Kirkmeyer, of Brighton, will face off against state Rep. Scott Bottoms and political newcomer Victor Marx in the June 30 Republican primary. Bottoms and Marx, both pastors who live in Colorado Springs, qualified for the ballot through the GOP state assembly on Saturday.

Bottoms, who led a wide assembly field and won support from 45% of attendees, will get the top spot in the race.

Kirkmeyer took the petition route to the ballot. She submitted more than 15,000 valid signatures, including more than 1,500 from each of Colorado’s eight congressional districts, according to the Colorado Secretary of State’s Office, which certified the signatures.

“This campaign has been built by thousands of real people, in real communities, all across Colorado,” Kirkmeyer said in a statement about her ballot qualification. “I’m incredibly grateful to everyone who took the time to sign our petition, share our message, and be part of something bigger. This is your campaign.”

The Democratic slate was mostly set at the end of March with that party’s state assembly. Attorney General Phil Weiser, who won support from more than 90% of that event����ap voting members, will face U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet, who petitioned onto the primary ballot.

Also on Wednesday, the Secretary of State’s office certified University of Colorado Regent Wanda James’s spot in a primary challenge to incumbent U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette, a Denver Democrat. Melat Kiros, a Denver lawyer who stunned DeGette by outpolling her during the county assembly in March, has also qualified for that primary race. Republicans have nominated Christy Peterson, who is unopposed.

Earlier in the week, the Secretary of State’s Office certified Hetal Doshi and Boulder County District Attorney Michael Dougherty for the Democratic primary ballot for attorney general. They will face Secretary of State Jena Griswold and attorney David Seligman in that party’s nominating contest.

Democratic and Republican primary ballots

Here are the candidates who qualified for the major-party ballots in the June 30 primary in statewide races. Voters affiliated with a party will receive its ballot in the mail in June. Unaffiliated voters can participate in primaries and will receive both parties’ ballots in the mail, but they can return only one of them.

The four state offices are all open races this year, with the incumbents term-limited.

Governor

• Democratic primary: U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet, Attorney General Phil Weiser
• Republican primary: state Rep. Scott Bottoms, state Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer, Victor Marx

Attorney general

• Republican primary: El Paso County District Attorney Michael Allen, David Willson
• Democratic primary: Hetal Doshi, Boulder County District Attorney Michael Dougherty, Secretary of State Jena Griswold, David Seligman

Secretary of state

• Democratic primary: state Sen. Jessie Danielson, Jefferson County Clerk Amanda Gonzalez
• Republican primary: James Wiley (a former Colorado Libertarian Party official), unopposed

Treasurer

• Republican primary: Fremont County Commissioner Kevin Grantham, unopposed
• Democratic primary: state Sen. Jeff Bridges, unopposed

U.S. Senate

• Democratic primary: state Sen. Julie Gonzales, U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper (incumbent)
• Republican primary: state Sen. Mark Baisley, unopposed

If we’re serious about participation, fairness, and legitimacy, this must be the last time we rely on them — especially when the stakes are this high.

Let’s start with a simple, telling fact: the last time a competitive Democratic candidate who won the caucus and assembly process also went on to win the primary for U.S. Senate or governor was Ben Nighthorse Campbell in 1992 — 34 years ago. That’s not a system working. That’s a system deeply disconnected from voters.

Caucuses exclude the vast majority of voters. Even in a high-energy cycle like 2026, participation barely scratched the surface. Roughly 15,000 Democrats showed up statewide — out of more than a million eligible primary voters.

This small number of participants means a tiny, highly motivated slice of activists effectively determines which candidates advance. At the same time, the ordinary voters — those with jobs, childcare responsibilities, disabilities or scheduling conflicts — are largely excluded. The message to those voters is clear: you don’t get a voice.

A system that filters candidates based on a razor-thin fraction of the voting population cannot credibly claim to reflect the will of the party’s voters. That’s not representative democracy, it’s gatekeeping.

Caucuses impose unnecessary barriers to participate. Unlike primaries — where voters can cast ballots by mail or at convenient polling locations — caucuses demand hours of in-person or virtual participation at fixed times. For the Denver Democratic Assembly, check-in began at 9:30 a.m., and some participants were still there at 6 p.m. trying to support their candidates of choice. That’s not civic engagement—it’s a test of endurance with a high dose of disenfranchisement. A grassroots democratic form of government should encourage and lower barriers to participate.

The 2026 process didn’t just exclude — it broke down. Despite good-faith efforts to modernize through an app, the result was chaos. The system crashed under heavy use, causing confusion and potentially costing delegates their votes. Entire counties couldn’t complete voting on time.

In La Plata County, voting had to be pushed to Monday night — effectively disenfranchising anyone who couldn’t come back because of work obligations, child care issues or other obligations. In Arapahoe County, participants couldn’t even advocate for their preferred state House candidates, only elect delegates to the county.

News outlets reported that in some cases, party activists waited hours to vote, while others went home and could not participate. Across the state, people waited hours. Some left in frustration. Others weren’t sure if their votes were ever counted.

Fiona Boomer, campaign manager for Democrat Trisha Calvarese in the 4th Congressional District, expressed concern about whether their supporters were able to cast their ballots.

In Denver, delegates were given conflicting instructions; many told voting would be remote, causing many to leave before voting was finally done on site. A supporter of attorney general candidate Jena Griswold described her frustration in attending a Denver caucus and staying almost eight hours in hopes that the technology would work. Iris Halpern, a state house candidate, also expressed concern over caucus attendees leaving throughout the day. That’s not democracy, that’s dysfunction and shutting voters out.

And perhaps most concerning, the caucus system is easy to game. When outcomes depend on a small, insider-driven process, manipulation becomes easier — not harder. We’re already seeing bad actors openly discuss ways to exploit the system by misrepresenting support to sabotage candidates.

At its core, the caucus system concentrates power in the hands of a small group of insiders and activists. It’s a direct vote. It’s a multi-step delegate process that rewards those with the time, access, and familiarity to navigate party machinery. As a result, outcomes diverge sharply from actual voter preferences.

Consider 28-year-old Democratic Socialist candidate Melat Kiros, who is running for Congressional District 1. Kiros outperformed Rep. Diana DeGette in the Denver delegate vote by nearly a two-to-one margin.

Kiros posted an outrageous and offensive digital ad with an image saying centrist Democrats “fellate Israel” and “suck (expletive).” There is a difference between being anti-establishment and not supporting Israel as opposed to outrageous, radical views laced with antisemitism.

Kiros’s records speak for themselves and illustrate how extreme radical candidates are not only out of touch with Colorado Democrats but also with our state values, too. Yes, more and more extreme candidates in both parties have effectively used these caucuses to fly under the radar and effectively organized a small cadre of activists, like the Democratic Socialists, to show up at the caucus, leading to stunning results that make most voters shake their heads in extreme disbelief.

Caucuses may have made sense in another era. They do not today. And, they help explain the growth of the disgruntled unaffiliated voters — who, by the way, aren’t allowed to participate in caucuses — and make up 53% of Colorado voters.

If we believe in expanding participation and reflecting the will of voters — not just a tiny fraction of activists — then the conclusion is unavoidable: It’s time to retire the caucus system and let voters decide.

Doug Friednash is a partner with the law firm Brownstein, Hyatt, Farber and Schreck.

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More than 1,600 Democratic faithful filled Memorial Hall in Pueblo on Saturday, even as thousands of Coloradans joined protests against the Trump administration as part of the national No Kings movement, to cast their lots for their party’s candidates for some of the state’s top offices. The event doesn’t completely settle the field, but it helps winnow out candidates and determine which candidate’s name will appear at the top of the primary ballot. Republicans will hold their state assembly to do the same thing, also in Pueblo, in two weeks.

Attendees at the assembly heard from more than a dozen candidates total seeking Colorado’s top statewide offices: treasurer, attorney general, secretary of state, governor and U.S. Senate. Candidates who won 30% support or more from the delegates in Pueblo won a spot on the June 30 primary ballot, and the overall winner will hold the top spot in the list of nominees when ballots go out.

State Sen. Julie Gonzales, a progressive from Denver, will hold the top-line spot in the primary election against U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper after she boxed out two other Democrats seeking the nomination. Attorney General Phil Weiser, meanwhile, won more than 90% of the delegates at the Colorado Democratic Party’s state assembly in his bid for governor. He will face U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet. Hickenlooper and Bennet skipped the assembly in favor of petitioning onto the ballot.

And in the treasurer’s race, state Sen. Jeff Bridges was the only candidate to clear the 30% threshold necessary to qualify for the primary ballot. His competitors, state Rep. Brianna Titone and John Mikos, fell just short of qualifying for the primary ballot.

The other races, however, ended the day in approximately the same spot as they were at the start. Secretary of State Jena Griswold edged out attorney David Seligman to win the top slot on June’s primary ballot for Colorado attorney general, with 42% of delegates to Seligman’s 41%. Democrats Michael Dougherty and Hetal Doshi have submitted petitions for that race.

The race for the nomination for secretary of state, between state Sen. Jessie Danielson and Jefferson County Clerk Amanda Gonzalez, will go forward with both candidates still in it. Gonzalez won the top-line spot with 63% of the assembly vote to 37% for Danielson.

As notable as the candidates on stage were, the people not there were equally notable. Neither Hickenlooper, who is seeking reelection, or Bennet, who is running for governor, appeared at the event. Both opted to petition onto the ballot vs. relying on party activists to win a spot in the primary.

Recent Colorado history shows victory at the state assembly may not matter much. Bennet in 2010 and Hickenlooper in 2020 lost the assembly vote before going on to win the party’s nomination at the primary and eventually a seat in the U.S. Senate. Gov. Jared Polis likewise lost the assembly in 2018 before going on to win two terms as the state’s chief executive.

The assembly hall also represented a small fraction of people who ultimately will determine the nomination. Some 1 million Democrats and 2 million unaffiliated voters will be eligible to vote in the primary.

Bennet’s and Hickenlooper’s decision, however, meant the Memorial Hall auditorium was stacked with supporters for their opponents. Gonzales, one of three candidates who challenged Hickenlooper and the only one to win a spot on the ballot at the assembly, walked onto the nomination stage to some of the loudest applause of the day and led raucous call-and-response of “when we fight, we win” as she walked off.

In her speech, she acknowledged long odds in her bid to unseat Hickenlooper, who was Denver mayor and governor before he turned to Washington, D.C.

“I am not going to outraise the John Hickenlooper incumbent protection program,” Gonzales said in an interview after her speech. “That’s fine. I’m not trying to. We’re going to outwork him. And the energy and fire you saw reflected in this room tonight, from Coloradans all across the state, is a testament and demonstration — exhibit A — in terms of what we will do.”

Other races, however, featured the candidates taking veiled shots at their competition and navigating outside political attacks.

Griswold faced new allegations Saturday morning from a disgruntled former employee who accused her of creating “a hostile and volatile workplace” and a “climate of fear of retaliation” as secretary of state. The statement didn’t derail her assembly showing, as she still won the top-line spot

“I am speaking on behalf of those who we abused, bullied and ultimately discarded by Secretary Griswold,” Reese Edwards, the former employee, said in the statement. The statement was sent through the NMFAction Fund. According to the letter, Edwards worked as Griswold’s director of government and public affairs in 2019 and 2020. “I am speaking for them because they fear retaliation and retribution for their jobs and their careers. They fear what she might try to do to them if she gets her hands on the most powerful judicial position in Colorado.”

NMFAction Fund did not respond to a request for comment from The Denver Post. Its statement did not name employees other than Edwards. Griswold’s campaign also did not respond to a request for comment about the letter Saturday. When approached by a Denver Post reporter at the assembly, a staffer for Griswold simply said “no” and walked away.

But Griswold, who’s held a commanding fundraising advantage, alluded to other attacks she’s faced during the campaign.

“A candidate in this race has decided that his best shot is to launch misleading attacks on me,” Griswold said during her nomination speech. Her campaign later singled out Dougherty. “Let’s call it what is is: Desperation … If your focus is on bringing me down, and not on the racist lunatic in the White House, then you’re not ready for this job.”

On Saturday, at least, you call them Democrats. Then, in two weeks, you call them Republicans.

The Democratic Party faithful are gathering this weekend in the southern Colorado city for their first in-person statewide assembly since 2018 — and the party’s most consequential assembly since then, to boot. A slew of candidates are vying for the party’s nominations to the state’s top offices, nearly all of which are open because of term-limited incumbents.

The Colorado Democratic Party’s state assembly on Saturday at Memorial Hall marks the first major winnowing of those candidates. It’s also a chance for the victors to rally the base — and, they hope, ride a wave of victory headlines to the June primary election, where voters will have the final say on nominations.

In two weeks, on April 11, the Colorado Republican Party will follow suit with their state assembly, at Massari Arena on the Colorado State University Pueblo campus.

The stakes are similar in each case. Party members, picked among neighbors at precinct and county caucuses across the state in the weeks before, will name their preferences for a slew of elected offices, from U.S. senator and governor to members of the state House of Representatives. 

The assemblies aren’t the end of the nomination process — indeed, some of the highest-profile names in Democratic politics are foregoing it. But the event will exclude from June 30 primary ballots those candidates who rely on the assembly and fail to clear its 30% threshold of support. The assembly vote winners will land on the ballot’s top line.

“The most exciting thing about (the assembly) is how it levels the playing field for grassroots competitors to have a shot at sharing a message that, in some cases, resonates broadly,” Colorado Democratic Party Chair Shad Murib said.

The assembly puts candidates in front of swaths of some of the most dedicated Democrats in the state to make their case, one five-minute speech at a time.

The candidates also get the chance to rub elbows in hallways and have one-on-one conversations with voters about why they should hold the office they’re seeking — making potentially invaluable inroads, particularly for lesser-known candidates looking to knock off longtime officeholders.

Already, the caucus and assembly process revealed an organizing gap for one longtime politician. Candidate for Congress Melat Kiros walloped U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette at the Denver County assembly in mid-March, winning nearly two votes for every one the 15-term congresswoman pulled in. On Friday night, Kiros easily cruised to a place on the June primary ballot, earning 67% of the party’s nominating vote to DeGette’s 33%. Though she lost, DeGette avoided the unthinkable — falling below 30% and falling off the ballot.

Former Gov. Roy Romer, a Democrat who led the state from 1987 to 1999, praised the caucus and assembly process as a way for regular people to steer the party, rather than letting someone just throw tens of millions of dollars into an election. He’ll be introducing Attorney General Phil Weiser, a candidate for governor, at Saturday’s assembly.

“This way is a movement,” Romer said in an interview. “When you’re petitioning, you’re a little more distant from people. This is working with people, community by community. This is a way to come together and say this is our nominee.”

Alternatively, candidates can qualify for the ballot by collecting petition signatures. U.S. Sens. Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper both pursued that option. Bennet is running for governor against Weiser, while Hickenlooper is seeking reelection.

They each collected nearly 15,000 signatures, or some 10 times the number of people who will be at the assembly, and were the first candidates to qualify for the June primary.

On the Republican side, state Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer and pastor Victor Marx have both submitted more than 20,000 signatures to the secretary of state’s office to qualify for their party’s gubernatorial primary. More than a dozen other GOP candidates have also filed for the office. The GOP assembly next month is expected to pare down that field substantially.

Seth Masket, a University of Denver political science professor, cautioned against making assumptions about the routes the candidates take to the ballot.

Further-left and further-right candidates tend to benefit from the caucus and assembly process because they tend to attract a more passionate followings, he said. That doesn’t mean they necessarily do or don’t have a broad base of support, but they do have supporters who care enough to spend a weeknight at a caucus or a spring Saturday in a convention hall.

Candidates who are more mainstream in their party — and especially those with money — generally find it easier to petition onto the ballot. They can also avoid the risk of being kept off the ballot by an organized, enthusiastic base of opposition that only needs a few hundred people to potentially keep them below the 30% threshold necessary for ballot qualification. (The threshold drops to 10%, however, if the candidate goes a hybrid route of pursuing both petitions and the assembly vote.)

“(A successful assembly candidate is) not necessarily the candidate that’s going to win the primary, but it is a candidate that has a passionate following,” Masket said. “Not every candidate has that and, to be honest, more mainstream candidates don’t tend to have that kind of following. What they do have is more general name recognition and support from party members.” 

Recent electoral history in Colorado has shown that assembly victories rarely translate into overall victory in the primary.

In 2010, Bennet, who had been appointed to the Senate but not yet won an election, . In 2018, then-U.S. Rep. Jared Polis lost the caucus vote in his bid for governor. In 2020, Hickenlooper likewise lost the caucus in his first bid for the U.S. Senate.

All three went on to win the party nomination in the primary, and then they won the general election. 

So far this cycle, public polls show Bennet and with wide leads over their competitors, even as they cede the assembly to their rivals.

“Both methods require any candidate to earn the backing of voters from every single corner of this state,” Jordan Fuja, a spokesperson for Bennet����ap campaign, said in a statement. “… Colorado voters are looking for a governor with the experience, vision, and commitment to delivering the results we need. Michael has held a commanding lead since he first entered this race because Coloradans know he is the right candidate to protect Colorado from (President Donald) Trump’s chaos and build an economy that works for working people.”

Hickenlooper, meanwhile, had initially intended to go through the caucus and assembly process before putting his efforts into the petition process. 

In a statement, his campaign acknowledged the switch, saying the intent was voter outreach.

“Our focus in participating in the caucus process at the beginning was to help energize the base, meet with voters, and support the work of our county parties,” spokesperson Jess Cohen said. “The senator appreciates everyone who has participated in the process and really enjoyed having conversations with folks across the state.”

Hickenlooper’s decision to pull back, meanwhile, left openings for his rivals — and a chance to rally a fired-up Democratic base that has shown it����ap open to change.

“It����ap clear to me that the base of the Democratic Party is interested in evaluating who talks a good game and who walks the walk,” said state Sen. Julie Gonzales, a Denver progressive who’s running against Hickenlooper. “Who’s actually done the work and put in the muscle to listen to people and to translate those frustrations, those hopes, those anxieties, into concrete and durable policy. That����ap the work.”

Candidates seeking state and federal office through the state Democratic assembly

Besides state legislative races, here are the candidates seeking placement on the Democratic primary ballot at the state assembly in Pueblo. The party has been organizing multicounty assemblies separately for congressional candidates.

U.S. Senate: Karen Breslin, state Sen. Julie Gonzales and Jessica Williams

Governor: Antonio Martinez, William Moses, Erik Underwood and Attorney General Phil Weiser

Attorney General: Boulder County District Attorney Michael Dougherty, Secretary of State Jena Griswold and David Seligman

Secretary of State: State Sen. Jessie Danielson and Jefferson County Clerk Amanda Gonzalez

State Treasurer: State Sen. Jeff Bridges, John Mikos and state Rep. Brianna Titone

Source: Colorado Democratic Party

The shock drubbing, delivered ahead of a formal assembly vote next week, was among signs that Democrats participating in the party’s caucuses and assemblies are dissatisfied with incumbent officials. Some other incumbents, including U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper in his reelection race and Sen. Michael Bennet in the governor’s race, have been leaning on the petition route to the ballot rather than facing primary opponents at the March 28 state assembly.

At the Denver Democrats’ county assembly on Saturday, Kiros — a 28-year-old doctoral student and former lawyer — won 646 votes, or 63%, compared to DeGette’s 336 votes, or 32%. The result was the first time DeGette, 68, has lost a county assembly vote since she entered Congress in 1997, Kiros’ campaign said.

If that level of support holds at the party’s 1st Congressional District assembly on March 27, Kiros will cruise to a place on the June 30 primary ballot. DeGette, meanwhile, cannot afford to lose any more ground: If fewer than 30% of delegates support her at that virtual assembly, she won’t make the ballot at all. Time is rapidly running out to switch tactics and get on the ballot by submitting voter signatures, with petitions due to the state on Wednesday.

“I think it����ap a testament to the organizing we were doing and the lack of organizing (DeGette) was doing on her part — and her thinking she would coast through,” Kiros said in an interview. ” … It was just an incredible, incredible day, and I’m really proud of what our campaign was able to accomplish.”

DeGette campaign spokeswoman Jennie Peek-Dunstone said the congresswoman “received more than the required threshold and we are confident she will be on the primary ballot.”

The polling win does not, by itself, mean that Kiros is a front-runner to prevail in the June 30 primary election, and her campaign will still need to flip DeGette delegates if it wants to keep the congresswoman off the ballot. That’s far from a sure thing, especially for a candidate with the experience and name recognition of DeGette.

But it does speak to the Kiros’ campaign’s organizing capabilities, and the results also represent something of a wakeup call, said Seth Masket, a political scientist at the University of Denver.

“DeGette and others know their party and the people associated with it are not terribly popular right now,” he said. “Democrats in general elections have the wind at their back right now, but incumbents in primaries — not so much. It����ap a harder environment.”

DeGette faces progressive challenge

A first-time candidate and daughter of Ethiopian immigrants, Kiros previously worked as a lawyer in New York. She was fired after writing in late 2023 criticizing law firms — including her own — that had signed onto a letter opposing anti-Israel protests. She then moved back to Colorado and entered a Ph.D program at the University of Colorado Denver.

She’s run a progressive challenge to DeGette, backing “Medicare for All,” universal child care and an embargo on arms sales to Israel, a nation that she has accused of committing a genocide against Palestinians.

Kiros has also been endorsed by the Justice Democrats, a left-wing Democratic group that’s backed candidates like now-U.S. Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ro Khanna and Ilhan Omar.

In her Denver assembly speech Saturday, DeGette accused Kiros of lying about her — a comment that drew boos from the audience.

Already a longtime supporter of Medicare for All, DeGette has backed more progressive causes in the past year. She for a halt to providing offensive arms to Israel, and she told assembly-goers Saturday that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement should be abolished and that she wouldn’t support any funding for the U.S.-Israeli war in Iran. Those pledges drew cheers.

Kiros’ preference poll win was fueled by pre-assembly organizing, her campaign and supporters said, particularly on the part of the Denver chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America. Deep Singh Badhesha, a DSA member who supported Kiros’ campaign, said organizers had group chats, stickers, food — they’d even set up a system to find babysitters for those who needed it. Such organization also helped the campaign sidestep technology problems that delayed the assembly, he said.

Those tech problems have contributed to lingering concerns among the DeGette campaign about assignment of delegates for the assembly next week, though her campaign said she was not disputing Kiros’ polling victory.

The assembly results come amid a broader surge of challenges to incumbent Democrats nationwide by often-younger and more progressive candidates. More than a dozen Democratic U.S. House members will face primary challenges this spring and summer, .

Some of the contests pit older incumbents against newcomers. Some feature moderates competing against liberals. Some of the matchups have resulted from the nationwide redistricting wars that redrew incumbents’ seats. Most of the races share a common ingredient: challengers seeking to move past the party’s losses in 2024 — and to bring more energy to the fight against President Donald Trump.

“Within the Democratic Party, it����ap this notion of how you best respond to a country that Trump is dominating when you’re all, as Democrats, unhappy with that,” Paul Teske, a professor at CU Denver and former longtime dean of its School of Public Affairs, told The Denver Post on Tuesday. (Kiros was a student of Teske’s last year.)

In addition to Kiros, University of Colorado Regent Wanda James is also running against DeGette in the primary. She did not participate in the assembly process Saturday and planned to file a petition to make the ballot.

‘Scared of the base’

Elsewhere, in the Democratic race for governor, Bennet’s campaign as he filed his primary ballot petition that he wouldn’t also seek a spot on the ballot through the caucus and assembly process. His rival, Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser, is relying on next week’s state assembly in Pueblo to make the primary ballot.

State Sen. Julie Gonzales has launched a progressive Senate primary campaign against Hickenlooper, who dropped out of the assembly process last week after initially participating. Hickenlooper’s campaign noted that he didn’t complete the assembly process during his first Senate campaign in 2020 and that he’s already submitted petitions for his place on the primary ballot.

In an interview, Gonzales countered that the senator was “scared of the base.”

Some left-wing-versus-moderate fights are set for state legislative races, too. In the Colorado attorney general’s race, two newcomer candidates, David Seligman and Hetal Doshi, are challenging Secretary of State Jena Griswold and Boulder District Attorney Michael Dougherty for the Democratic nomination.

In a news release Tuesday morning, Seligman’s campaign said he led Griswold by 2 percentage points in a straw poll of Democratic assembly delegates statewide.

Teske and Masket underscored that success in the Democrats’ assembly process, which often draws more progressive or active party members, does not necessarily translate to a high likelihood of victory in the June primaries.

Kiros’ campaign and organizing helped turn out motivated and informed delegates and supporters Saturday, and they seemed to catch DeGette flat-footed. But the June contest will feature tens of thousands of voters, including many who are unaffiliated, and will require campaign organizing on a vastly different scale.

It will also require money. DeGette had more than $535,000 on hand as of Dec. 31, compared to Kiros’ $64,000. After 30 years in office, which has included DeGette sweeping aside the occasional primary challenge, she can also boast strong name recognition.

“I was surprised,” Teske said of Saturday’s results. “I think Melat’s campaign organized well, got a lot of people out, got young people excited. … Whether it builds any momentum or changes anything is hard to say, because it����ap still hard to beat an incumbent.”

The New York Times contributed to this story.

Peters had a disciplinary hearing on March 10, nearly two months after she grabbed a fellow inmate and shoved her into the middle of a prison room. While she was cleared of a Corrections Department assault violation, Peters was found guilty of “unauthorized absence,” which effectively means she left her assigned area or was in a place she shouldn’t have been.

Corrections Department spokeswoman Alondra Gonzalez-Garcia said the two charges stemmed from the same January incident. She said she wasn’t certain if Peters had faced any disciplinary measures for the lesser charge. According to a copy of Peters’ prison file, she had previously received at least four negative write-ups from prison officials for minor offenses.

Last week, an X account run by Peters’ supporters announced that the clerk, who is serving a nine-year term of incarceration after being convicted of several felonies in 2024, had been found not guilty. The department said last week that she was given an initial — though informal — determination after her March 10 hearing but that the decision wasn’t formalized until Monday.

Peters’ attorneys, Peter Ticktin and John Case, did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment Monday evening.

In surveillance footage of the fight obtained by The Denver Post, Peters is shown pushing a cart into a closet. While Peters is in the closet and out of view, another inmate approaches the closet and begins to move the cart out of the way of the room’s door. Peters then re-enters the camera’s frame, with her hand around the other inmate’s neck or upper arm. She pushes the other woman into the middle of the larger room before shoving her and walking away.

The incident — and the Corrections Department’s subsequent hearing process — comes after Gov. Jared Polis again signaled his apparent intent to reduce Peters’ sentence, which he has called harsh and unusual. Securing Peters’ early release has been of frequent interest for President Donald Trump, who has viewed the former election official as an ally in his baseless attempt to discredit his 2020 election loss.

Polis’ latest hint, delivered on social media earlier this month, drew criticism from every state Democratic lawmaker, as well as from other elected officials, like Secretary of State Jena Griswold and Attorney General Phil Weiser.

After the backlash, Polis’ office privately told lawmakers that the governor intended to wait to intervene until after the Colorado Court of Appeals issues its own ruling on Peters’ sentence. A panel of judges on the court appeared skeptical of the length of the Trump ally’s prison term earlier this year.

In Tuesday night, Polis — who has also faced months of pressure from President Donald Trump to release Peters — compared the disgraced former Mesa County clerk’s punishment to the penalty for a state senator recently convicted on the same charges.

Polis wrote on the social platform X that the former lawmaker, Sonya Jaquez Lewis, was sentenced to probation and community service last week after being convicted of attempting to influence a public servant earlier this year. The former senator, a Democrat, was charged last year with that crime as well as forgery after falsifying letters of support in an effort to fight a legislative ethics probe.

Peters, a Republican clerk who collaborated with discredited election conspiracy theorists and provided access to secure voting equipment, was also convicted of attempting to influence a public servant, along with other charges. Now 70, she is serving a sentence of nine years in jail and prison.

Polis said it was “not lost on me” that one of the two women’s felony charges was the same.

“Justice in Colorado and America needs to be applied evenly, you never know when you might need to depend on the rule of law,” Polis wrote. “This is the context I am using as I consider cases like this that have sentencing disparities, which is why I have extended the deadline for clemency applications until April 3rd.”

The comments, which Polis’ office defended Wednesday morning, attracted national media attention and drew a caustic response from Democratic lawmakers.

“Without discounting at all what Sen. Jaquez Lewis did, there is a material difference between submitting false documents to a tribunal and aiding in the attempted insurrection and overthrow of the duly elected president of the United States,” said Rep. Steven Woodrow, a Denver Democrat. “Tina Peters fanned the flames of Trump’s big lie. And that is materially different than anything even approaching what Sen. Jaquez Lewis did. I hope the governor thinks long and hard about that material difference before he decides to do (anything).”

“I am astonished that one would make such a comparison,” added Rep. Emily Sirota, also of Denver.

Secretary of State Jena Griswold and Dan Rubinstein, the Republican Mesa County district attorney who led Peters’ prosecution, both similarly drew a distinction between Jaquez Lewis’ conduct and that of Peters. Rubinstein wrote in a statement that there was a reason the legislature had given judges a range of sentencing options, even for people convicted of the same crime.

He acknowledged that Polis had the authority to reduce Peters’ sentence but wrote that doing so “would be a gross injustice to the affected citizens I represent.”

“Peters’ … actions are still being used to try to undermine the 2026 election. She should get no special treatment by the governor, and his statement is shocking and worrisome,” Griswold said in a separate statement.

For his part, Denver District Attorney John Walsh, whose office prosecuted Jaquez Lewis, that the two cases “were not even in the same solar system in terms of the severity of their conduct.”

Critics cite Peters’ lack of remorse

At the state Capitol on Wednesday, several other Democratic lawmakers expressed disappointment or concern with Polis’ comments. Sen. Robert Rodriguez, the Senate’s majority leader, said he didn’t think Polis should intervene, and he noted that Peters has shown no remorse for trying to undermine the state’s election systems.

Asked if she thought Polis should alter Peters’ sentence, Northglenn Rep. Jenny Willford stopped in her tracks.

“Are you (expletive) kidding me?” she said.

The X post was the latest signal that Polis may commute Peters’ sentence, which he earlier called “harsh” and “unusual.” Though his post leaned on Jaquez Lewis’ recent conviction, Polis’ interest in reducing Peter’s sentence predates the former lawmaker’s January trial.

A number of public officials — Griswold, Rubinstein, Attorney General Phil Weiser and a coalition of county clerks — have repeatedly urged the governor not to reduce Peters’ sentence, and similar efforts have been made behind the scenes.

The Colorado Court of Appeals is weighing the length of Peters’ sentence, and its judges have indicated they may reduce it.

In a statement Wednesday, Polis spokeswoman Shelby Wieman said he was not considering a pardon for Peters but was weighing clemency.

“The governor has expressed skepticism around this inmate’s sentence and was noting the difference in sentencing for two people, both public officials, with the same charge,” she wrote.

The governor did find support from one federal lawmaker.

“So a former Democrat State Senator here in Colorado was charged and convicted of the SAME THING as Tina Peters,” U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert, a Republican, . “She was given PROBATION. Tina Peters was sentenced to 9 YEARS in prison. FREE TINA PETERS.”

Peter Ticktin, a Florida-based attorney for Peters, told the Times that he believed a commutation of her sentence could come out as soon as this week.

“It will be a victory as soon as the eggs are hatched,” he said of Polis’ potential action. “If it ends up happening, her regaining her freedom will be a step toward righting a wrong.”

Lawmakers weigh responses to Polis

Lawmakers have already weighed how to voice their displeasure with the Democratic governor’s position. Senate Democrats have discussed sending the governor a letter opposing any change to Peters’ sentence (though no letter has been sent). Democrats in the House have discussed a legislative response.

While lawmakers are still discussing how to proceed, the available options also include an effort to censure Polis.

“I’d be surprised if there were not (a response from the legislature),” Woodrow said. “Everything’s on the table. There are ongoing conversations amongst colleagues. We are taking a wait-and-see approach.”

The former Mesa County clerk’s prison term has become a cause celebre among election-deniers allied with Trump. The president has repeatedly blasted Polis for not releasing Peters, and he issued a pardon for her late last year. But the move was essentially symbolic — because Peters was convicted of state charges, only Polis can reduce or end her sentence.

Pressed by reporters earlier this year, Polis refused to say if he’d had conversations with the Trump administration about Peters. He denied that he’d discussed releasing her as part of a trade for restored federal funding or other benefits from the federal government.

But that hasn’t slowed criticism from lawmakers.

Rodriguez said he didn’t know if Polis’ interest was driven by legitimate policy concerns or by “outside pressures.” Rep. Lorena Garcia, an Adams County Democrat, argued that Polis’ interest in Peters’ sentence was evidence that the governor was “trying to continue to do favors for the administration.”

In a statement Wednesday morning, Weiser noted the president’s “pressure campaign” to release Peters. Commuting her sentence after that campaign, he said, “would be a serious injustice and send the wrong message to those who would attempt to tamper with our elections — if you are wealthy or politically connected, you can escape justice. Worst of all, releasing her early would erode confidence in our system of justice as based on fairness, equity, and the law.”

House Speaker Julie McCluskie declined to comment on Polis’ latest Peters post. But a spokesman said her position on Peters has not changed.

In her opening day speech in January, McCluskie argued that “this administration will target Colorado no matter what we do,” and state officials should “do what’s right.”

Those comments, she later told The Denver Post, were in reference to Peters.

Democrats in the state House passed in a 41-22 vote, sending the measure to the Senate over Republican opposition.

Lawmakers typically undertake election reforms just about every year, largely to adopt technical changes sought by county clerks and the Colorado Secretary of State’s Office. This year’s version includes similar tweaks.

But HB-1113 would also extend several key voting deadlines. The bill would require that drop boxes accept ballots for 22 days before an election, rather than the current law’s 15-day window. Ballots could be mailed to voters up to 29 days ahead of Election Day, up from 22 days now.

At a minimum, clerks would have to mail ballots out at least 25 days ahead of time, up from 18 days in the current law.

“Colorado’s elections are the gold standard in part because we continuously update our laws to guard against new threats to our democracy,” Rep. Emily Sirota, a Denver Democrat, said in a statement. She’s sponsoring the bill with Rep. Jenny Willford. “Coloradans deserve to cast their ballot without barriers, and this bill safeguards against federal interference in our elections and makes it easier to vote.”

The changes come ahead of the 2026 midterm elections and follow Trump’s escalating calls for the federal government and Republicans to elections. Trump allies — including Peter Ticktin, the lawyer for incarcerated former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters — have circulated a draft executive order that would attempt to give Trump unprecedented control over elections, .

The U.S. Constitution over elections to state legislatures, with oversight authority granted to Congress.

Colorado officials have criticized Trump’s rhetoric in the past and defended Colorado as a model for election administration nationwide. In a statement about the Washington Post’s report last week, Secretary of State Jena Griswold criticized the president as “one of the greatest threats to American elections.”

In addition to expanding various voting timelines, HB-1113 would also allow people who live in transitional housing — like halfway houses — to vote.

As Colorado’s ballots grow longer and longer, the legislation would also allow voters to take written materials into polling places for their own reference. Voting centers that run out of supplies would be required to stay open past the 7 p.m. poll closing time. Colleges would be required to provide more information about voting to their students in the days before Election Day.

HB-1113 would repeal a provision of state law that allows a registered voter to challenge the eligibility of other voters. During a committee hearing last month, Sirota told fellow lawmakers that people who’d bought into misinformation about ineligible voters were sending lengthy lists of challenges to county clerks.

She said she was open to reforms, rather than a full repeal of that provision, but added that lawmakers were moving forward with stripping it for the time being.

House Republicans unanimously opposed the bill, citing various reasons. Rep. Stephanie Luck attempted to amend the bill to make it easier for political parties to close their primaries to unaffiliated voters, long a goal of some in the Colorado GOP. Rep. Ken DeGraaf, who that sent him and the rest of the House to the Capitol, defended Peters and sought to add more election security controls to the bill.

Other Republicans said some of the bill’s provisions would add burdensome new costs for small counties.

The bill now moves to the Senate, where it needs a committee vote and two floor votes before moving to Gov. Jared Polis for passage into law.

But this morning’s proceedings began first with lawmakers addressing the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old intensive care nurse, by a U.S. Border Patrol agent during an immigration enforcement operation in Minneapolis on Saturday. Pretti’s parents live in Arvada, and Renee Good — who was shot and killed by an immigration agent earlier this month — also had Colorado connections.

The majority Democrats in both chambers started with comments from the floor criticizing Pretti’s killing.

“We are angry, heartsick and scared,” House Speaker Julie McCluskie said. “Our constituents are asking us, what happens when Colorado is next? Will they be able to exercise their constitutionally protected right to peacefully protest against the government they disagree with, without weighing their life to do so?”

The House adjourned its floor proceedings after McCluskie’s comments. In the Senate, after Democrats made similar statements about the Pretti shooting, two Republicans, Sens. Larry Liston and Mark Baisley, responded. Liston questioned why Pretti was carrying a handgun — which appeared to be removed from its holster by an officer just before the shooting — and Baisley criticized Minneapolis’ local leadership and immigrants without proper legal status.

Democratic Sen. Kyle Mullica then called out that the government needed to stop killing people. That drew a rebuke from Senate President James Coleman, a fellow Democrat.

After the Senate adjourned, Mullica and Baisley were still heatedly discussing the issue in the back of the chamber.

As we noted last week, the first days of the legislative session are dedicated to SMART Act hearings — marathon meetings in which state agencies give presentations and face mild-to-moderate grilling from legislators tasked with scrutinizing them.

Committee hearings about bills will start to spin up this week, albeit at a slow pace than is expected in much of the next three-odd months.

Many of the bills set for committee this week — there are roughly a dozen — are either bipartisan or on the less-controversial side. A notable exception is , the first gun bill of the session.

It would expand who can petition a court to temporarily remove people’s firearms if they’re a danger to themselves or others, using the state’s red flag law. SB-4 would add co-responders (think of a social worker who’s working with law enforcement) and various educational institutions and personel to the list. It’s set for a Tuesday afternoon committee hearing in front of .

You can check calendars for committee meetings and hearings . As a gentle reminder, calendars are subject to change, so be sure to keep an eye on them if you’re planning to attend or testify at a committee hearing.

Here’s what else to watch this week:

Today: Secretary of State Jena Griswold and her department will have their oversight hearing with the legislature’s Joint State Veterans and Military Affairs Committee. That hearing is typically a contentious affair, as Republicans use it as an opportunity to pepper Griswold — a Democrat who’s a frequent target of right-wing election attacks — with questions.

Elsewhere, state officials are set return to for a showdown over prison funding.

The purse strings-holding JBC voted to reject $20 million in prison funding requests last week and called on Gov. Jared Polis’ office to come to its members with real solutions to ease overcrowding in state prisons. We’ll see how that goes (and if the discussion takes place today or later in the week).

Finally, Democrats are set to unveil a package of affordability-related bills this morning. We’ll likely have coverage of that.

Tuesday and Wednesday: The legislature’s joint health committees will conduct their oversight hearing with several health-focused state agencies, including the public health department and the agency that oversees Medicaid. Those hearings start Tuesday and will carry into Wednesday.

Tina Peters grabbed another inmate’s neck and shoved her during a brief prison scuffle Sunday night, according to surveillance footage that appears to contradict claims from Peters’ defense attorney.

The footage, obtained by The Denver Post on Monday night, shows Peters, an ally of President Donald Trump and a former Mesa County clerk, maneuvering a large cart toward a closet through an open room. Peters then enters the closet, with the cart at the closet’s entrance. Another inmate, who appears to be carrying cleaning supplies, then enters the frame and appears to try to move the cart away from the closet door.

As the other woman moves the cart aside, Peters then emerges from the closet, grabbing the woman and shoving her into the middle of the room. Peters has one hand on the woman’s neck and another on her right arm, the video shows. The two then seem to exchange words, and Peters shoves her away.

Peters is obscured from video footage when the scuffle first starts. The other inmate is visible throughout most of the incident, save for a brief moment where part of her right arm is obscured by the closet door.

Both women later walk down a hallway.

The video was provided to The Post in response to a public records request. In a statement Monday night, state Corrections Department spokeswoman Alondra Gonzalez-Garcia confirmed that Peters “was involved in an incident with another inmate” Sunday night. No one was injured, she wrote. No one has been charged as a result of the scuffle, and Peters was moved to a different housing unit in the prison. Neither inmate was placed in solitary confinement, which is not utilized in that facility, Gonzalez-Garcia wrote.

The department is still investigating, she said.

The video and the department’s statement seemed to contradict claims from Peters’ supporters and defense team, who alleged in a news release that the former clerk was “assaulted” in the closet and that she now faces criminal charges as a result. One of Peters’ attorneys, Peter Ticktin, told Trump ally Steve Bannon on Monday that Peters was attacked “from behind.”

Ticktin did not immediately respond to an email sent Monday night.

Peters was sentenced to a combined nine years in jail and prison in October 2024. She was convicted of several crimes after she provided a third party access to Mesa County’s election systems. Her incarceration has become a cause celebre for Trump and conservative allies, who allege that Peters was wrongfully convicted. Trump, who issued a legally dubious federal pardon for Peters late last year, has repeatedly demanded that Colorado and Gov. Jared Polis release her.

Peters is appealing her conviction, and a state appeals court signaled some skepiticism about the length of her sentence last week.

Polis has said he is considering a request to release Peters or alter her sentence. He has called her sentence “harsh” and “unusual.” Pressed by reporters last week, he refused to say if he’s discussed the case with the Trump administration. He denied that he’d discussed releasing her as part of a trade for restored federal funding or other considerations. Several state officials — including Attorney General Phil Weiser, Secretary of State Jena Griswold and a group of county clerks — have asked him to leave Peters’ sentence in place.

A copy of Peters’ inmate file, also obtained through a records request, shows she had a mixed first year in prison. Between April and July 2025, she received four write ups, prompting prison officials to reject her application for a special unit. Parts of the file are redacted, though visible negative writeups appear to be related to minor issues, like loitering or “hiding.”

She told prison staff in August that she would soon be released, according to the file. In December, after officials told her she would not be released to visit her mother in the hospital, she said she planned to have “negative things” about the prison “plastered all over social media.”