senate run, he briefly campaigned for president in 2019.

Sirota’s amendment to Senate Bill 210, an election reform bill, will ensure the rollout of ranked-choice voting, should it pass by voter initiative, will be implemented thoughtfully. The amendment, which passed unanimously, would require a dozen Colorado municipalities of varying sizes and demographics to conduct ranked-choice voting before it goes statewide.

The phase-in will allow cities to develop best practices before all jurisdictions are required to implement a complicated and wholesale change. Just as mail-in voting was phased in over several years, the Sirota amendment will give clerks time to develop policies, purchase software, train employees, and educate their constituents.

It also gives voters the opportunity to see how ranked choice voting works and gives them a chance to repeal it after the new car smell fades and they see how confusing and unfair it is. This election, Alaska voters are looking to repeal the ranked-choice voting system they approved just four years ago. They would have saved themselves a lot of money and frustration if the system had been implemented in a dozen jurisdictions instead of going all in from the start.

A ranked-choice voting system for Colorado is being sought by the wealthy former CEO of DaVita, a Denver-based kidney dialysis provider, Kent Thiry. His proposal, which has been approved for signature collection,  would impose an open primary and ranked-choice general elections on the state.

Here’s how it would work: Anyone, regardless of party affiliation, could run in the primary with the top four contenders advancing to the general election. In the general, voters would be asked to rank candidates in order of preference.

It����ap a confusing system, so I’ll put names to an example. Let����ap say that out of a gubernatorial primary former Sen. Cory Gardner, current Sen. Michael Bennet, former Rep. Ken Buck, and Denver Mayor Mike Johnston advance to the general.

I vote in the general for Bennet, Johnston, Buck, and Gardner in that order. If nobody gets 50% of the statewide vote, the votes are retallied. Let’s say that in the first tally, Bennet gets the least number of votes and is eliminated. Johnston, my second choice will get my vote. If Johnston is eliminated in round two, Buck will get my vote and either he or Gardner will emerge from the final round.

In some elections, after all the tallying is done the most popular candidate (the one most voters ranked first) will go home empty-handed. In the 2010 Oakland mayoral race, the candidate who received the most votes in round one ultimately lost the election after nine rounds of vote redistribution. How fair is that to candidates or voters?

If you’re confused, imagine how much effort, time, and money the Secretary of State and county clerks will have to expend to educate voters. It is likely the complexity will persuade some voters to chuck their ballot. Then there will be less voter participation.

Being confusing isn’t the only problem with ranked-choice voting. Let����ap say you picked only Johnston and Bennet and neither of them made it to the third round; your ballot will be considered exhausted and tossed out. Only those who voted for Buck and Gardner in whatever order, will be counted in the final tally.

This has happened. In Maine’s 2nd Congressional District, the candidate who got the most votes ultimately lost to the second-place candidate. The Maine Secretary of State threw out more than 14,000 exhausted ballots from people who did not vote for the top two candidates. Sound fair?

Proponents of ranked-choice voting think that such a system will reduce the number of extremist candidates and help voters coalesce around a mainstream candidate. This is a solution looking for a problem that isn’t a problem.

Colorado does not have a problem with extreme candidates or officeholders. I did not vote for either of the state’s U.S. senators, my congressman, my representatives in the Colorado General Assembly, the governor, the attorney general, the secretary of state or the treasurer. While they are wrong on most issues, not one of them is extreme. Not one. Fanatics do come along but the current system is self-correcting.

Extreme Democrats like Reps. Elisabeth Epps and Tim Hernández face formidable primary opponents this year and extreme Republicans like Ron Hanks and Dave Williams are unlikely to win in their primaries. Congresswoman Lauren Boebert had to flee her home district because voters yearned for normalcy and were poised to turn her out in the primary or general.

While we’re popping illusion balloons, the Sirota Amendment was not some sneaky last-minute ploy. County clerks and the Colorado Clerks Association approached Sirota with the concerns they have about implementing the Thiry proposal if it passed and she listened. Matt Crane, executive director clerks association, told me that organization “strongly support[s] the amendment and appreciate[s] Rep. Sirota’s willingness to include it in the bill.”

Sirota explained the reasoning behind the amendment and the language was displayed for all to read. It passed unanimously on voice vote. Every member of the House had the opportunity to read the bill before the final vote which passed easily. Later that day, the Senate voted unanimously to concur with the House amendments. Republican and Democratic leadership all voted for the bill as amended. If any have second thoughts, it����ap on them.

Krista L. Kafer is a weekly Denver Post columnist. Follow her on Twitter: @kristakafer.

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Making matters worse, the chair of the struggling Republican Party sent out an official email from the state party’s email announcing he would run for one of the newly vacant seats … while continuing to serve as party chair.

Dave Williams’ announcement that he will run for Doug Lamborn’s Congressional District 5 was sent using state party resources and included a postscript about how he wouldn’t do the things he just did: “The Party and its leaders will ensure fairness and transparency while avoiding any conflicts of interest as more competitors enter the CD5 race. I will do everything possible to ensure the State Party Bylaws are followed.”

I look forward to Williams’ emails from the party announcing the candidacy of every other person deciding to run for the highly desirable El Paso County seat in Congress. You know, to be fair and transparent.

Rumors are that prominent Republicans in Colorado Springs are mulling over making a bid for Congress to fill Lamborn’s seat, including former Secretary of State Wayne Williams, radio host Jeff Crank, state Senate Minority Leader Paul Lundeen, Assistant House Minority Leader Rose Pugliese, and former state Rep. Dan Nordberg who went on to work for the Trump administration in the Small Business Association. In my humble opinion, any of those candidates would be better for America and the district than Williams.

One of the most important jobs of a state GOP is to ensure it doesn’t poison the general election well for Republican candidates in a tough primary. There’s no need to attack one candidate or pick another if both will pull for the party if they win, but the party seems to have abandoned that motto under Williams. The party is now in disarray, especially in the last decade.

Ironically, the Republican Party thrived under former chairman Ryan Call, who was chairman from 2011 to 2015 and picked up statewide and national seats for the party in key victories. Call has been disbarred since, following a public settlement revealing he took $278,000 from a pro-Trump PAC in the years after he had stepped down as chair.

Not even when party chairman Steve House accused the then-sitting Republican attorney general of blackmailing him in 2015 was there concern the party could completely collapse in Colorado, failing to provide critical resources to candidates on the ballot.

U.S. Rep. Ken Buck, one of the incumbents leaving office this year, ran the Republican Party for a year, stepping up in a time of chaos to try and stop the bleeding of the Republican Party. In March of 2020, he noted that Republicans had suffered a shellacking at the ballot box and new leadership was needed to make sure Republican incumbent U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner could remain in office. As we all remember, that fall, Gardner was defeated by Sen. John Hickenlooper, a Democrat, by a wide margin.

Kristi Burton Brown tried her best to navigate the party’s divide. On one side, pro-Trump hardliners demanded actions to support Trump’s claims that he is still the rightful president two years after he lost to President Joe Biden in a free and fair election. On the other side, were moderate Republicans just hoping the party could move on from the mess left in the wake of Trump.

Burton Brown failed to unite the party, which was not surprising given the revelations that shortly before she ran the Republican Party, — a group that not only supported Trump’s unsubstantiated claims that the 2020 election was rigged by the election hardware and software company Dominion but also is associated with a militia group.

But even Burton Brown wasn’t extreme enough.

She was replaced by Dave Williams, who has since accused her of malfeasance while running the party. An anonymous group put Burton Brown on the RINO (Republican in Name Only) Hall of Shame, echoing the accusations that came from Williams and the party.

Remember what I said at the very beginning about the important job Williams has to make sure he doesn’t poison the well for Republicans? Well, Burton Brown isn’t the only victim of Williams’ attacks.

He also, in a rare move by any state party , sent out official party communications critical of Rep. Doug Lamborn, the retiring congressman that Willaims is now trying to replace.

“Colorado Republicans are fed up with say-anything politicians like Doug Lamborn who say one thing to gain power but then do the opposite when they think no one is paying attention,” Williams wrote in an email sent to the Republican Party’s list in June with the subject line, “Fake conservatives sold you out.”

I used to warn people about drinking the Donald Trump Kool-aid and finding themselves drowning in the former president’s lies. But not even the water is safe in the Colorado Republican Party’s drinking well.

Megan Schrader is the editor of The Denver Post opinion pages. Contact her at mschrader@denverpost.com.

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The latest federal numbers on the industry also show that Colorado’s outdoor economy grew by 19.9% last year, the sixth largest increase nationwide.

For the first time since the has released data on outdoor recreation, the industry’s sales crossed the $1 trillion mark.

“This is a historic day for the outdoor economy,” Chris Perkins, vice president of programs at said in a Nov. 17 news conference.

Perkins said ORR, a national coalition that represents more than 110,000 outdoor businesses, had a sense from members’ reports and anecdotes that 2022 was a good year. The federal numbers released last week confirm that, he said.

The recreation covered by the economic review includes bicycling, boating, hiking, fishing, hunting and snow sports. Other outdoor activities focus on motorcycles, all-terrain and recreational vehicles.

The Bureau of Economic Analysis in the Commerce Department issued its first-ever report about the outdoor recreation industry in 2018. Former Colorado Sen. Cory Gardner was a sponsor of the legislation that directed the Commerce Department to issue the report, which goes out annually.

Jessica Turner, president of ORR, said the economic numbers help buttress the industry’s efforts to gain congressional support for money and new policies aimed at growing the outdoor recreation economy.

“I think we’ve always known that this industry is special. It connects people with nature. It makes them healthy and happy. It connects people with family and friends,” Turner said. “But having the actual economic data that takes our industry from a nice-to-have on the weekends to a need-to-have for community jobs has been transformational.”

The new federal analysis found that outdoor recreation supported almost 5 million jobs nationwide, or 3.2%, of U.S employees, in 2022. The numbers in Colorado were 129,773 employees for 4.3% of the state workforce and roughly $6.9 billion in wages.

“We are grateful to the BEA for gathering this data showing clearly that the outdoor industry is a critical economic driver and source of jobs for both Colorado and the country,” Conor Hall, director of , said in a statement.

Hall said the state continues to promote stewardship, more equitable access to the outdoors, a healthy workforce and “sustainable growth of the industry.”

Many outdoor businesses were hurt when the coronavirus pandemic first hit because ski resorts, campgrounds and other venues were closed or restricted. Manufacturing of equipment, boats and other goods were affected.

But outdoor recreation boomed in Colorado and across the country during the height of the pandemic when COVID-19 restrictions limited other activities. In the summer of 2020, the Outdoor Recreation Roundtable pitched outdoor recreation as a way to help rejuvenate the economy.

And recreation organizations and advocates continue to champion outdoor recreation as a means of diversifying local economies, especially in rural areas. has passed the U.S. Senate and is scheduled to be heard Nov. 30 by the House Natural Resources Committee.

The legislation would, among several things, invest in modernizing campgrounds; increase access to public lands for recreation; and provide technical and financial  help to rural communities near recreation areas.

Turner with the recreation roundtable said the act includes proposals for reservation and data systems to better manage recreation sites.

“We need better policies and better management tools to ensure that the overused, highly visited places are getting the management they need to control that and help with resources and that the underused, amazing landscapes that people don’t know about are getting visitation,” Turner with the recreation roundtable said.

Updated at 10 a.m. Nov. 23 to correct amount of wages of the outdoor recreation industry in Colorado in  2022.

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This video, , was caught on one of the Viaero network cameras on the Eastern Plains

At least one tornado — and possibly two — touched down in Yuma County on Tuesday evening and churned up debris, causing damage south of Yuma but sparing buildings in the town center, authorities said Wednesday morning.

A vortex ripped the roof off a house south of town with a family inside and leveled outbuildings, said. The people were rescued, and no injuries were reported. Multiple power lines were torn down, Moore said, adding that he believes two tornadoes may have touched down around 4:50 p.m.

“It would be very complicated to have a tornado such as that hit a city. I was watching and worried. Thankfully we avoided most of the damage in town,” he said. “The family was removed by emergency personnel. No injuries. We are very fortunate. People are moving about as normal.”

We are in the basement. This is no joke get in your basement and take cover. Taken by Jim Pagel north of Yuma. Southwest of his home.

— Cory Gardner (@CoryGardner)

Storms in the area dropped hail, including what appears to be a record-large hailstone.

In Yuma’s, officials confirmed no major damage in town but said crews were surveying damage south of Yuma.

“We are good here in town. There was damage about a mile south of town. But it did not come through town,” Yuma Police Department administrator Abby Keefe said Wednesday morning.

A tornado touched down at 7:26 p.m. about 8 miles south of in southern Yuma County, Boulder-based National Weather Service meteorologist Scott Entrekin said. Idalia, with a population of 97, is located 15 miles from Colorado’s border with Kansas in south Yuma County.

In her home in Idalia Tuesday night, school secretary Joni Dutton didn’t notice extreme weather.

“I know that there were some warnings,” Dutton said Wednesday morning. “The hail here was not bad. Some other areas got hit a bit harder.”

A weather service team from the NWS office in Goodland, Kansas, was surveying the tornado path and damage and believes “probably more than one” hit, Goodland-based meteorologist Jerry Killingsworth said. “We don’t have any information back yet. I’ve not heard of lives lost or injuries.”

on Wednesday morning said no additional damage information was available.

Fell on Highway 36 about 8 miles ENE of Kirk, Colorado just as tornado was developing

— Dan Fitts (@Dan_Fitts)

At 7:22 p.m., record hail measuring 5 inches in diameter was reported in the area — “the size of canned hams,” Entrekin said. That will force an adjustment of the NWS measurement scale that compares hail stone diameters to familiar objects.

“It will probably be declared a new record hail size for Colorado,” he said. “ ‘Grapefruit-size’ is the biggest we have on our scale, for hail 4.5 inches in diameter. We don’t have anything for 5 inches. They will have to make a new category.”

During the storms, former U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner took cover in his home’s basement and to advise other residents to do the same.

It was the latest of several tornados that have touched down in Colorado this year. More are possible this summer.

“We’re not out of the severe weather season yet,” Entrekin said. “But chances go lower as we get into August and September.”