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.”

But Sergei Matveyuk, an antiques repairman from Golden and the GOP contender for the seat in the Nov. 5 election, urges voters not to count him out in his battle with incumbent Brittany Pettersen. The first-term Democratic congresswoman is seeking reelection.

“People are hurting economically,” Matveyuk, 57, told The Denver Post. “They want someone who feels the pain.”

He’s running in a once-battleground district that has turned decidedly blue in the last decade or so, with Democratic former Rep. Ed Perlmutter winning election eight times running, until his retirement announcement in 2022 ushered in an open race.

Pettersen, 42, a former state lawmaker from Lakewood, won the 2022 election by 16 percentage points over Republican Army veteran Erik Aadland. The bulk of the district’s electorate calls left-leaning Jefferson and Broomfield counties home, while redder areas in the district — such as Teller, Custer and Fremont counties — simply don’t have the populations to give Matveyuk a sizable boost.

As of Sept. 30, Pettersen had raised more than $2.2 million this cycle, compared to about $35,000 collected by Matveyuk, . There are two minor party candidates on the ballot this time: Former state lawmaker Ron Tupa is running on the Unity Party of Colorado ticket, while Patrick Bohan is running as the Libertarian candidate.

Matveyuk, a political neophyte, said that as a small business owner, the historically high inflation of the last two years has hurt those like him who are particularly sensitive to escalating prices. But it’s his personal story that he thinks will resonate with voters in the current political climate, in which border policy has taken center stage. Matveyuk, who is of Polish descent, and his family left the Soviet Bloc in the late 1980s, after experiencing life under communist rule, and immigrated to the United States.

“As an immigrant myself, I know how hard it is to start a new life — but it has to be legal,” he said.

Matveyuk doesn’t echo former President Donald Trump’s calls for mass deportations but says migrants who “are hurting our people and committing crimes need to be deported, for sure.”

“We need immigration reform — 40 years ago we had a regulated border and now we have a porous border,” he said.

According to through August, there have been more than 8.6 million migrant “encounters” at the southern U.S. border since President Joe Biden took office in 2021. That influx has prompted many big city mayors across the country, including Denver Mayor Mike Johnston, to cut city services to pay for migrant housing and plead for help from the federal government.

Pettersen acknowledged that the U.S. asylum system is “absolutely outdated.” But many of the arriving migrants are filling jobs that businesses in the district, like nursing homes, are desperate to staff, she said.

Making people wait years before getting work permits is an unworkable policy, Pettersen said.

“We don’t have the people in the U.S. to meet our economic needs,” she said. “We need legal pathways based on economic need.”

Though Pettersen is in the minority party in the U.S. House, a bill she sponsored was recently signed into law by Biden. It directs the federal government to study and report on illicit financing associated with synthetic drug trafficking.

Last month, she introduced a bill that seeks to incentivize more states to offer substance use treatment through Medicaid, six years after she sponsored a bill in the state House requiring Colorado to provide that care. Pettersen has often spoken publicly of the struggles her mother faced battling opioid addiction.

If reelected, she said in The Denver Post’s candidate questionnaire that she would work to protect abortion rights and to address the opioid epidemic. Her top priority would be “modernizing our tax code to rebuild the middle class.”

“We need to lower costs by reinvesting in access to affordable housing, childcare, health care, and higher education,” she wrote.

“This week has been interesting,” Walz told roughly 150 attendees in the backyard of the 33,000-square-foot Phipps Mansion, owned by Democratic megadonor Tim Gill. “That����ap a Minnesota word, ‘interesting’ — so you Minnesotans know, it has multiple meanings.”

He recounted being selected by Harris last week and then soon being put on a plane to a rally in Philadelphia — where he was told: “Here, you’ve got 45 minutes to read this speech off the teleprompter.”

“Perhaps I neglected to tell you,” Walz recounted to laughs and cheers, “I’ve never used a teleprompter in my life.”

The fundraiser was part of Walz’s first solo trip since joining the Harris ticket, a three-day, five-state swing. During his 15-minute speech in Denver in the early afternoon, Walz praised Harris’ “politics of kindness” and joked with Gov. Jared Polis, his former congressional counterpart and baseball teammate.

He also criticized Trump, the Republican nominee, drawing a contrast between Harris’ background — both as a prosecutor and as a former McDonald’s employee — and the former president’s.

Walz said he recently asked labor leaders in California if they could see Trump making a McFlurry. He paraphrased a Harris rally line, saying the vice president had gone after “fraudsters” and “predators,” adding: “We know who that might be.”

He said there was “no safety net” when speaking in front of the large crowds that are common on a presidential campaign trail.

Polis, who’d introduced him, chimed in: “Are you saying they’re not all AI?”

That was in recent days — that the Harris campaign had used artificial intelligence to inflate crowd sizes in a picture from a recent campaign stop in Michigan.

“I assure you, in Detroit, that wasn’t AI, and I’ll also assure you that every one of the ballots they’re going to cast will not be AI,” Walz replied, to cheers.

Trump was recently in Colorado, making a stop in Aspen Saturday during a multistate Mountain West swing that he said raised $28 million. Since Harris picked Walz, Republicans have focused their attacks most heavily on of National Guard service, but little was said about the topic at the Denver fundraiser.

The $3 million raised for the Harris Victory Fund on Wednesday was announced by Gill. Also in attendance were former U.S. Reps. John Salazar and Ed Perlmutter, current U.S. Rep. Joe Neguse, Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold, former Denver Mayor Wellington Webb and former state House Speaker Alec Garnett, now Polis’ chief of staff.

Walz spoke broadly about Democratic priorities and ideals — like supporting “common-sense gun legislation” and addressing climate change and poverty — though he provided few specific policy proposals.

Polis said he’d told Walz not to spend any campaign cash on winning Colorado, which has turned reliably blue in recent years and went for Biden by 13.5 percentage points over Trump in 2020. Polis said Harris and Walz’s presence on the ticket would be enough to support Democrats’ down-ballot efforts, meaning to preserve a state House supermajority and win a similar margin in the state Senate.

Still, Walz urged attendees to keep working in the 83 days that remained until Election Day.

“Sleep when you’re dead,” he said.

Holland & Knight bills itself as one of the top 10 federal lobbying and law firms in Washington, D.C. The division Perlmutter is joining has more than 100 lawyers and other professionals who engage in federal, state, and local government affairs and regulatory counseling.

“I’m excited to build new Colorado opportunities while remaining close to Capitol Hill and look forward to assisting our clients by leveraging the knowledge I’ve gained and the relationships I continue to nurture in both government and in business,” Perlmutter said in a statement.

Perlmutter served on four House committees during his final term in Congress, including the Financial Services Committee and the Science, Space and Technology Committee. Before serving in Congress, he spent eight years in the Colorado Senate.

Perlmutter announced a year ago that he would step down from his Jefferson County-centered congressional seat in January 2023. Former State Sen. Brittany Pettersen, a Democrat from Lakewood, was elected in November to represent the district.

The recommendation, made to the Department of Justice at the panel’s final meeting, does not guarantee Trump will face charges. But it is a historic recommendation by the bipartisan panel.

The recommended charges include aiding an insurrection, conspiracy to make a false statement for the scheme to put forward fake electors, conspiracy to defraud the United States and obstructing an official proceeding. The panel also recommended lawyer John Eastman, a former visiting scholar of conservative thought and policy at the University of Colorado Boulder, face the latter two charges.

The Denver Post asked Colorado’s federal lawmakers for reaction. Below are their comments in full.

U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet

“I’m grateful to the bipartisan committee that showed that no one is above the law — not even a former president.”

U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper

Did not respond.

U.S. Diana DeGette, D-Denver

“This is an unprecedented moment for our country. Never before has Congress referred a former president to the Department of Justice for criminal prosecution, but never before has a former president incited a violent insurrection to overturn the results of a legitimate election.

“The evidence presented is overwhelming. President Trump put himself above the country he swore to protect. He launched a deadly, brazen attack on the U.S. Capitol building to remain in power against the will of the people. There is no higher crime against our democracy. There is no greater betrayal of the public’s trust than what President Trump did that day.

“For the future sake of our democracy, he must be held accountable. No one in this country is above the law, not even former presidents.”

U.S. Rep. Joe Neguse, D-Lafayette

“The attack on the U.S. Capitol — our citadel of liberty — on January 6th, 2021 was a devastating day for our republic. I am deeply grateful to Chairman Thompson and the members of the Select Committee for their work in investigating the terrible events of that day and former President Trump’s efforts to subvert the peaceful transfer of power. I look forward to reviewing the committee’s full report, as we must learn from what the committee has shared with the country and do everything we can to ensure that what happened on January 6th never happens again.”

U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Silt

Did not respond.

U.S. Rep. Ken Buck, R-Windsor

Did not respond.

U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn, R-Colorado Springs

Did not respond.

U.S. Rep. Jason Crow, D-Aurora

“In America nobody is above the law. Donald Trump attempted to overturn the will of the people and prevent the peaceful transition of power. It����ap a crime and he should be held accountable. I look forward to the Department of Justice examining the evidence referred by the January 6th Committee and pursuing justice.”

U.S. Rep. Ed Perlmutter, D-Arvada

“I commend the hard work done by the Jan. 6 Select Committee, led by Chairman Thompson and Vice Chair Cheney. All of the Committee members had an incredibly difficult and tedious task to show the American people exactly what happened that terrible day and I thank them for their work. I support their findings and the action they took today.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Of the more than 335,000 ballots counted by 4:40 p.m. Wednesday, Pettersen got more than 191,000 of them to her opponent’s more than 137,000. The district, which now covers eight counties that stretch all the way south to rural Custer County in the wake of redistricting, has been held by Rep. Ed Perlmutter for the past 16 years.

Pettersen, speaking at the Colorado Democratic Party election watch party at the Art Hotel in Denver Tuesday night, said she grew up in Jefferson County. She said she would “roll up my sleeves and work across the aisle and find common ground where I can, but also we’re going to fight like hell for our shared values, making sure that we’re increasing opportunities for regular people, protecting reproductive freedom for everybody in the United States of America, and protecting our democracy.”

Calling herself “a regular person,” Pettersen said she understood “the struggle that so many people are facing right now and I’ll bring that perspective every day to fight for regular people in Congress.”

Aadland conceded to his opponent from the stage at the state GOP election night party at the DoubleTree Hotel in Greenwood Village Tuesday night.

“Now, I do want to wish my opponent, Brittany Pettersen, the greatest success,” he told a boisterous, but small, crowd dominated by his supporters after 10 p.m.

But he added: “I want her to be a great representative for the people of Colorado. I want her to serve this constituency and do the right thing. And if she doesn’t, well, we’ll be waiting. We’ll hold her accountable.”

In their analysis of the race, most national politics prognosticators have been giving the advantage to Pettersen. While the 7th district stretches across eight counties and as far south as rural Custer County , it is primarily centered on populous Jefferson and Broomfield counties, which have turned blue in recent years.

“Like many highly-educated, affluent suburban enclaves across the country, Jefferson County has moved left in recent years,” Kyle Kondik, managing editor of Sabato’s Crystal Ball, told The Denver Post earlier in the campaign. “Aadland probably needs this to become more of a GOP wave year in order to win.”

While the traditional advantage of the party out of power in the White House during mid-term elections was evident in the spring, when burgeoning inflation and talk of recession gave Republicans a boost in polls, Democrats chipped away at some of that momentum after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in late June.

Pettersen, a strong abortion rights supporter, has called her opponent “dangerously extreme” on the issue. She has also hit Aadland over comments he has made questioning the results of the 2020 election, a contest he characterized as “rigged” last year.

Aadland has tried to paint Pettersen as soft on crime as crime has spiked across Colorado and the nation. He has tied her support for a 2019 bill that downgraded the charge against those caught with small amounts of fentanyl and other drugs as a contributor to the record 912 people who died of fentanyl poisoning in Colorado last year.

Pettersen, who served in the Colorado House for six years before moving to the Senate in 2020, defended her record on opioid abuse.

“I have been working and leading on this issue for the last seven years because of my experience fighting to save my mom’s life from an opioid addiction in a decimated system,” she told The Denver Post.

Pettersen holds a substantial fundraising lead over her opponent, according to recent filings with the Federal Election Commission. She has taken in $2.4 million in the 2022 election cycle compared to $1.2 million for Aadland.

Millions of dollars more have been spent on the race by outside political groups.

RESULTS: Click here to see a list of Colorado’s full election results for the 2022 midterms.

10:14 p.m. Democrats are poised to hold on to the majority of seats on the Colorado State Board of Education — results show Republicans are trailing in races for seats they’d need to flip.

10:10 p.m. Democrat Yadira Caraveo is holding a narrow lead over Republican State Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer in the race for Colorado’s 8th Congressional District.

10:02 p.m. Voters are split almost exactly down the middle on whether grocery and convenience stores should be allowed to sell wine, with 50.1% in favor and 49.9% against.

9:54 p.m. Proposition 122, a measure to legalize medicinal psychedelics, remains too close to call, with 51% of voters in favor and 44% against in the latest returns.

9:47 p.m. Democrat Joe Neguse won a third term in Colorado’s 2nd Congressional District after surging ahead of Republican Marshall Dawson early and holding onto an insurmountable lead.

9:45 p.m. Democratic incumbent Jena Griswold claimed victory in the race for Colorado’s Secretary of State and Republican candidate Pam Anderson conceded.

9:40 p.m. Treasurer Dave Young won re-election over Republican challenger Lang Sias, winning what was considered the most vulnerable statewide seat held by Democrats.

9:30 p.m. The race between incumbent U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert and challenger Adam Frisch for Colorado’s massive 3rd Congressional District is too close to call, with Frisch holding a narrow lead.

9:27 p.m. Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser retained his seat, defeating John Kellner, the Republican prosecutor challenging him, by 11 percentage points.

9:25 p.m. Democratic State Sen. Brittany Pettersen won the race for Colorado’s 7th Congressional District, defeating Army veteran Erik Aadland.

9:20 p.m. Eight-term U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn won reelection by defeating Democratic challenger David Torres.

9:14 p.m. Rep. Diana DeGette won a 14th term representing Colorado’s First District in Congress, handily defeating political newcomer Jennifer Qualteri.

9:10 p.m. Democratic incumbent Rep. Jason Crow won a third term representing Colorado’s 6th Congressional District. He defeated Republican challenger Steve Monahan.

9:03 p.m. Republican incumbent Rep. Ken Buck won the race to keep his seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, defeating Democratic opponent Ike McCorkle.

8:52 p.m. Colorado voters were favoring, early, Proposition FF, which would provide the state’s students with free school meals — no matter their families’ incomes.

8:45 p.m. Early voters looked down, 61% — or 890,403 votes — against Amendment F, a measure to open up bingo and raffle games for charitable purposes to newer nonprofits.

8:40 p.m. Eight-term U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn leads Democratic challenger David Torres in early election returns; of the more than 186,000 ballots counted as of 8:13 p.m., Lamborn had 56% with more than 103,000 of the votes.

8:33 p.m. Colorado Proposition 123, a measure to redirect 0.1% of state income tax revenues toward a range of affordable housing efforts, held a slight lead in early results.

8:31 p.m. U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet wins his reelection bid, setting him up to be one of the longest-serving senators in the state’s history. As of about 8 p.m. Tuesday, Bennet led Republican candidate Joe O’Dea with 801,025 votes to 591,434. About 1.4 million had been tallied.

8:27 p.m. State Sen. Brittany Pettersen jumped out to an early, decisive lead in the race for Colorado’s 7th Congressional District, as preliminary results showed her with a 22% edge — 60% to 38% — on Republican challenger and Army veteran Erik Aadland.

8:23 p.m. Colorado Proposition 124, to allow Colorado liquor license holders the ability to expand the number of storefronts they can operate, was trailing early Tuesday night after the initial batches of vote were counted.

8:19 p.m. Democrat Yadira Caraveo has a tight lead over Republican State Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer in the race for Colorado’s 8th Congressional District.

8:00 p.m. Gov. Jared Polis is declared winner in a convincing and expected re-election victory over challenger Heidi Ganahl.

7:31 p.m. Colorado’s Proposition 122, which would legalize psilocybin, with about 54% of the vote as of 7:13 p.m. Just 13% of the state’s votes have been tallied so far, the Secretary of State’s Office reported.

7:28 p.m. U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert took an early lead over challenger Adam Frisch for Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District race. Early and unofficial election results show that Boebert, Republican of Silt, leading Frisch, Democrat of Aspen, 53% to 47% as of 7:20 p.m., Tuesday.

So far, 89,962 votes have been counted, .

7 p.m. Election officials across Colorado closed their polling places at 7 p.m. and the Secretary of State’s Office will soon release their first round of vote counts for races across the state. Early results are unofficial and the Secretary of State’s Office will update their counts regularly throughout the evening.

Keep in mind that in Colorado, early rounds of election results reflect early in-person voting and mail ballots received before Election Day. The results of those who voted on Election Day, or mail ballots received on Election Day, come later.

6:44 p.m. Former White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders will serve as the next governor of Arkansas, . Huckabee Sanders, a Republican, took the seat in a landslide victory (with more than 72% of the vote) against Democrat Chris Jones.

6:34 p.m. A quick series of firsts: Democrat Wes Moore after winning his bid against Republican Dan Cox. Moore will be the third Black governor to head any state in the country.

Twenty-five-year-old Democrat Maxwell Alejandro Frost won a seat in Florida’s 10th Congressional District against Republican Calvin Wimbish, . Frost will be the first Generation Z representative elected to Congress.

And finally, Democrat Maura Healey against Republican Geoff Diehl, which will make her the country’s first openly lesbian governor in the country.

6:13 p.m. If you’re twiddling your thumbs Tuesday night waiting for the polls to close, here’s a quick list of 10 interesting races to watch in Colorado. The results of these races could help determine who controls Congress, whether new state programs are authorized or eliminated and whether the state’s income tax falls or stays the same.

6:06 p.m. Florida’s incumbent Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis won another term in Tuesday’s election over his Democratic challenger and former (Republican) Florida Governor Charlie Crist, the Associated Press reported.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican Ron DeSantis wins reelection for governor in Florida.

— Michael Tackett (@tackettdc)

5:59 p.m. Multiple voting centers in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, will remain open until 10 p.m., after a paper shortage affected the voting precincts, .

People across the country are watching the between Democratic Lt. Gov. John Fetterman and Republican television personality Mehmet Oz as a possible indication as to which party will control the upper chamber in Congress in the coming term.

5:48 p.m. With just over an hour before polls close in Colorado, Denver election officials are warning that people hoping to cast their ballots in-person at the Emily Griffith Technical College location can expect waits longer than 70 minutes. The closest alternative voting centers are at West High School, Saint John’s Cathedral and the Glenarm Rec Center, the Denver Clerk and Recorder’s Office tweeted.

UPDATE: Wait times at Emily Griffith are exceeding 70 minutes. Please plan to vote at an alternate location.

— Denver Elections (@DenverElections)

5:43 p.m. Two time zones ahead of Colorado, election officials in Florida have already counted more than 2 million ballots, . The experts there are expecting a good night for Republicans and so far incumbent GOP Sen. Marco Rubio is holding a slight lead over his Democratic challenger Val Demings.

5:20 p.m.   Ballots are still coming in to county clerks across Colorado and voters have until 7 p.m. when the polls close. An early report from Secretary of State Jena Griswold’s office said that as of 3:30 p.m., a total of 2,039,527 ballots had been returned.

Typically the vast well before election day, though many still prefer to vote in person.

Background about Colorado’s 2022 midterms

Historically speaking, the party in power but these are not ordinary times.

Democrats across the country are hoping to defend their majorities in Congress from vowing to reverse major initiatives passed during the first two years of President Joe Biden’s term.

In Colorado, most of the higher-profile races don’t necessarily appear primed for major upsets. The state is peppered with incumbents – both Democrats and Republicans – running to hold their seats. Those include Gov. Jared Polis�����Ի� U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet, looking to stave off challenges from Republicans Heidi Ganahl and Joe O’Dea, respectively.

In addition, six of the state’s seven U.S. representatives are seeking reelection. Democratic Reps. Jason Crow, Diana DeGette and Joe Neguse alongside Republican Reps. Lauren Boebert, Ken Buck and Doug Lamborn, all appear to have the advantage in their races.

Of those races, Boebert����ap caught the most national attention as her Democratic challenger, Adam Frisch, has raked in millions in campaign contributions in his quest to flip the district.

The big unknowns for Colorado’s congressional races rest with Democratic state Sen. Brittany Pettersen and Republican businessman Erik Aadland, who are both vying to replace Democratic Rep. Ed Perlmutter in Colorado’s 7th Congressional District, who did not seek reelection. And then Republican State Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer and Democratic state Rep. Yadira Caraveo are both running to be the first representative elected to Colorado’s newly created 8th Congressional District.

Colorado Republicans are also hoping to retake control of one – or both – chambers of the statehouse, though the party has suffered from infighting in recent years, followed by a trail of controversy and even the recent death of its House Minority Leader, Hugh McKean, late last month.

A slew of statewide ballot measures are also on the table, which propose to do everything from legalizing psilocybin mushrooms and allowing grocery stores to sell wine to cutting the state’s income tax and adding funding for affordable housing.

Broadly speaking Democrats across the country face the challenge of holding on to the hard-fought ground they won in 2020. On the other hand, Republicans are struggling to confront the most extreme members of their party, led by former President Donald Trump, who continues to spread misinformation and falsehoods about the country’s election security.

For those seeking centrist candidates, hoping to avoid the extremes of progressive spending programs on the left or the election-fraud boogeymen on the right, the U.S. House District 7 race may not be a comfortable vote.

But there is a correct vote — Brittany Pettersen.

Pettersen, a state senator and Democrat, is facing off with political newcomer Erik Aadland, a Republican and veteran, for the 7th Congressional District. The district, spanning the northern portion of Jefferson County north and east into Adams County, has been represented for seven terms by Democrat Ed Perlmutter, who is retiring.

Pettersen brings 10 years of experience working as a state lawmaker. We hope she will take her passion for solving issues with actionable legislation to Congress, but also remembers her ideas take money.

She is a champion for the underserved. Petterson sponsored the state’s Equal Pay for Equal Work Act, which brought greater transparency to job postings and wages, and she helped pass Colorado’s Red Flag law. She fought for the Secure Savings Act that created a state-managed Roth IRA retirement system to help the estimated 940,000 workers whose employers do not offer a 401k savings plan.

Pettersen’s experience and focus will make her an effective legislator at the national level. She is brimming with specific, actionable ideas for how to tackle the fentanyl crisis and how to help students afford college. She wants to fix small things like allowing students whose parents have failed to pay taxes to be eligible for federal student loans.

A native Coloradan, she grew up modestly in Jefferson County. She is open about her mother’s struggle with addiction, resulting from a back injury when Brittany Petterson was only 6. Pettersen said she wants to push for Medicaid to cover addiction treatment, including eliminating waiting lists for programs and increasing the length of time that the insurance covers detox and addiction treatment.

Aadland is a West Point graduate and served as an Army captain with tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, earning two bronze stars. After leaving the military, he served as a project manager for Noble Energy and obtained a master’s degree in psychology with a focus on helping fellow veterans.

His top priorities are reducing inflation and stemming the flood of fentanyl coming across the southern border. He said he would accomplish the first by reducing federal spending and the second by increasing border security. Aadland has been most critical of a bipartisan bill Pettersen voted for in 2019 that reduced criminal penalties in Colorado for the possession of small amounts of drugs, including fentanyl.

Pettersen led the way last year to add penalties back to fentanyl possession in an effort to strike a balance between not criminalizing addiction and recognizing that extremely small amounts of fentanyl can kill a large number of people. The bill did not go nearly far enough for some, but we felt it struck a good balance.

Our concerns about Aadland representing District 7 cover both his policies and his rhetoric. He opposes Red Flag laws and opposes a national effort to protect a woman’s right to abortion (he also said he would oppose all national bans on abortion). And, he has been willing to contribute to the misinformation about the validity of the 2020 presidential election.

Aadland did not cast aspersions on the 2020 election during his endorsement meeting and talked of his desire to help bring America back together. But in a video posted by a Jefferson County Republican group and later removed, Aadland said the 2020 election was “absolutely rigged” and tells the audience, “if you do enough looking into it, I think you will be convinced.” The entirety of Aadland’s statements were not available, but Colorado Newsline preserved edited clips of the video online.

Aadland says he is “looking forward” from those statements that were made in June 2021 and said he is “not denying Biden is the president.”

“Both parties have called into question the integrity of our elections over several elections cycles,” he said. “We have got to make sure Americans have confidence that their votes count.”

In short, we agree with Pettersen’s assessment of the need to tread carefully politically: “I think the demonizing of others is incredibly unproductive, but there are also very big threats and risks with certain individuals being in positions of power.”

Editor’s Note: Megan Schrader, the editor of The Post’s editorial pages, recused herself from voting on and writing the endorsement for House District 7 because Pettersen’s husband, Ian Silverii, has written opinion columns for The Post.

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1st Congressional District (Denver area)

U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette held on to her seat Tuesday night as she defeated a primary challenge from Neal Walia, a Democrat and first-time candidate.

Unofficial results from the Secretary of State’s Office on Tuesday showed DeGette with 84% of the vote. DeGette, whose district covers the left-leaning Denver area, will face Republican Jennifer Qualteri in the November general election.

Qualteri was the only Republican who ran for her party’s nomination in the race.

DeGette is Colorado’s longest-serving congressperson, having been first elected to her seat in 1997.

2nd Congressional District (North Front Range)

There was little action in the 2nd Congressional District’s primary election Tuesday, with uncontested races on both the Democratic and Republican tickets.

Rep. Joe Neguse, the Democratic incumbent since 2019, will face off against Republican Marshall Dawson, a tech worker who has worked for IBM and now works for Advanced Micro Devices, in November.

The 2nd Congressional District, which includes famously liberal Boulder, has voted reliably Democratic for years. Gov. Jared Polis held Neguse’s seat for a decade before moving into the governor’s mansion.

There are nearly twice as many registered Democrats as Republicans in the district and Dawson will have an uphill battle prevailing against Neguse, who is Colorado’s first African American congressman, this fall.

3rd Congressional District (Western Slope)

U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert appears to have warded off a primary challenge from Republican state Sen. Don Coram for the sprawling Western Slope district, which also covers Pueblo.

Unofficial results from the Secretary of State’s Office showed Boebert, of Silt, with 64.52% of the vote. Boebert, who is running for a second term in Congress, appears likely to face Democratic challenger Adam Frisch in the November general election.

Frisch, a former Aspen City Council member, holds 43.76% of the vote in a three-way race. Sol Sandoval holds 40.3% and Alex Walker holds 15.94%, results at 10 p.m. show.

4th Congressional District (Eastern Plains)

Incumbent Congressman Ken Buck, a Windsor Republican, easily won the Republican nomination for what could be his fifth term, having first taken office in 2015.

The former Weld County district attorney received 75% of the vote, according to unofficial results Tuesday night, while his Republican opponent Robert Lewis received 25%. Lewis has been active in Republican politics in Elbert County and owns a brokerage. He was nominated for the seat by the Colorado GOP at its assembly and convention where he received 62% of the vote.

Buck will now face Democrat Isaac McCorkle in the 4th Congressional District race in November for a seat that is firmly Republican. The district covers most of the Eastern Plains, some of Douglas County, and cities between Greeley and Fort Collins.

5th Congressional District (Colorado Springs area)

U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn has fended off challengers from his right to win the GOP nomination for his seat. The Associated Press called the race for Lamborn, who is seeking his ninth term in Congress, just before 8 p.m. Unofficial results show Lamborn with 49.15% of the vote.

He faced a crowded primary that included state Rep. Dave Williams, Andrew Heaton and Rebecca Keltie. Lamborn will face either Michael Colombe or David Torres in November. As of 10 p.m., Torres held 54.40% of the vote.

The district, which covers the Colorado Springs area, is heavily Republican.

Lamborn was one of two Colorado members of Congress to object to certifying President Joe Biden’s election, the other being U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert. Nonetheless, Williams positioned himself to the right of Lamborn, with aims of being a “wrecking ball” in Washington, D.C., according to Colorado Public Radio.

6th Congressional District (Aurora and south Denver metro)

Colorado’s 6th district was a quiet affair Tuesday, with both the Republican and Democratic slates featuring uncontested races.

Rep. Jason Crow, the Democratic incumbent, will face off against Steven Monahan, a 20-year Naval aviator who serves in the Navy reserves, in November.

Crow, himself a former Army Ranger who served three tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan, has represented the 6th Congressional District for 3 1/2 years. He defeated Republican Mike Coffman, who now serves as Aurora’s mayor, in 2018 after Coffman held the seat for a decade.

7th Congressional District (Jefferson and Broomfield counties into central Colorado)

Erik Aadland was leading a field of three for the Republican nomination for this congressional district centered on Jefferson County. As of 10 p.m., Aadland had 48% of the vote, to Tim Reichert’s 36% and Laurel Imer’s 16%.

The winner will face state Sen. Brittany Pettersen, a Democrat. This is an open seat to replace retiring U.S. Rep. Ed Perlmutter, a Democrat. JOHN

8th Congressional District (Commerce City and Thornton into Greeley)

State Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer won Tuesday night in the fight for the Republican nomination in Colorado’s first new congressional district in 20 years — Congressional District 8.

Kirkmeyer, a long-time fixture in Weld County politics, had nearly 41% of the vote to 23% for her next closest rival, Thornton Mayor Jan Kulmann. Weld County Commissioner Lori Saine had about 20% of the vote while former Army Special Forces Green Beret Tyler Allcorn had nearly 17% as of 10 p.m.

The Associated Press called her the winner shortly after 8 p.m. Kirkmeyer will face state Rep. Yadira Caraveo, a Democrat, in November. Caraveo was unchallenged in the Democratic primary.

Congressional District 8 is Colorado’s newest, created last year to account for the state’s population growth over the last decade. It stretches from the Adams County suburbs north of Denver to Greeley in Weld County, with a little sliver of Larimer County inside its borders as well.

The program creates a multi-agency team — with members from law enforcement, the 17th Judicial District Attorney’s Office, victim services providers, the housing authority, probation and human services — that will aim to identify and help victims of domestic violence soon after police are alerted to a violent situation.

Victims will be referred to the Domestic Violence High Risk Team by police after officers respond to potential domestic violence incidents and screen victims for their future risk of suffering additional domestic violence, according to the 17th Judicial District Attorney’s Office. The team will meet weekly and seek to support referred victims within days of the initial incident.

“This high-risk team is set up to identify domestic violence victims early and get them the wraparound services that they need to keep them away from their abusers and to keep them off the autopsy table,” 17th Judicial District Attorney Brian Mason said during a news conference Monday.

The team’s response to victims is not dependent on a criminal prosecution; victims can be helped even if no arrest is made in the case or the victim doesn’t cooperate with prosecutors.

The pilot program has been operating in Thornton since February, and the team has received an average of two to four referrals each week, district attorney spokesman Chris Hopper said. That jumped to between two and six weekly referrals after Brighton was added to the pilot, he said.

The $2 million grant will allow the involved agencies to hire additional staff and expand the program across both counties. The funding will last for about 18 months, at which point the counties can take over the program’s costs, Hopper said. Mason on Monday thanked Congressmen Jason Crow, Ed Perlmutter and Joe Neguse for working together to secure the federal grant.

“When you get the three of us on the same page, there is no stopping anything,” Perlmutter said.

Thornton police Chief Terrence Gordon said during Monday’s news conference that he believes a different approach like the multi-agency team is necessary to effectively disrupt the cycle of domestic violence.

“In my 27 years in this profession I’ve seen two intractable issues that have not responded to traditional criminal justice efforts,” he said. “One is addiction and the other is domestic violence. The traditional respond, arrest, repeat hasn’t done anything… true solutions to these two issues and many other things can be found in the principals of this initiative that we are highlighting today, which is true collaboration.”

The new program includes representatives from Family Tree, which helps survivors of domestic violence find emergency shelter and runs a 24/7 crisis line, as well as Project Safeguard, which provides civil legal services for survivors of domestic violence, and Servicios de La Raza, a bilingual organization that helps survivors with safety planning and logistics.

“I was getting goosebumps as everyone was talking,” said Sylvia Ramos Gamboa, program director at Servicios de La Raza. “This is reality, this is the real thing… together we are stronger.”