Assembled under the banner of Courageous Colorado, a group of veteran political operators and election reformers is preparing a multi-year effort to take a sweeping look at how Colorado’s elections are run. That includes supporting local efforts to institute and commission. It may include working to change when municipal elections, like those in Denver, are run, or how candidates qualify for the ballot.

Ultimately, it will also likely mean ballot measures related to Colorado’s partisan primaries, perhaps to replace them with a contest where all candidates appear on one ballot, akin to the system used in California.

“I think you should expect work around the open primary over the next few elections, both at the legislature and at the ballot,” said Landon Mascareñaz, Courageous Colorado’s CEO, though he and others cautioned that no concrete plans have been set. “You should expect work around ranked-choice voting, campaign finance reform and election timing.”

The need for those reforms, Mascareñaz and others have argued, is clear: Americans are worried about democracy. At a downtown luncheon for the group late last month, speakers used soaring rhetoric to describe the history of America’s democracy and the perilous times in which it finds itself. Former Gov. Bill Ritter quoted a famous W.B. Yeats poem about anarchy let loose upon the world.

“It’s greater than partisan politics, it’s greater than democratic reforms, it’s greater than ranked-choice voting, it’s greater than open primaries,” Terrance Carroll, a former Democratic speaker of the state House, told the luncheon. “It’s about the questions of whether we continue to be true to the words first articulated in this nation’s Declaration of Independence.”

The group argues there are practical reasons for reforms in Colorado, too. Because of the state’s blue hue, many elections are settled on primary day in June, not in the general election in November. And while unaffiliated voters, who make up more than 50% of the state’s registered electorate, can vote in a Democratic or Republican primary, they have to choose only one to participate in each cycle.

It’s a similar argument to the one made by the campaign in 2024, when a relatively small group of individuals and groups, led by Colorado’s Kent Thiry, backed a proposal to open the primaries to all voters and institute a ranked-choice system for the general election. That campaign lost by nearly 7 points.

Courageous Colorado’s bipartisan supporters include many veterans of the Proposition 131 campaign like Carroll; Dick Wadhams, the former state GOP chairman who has become deeply critical of his party’s Trump-ward shift; Deep Singh Badhesha, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America; and former Republican Congressman Ken Buck.

Amber McReynolds, the leader of the governing board for the Postal Service and a former Denver elections official, also spoke at the luncheon; she chairs Courageous’ board. Former Fort Collins Mayor Jeni Arndt leads the group’s political arm. (Fort Collins and Boulder both use ranked-choice voting, in which voters rank multiple candidates on a ballot.)

The group has learned lessons from the failure of Proposition 131, Mascareñaz and others said. The proposal was sweeping, top-down and complicated; it also found opponents across the political spectrum. This time, Courageous supporters have already undertaken one listening tour and plan more direct outreach this fall, using new technology from Change.org to gather input. They’re meeting with local officials and backing smaller-scale initiatives, like a ranked-choice ballot measure in Longmont and a Boulder County proposal to expand that county’s elected commission.

That local outreach helps find partners for reforms at a local level while building coalitions and educating voters ahead of any future ballot campaigns.

“Having these conversations early and not just trying to do this within a confined time frame” is important, McReynolds said in an interview. “Build early, have conversations statewide, do it in a cross-partisan way.”

They also want to involve the legislature, McReynolds and Mascareñaz said. Had it passed, Prop 131’s implementation would have been slowed after skeptical lawmakers slipped some speed bumps into state law. Now, the group is sounding out lawmakers to test what could be done in the Capitol, Mascareñaz said.

“It’s important for us to get involved in some of that,” McReynolds said.

There is another notable difference: Thiry. The millionaire ex-DaVita CEO was the face of the Prop 131 campaign, and he’d also successfully backed prior ballot measures that reformed the state’s elections. But he wasn’t present at the luncheon and is not a member of the group’s board. Wadhams, the former GOP chairman, said Thiry “really has not been a part” of Courageous’ meetings.

During the Prop 131 campaign, Thiry was both chief cheerleader and the primary financial supporter. But he also became an easy target for criticism. Asked if Thiry was intentionally taking a step back this time, Mascareñaz defended him as a patriot who was committed to protecting the nation’s democracy.

“And,” Mascareñaz added, “this movement is bigger than one person.”

Thiry isn’t entirely absent: Jason Bertolacci, a close Thiry aide, and Travis Berry, the lobbyist for one of his groups, were both at the lunch. Thiry’s foundation is also one of Courageous Colorado’s backers, as is Unite America, an electoral reform group that he funds and co-chairs.

A spokesman for Thiry declined an interview request.

Proposition 131 was opposed by both the Democratic and Republican leaders, as well as by lesser parties, like the Green Party. Critics argued variously that the measure was complicated, unnecessary, sweeping and backed by wealthy interests.

The leaders of the state GOP, Craig Steiner, and Colorado Democrats, Shad Murib, did not return interview requests sent through spokespeople. But after the luncheon, to castigate Courageous Colorado as “another grift by the corporations hoping to undermine our election system to cater to the highest bidders.”

Keith Laube, the chief of the state’s Libertarian Party, said he was supportive of ranked-choice voting reforms. But he was opposed to a fully open primary, in which candidates from all parties appear on one ballot and a select number from each race advance to the general election regardless of party.

He said he’d read Courageous Colorado’s website and praised the work they’d undertaken. But he said the primary reforms that the group is floating would lead to longer and more expensive campaigns by candidates trying to ensure they make it to the general election.

Some critics had also charged that Prop 131 was intended to generate specific electoral outcomes. Thiry had denied he wanted one brand of politician to win under the system he envisioned, though he also made no secret of his displeasure with right- and left-wing politicians. (The Yeats poem that Ritter quoted includes a lament that “the centre cannot hold.”)

Wadhams, the former state GOP chairman, told The Post that he wanted the reforms to lead to political moderation in the state. He pointed to criticism from within his own party.

“People are just fed up. They don’t want to participate in the process anymore; they’re just tired of the dominance of the far right and also of the MAGA stolen-election conspiracy crowd,” he said, adding that he’s talked to Democrats with similar concerns.

Mascareñaz acknowledged that some in the Courageous coalition want electoral reforms to serve as a moderating force. But he said he had no such goals.

“I really believe that the goal is open democracy. And it����ap an open democracy that includes everybody and gives everyone a fair shake and representation in sharing governance and sharing power,” he said. “There are people on my board that come to it for moderation. There are people that come on to my board because they want universal access for people.”

In a , the Republican candidate for Colorado governor said he would “sit down and talk about (his past) one final time,” though it was “kind of silly we gotta answer questions.” After turned into a back-and-forth about Marx’s life, Marx wrote on social media that he’d wanted to talk about his campaign — but instead “much of the interview focused on old narratives and repeated accusations that have already been addressed.”

“I never had anyone dig into the darkest chapter of my childhood until I ran for governor,” he wrote of the interview, after Morgan had questioned stories that Marx’s stepfather had allegedly forced Marx to behead a cat and, later, fatally shoot a man. “That����ap just the reality of politics today.”

As a nonprofit leader, Marx’s backstory was an asset to his ministry. He told a story of redemption over child abuse, a Marine turned born-again Christian who’d reconciled with estranged parents and launched a nonprofit to help traumatized people. He’d shared that story across two books, a documentary, media interviews and speeches at juvenile prisons and in front of Christian congregations. It sent Marx and his family into high-profile conflict zones and helped propel his nonprofit to multimillion-dollar fundraising hauls.

It also, in part, set the foundation for the insurgent campaign that saw him turn from political newcomer to Colorado Republicans’ standard-bearer: In a June interview with The Denver Post, Marx said he was qualified to be governor in part because of all he’d achieved and overcome in his personal life.

But what was an asset for a Christian nonprofit may prove to be an albatross for a long-shot gubernatorial bid in Colorado, and stories of overseas rescues, expelling demons and job offers from the leader of the Beach Boys will draw far more scrutiny and skepticism on the campaign trail than they may have on the ministry circuit.

Marx’s scant history outside of that ministry means that his onion-like backstory — his two books alone layer incredible story atop incredible story — is the primary basis for voters, reporters, supporters and opponents to understand him, what sparked his political ambitions and how he would govern should he pull off an upset in November.

“If it was Barb (Kirkmeyer) or if it was some other candidate that had a legislative record or had a record in other areas of public service, you could tell, this is who Victor Marx is,” said Ken Buck, a former Republican congressman who served as chair of the Colorado Republican Party between 2019 and 2021. A veteran state senator, Kirkmeyer was one of Marx’s opponents for the GOP gubernatorial nomination.

“The only thing that defines him,” Buck continued, “are the stories that you’re talking about.”

Marx must now find a way to pivot from his past and toward his own talking points, while avoiding the sort of tree roots that his fledgling general election campaign has already tripped over. It will be a tough road: Marx wants to talk about affordability, Democratic governance and public safety. And while voters are concerned with both the cost of living and the Democratic Party, the state’s highly educated and relatively affluent voting base was still one of the few to buck the GOP red wave in 2024.

Indeed, no Republican has won statewide office in Colorado since the end of the Obama administration. The last Republican to do so, Heidi Ganahl, was then crushed in the 2022 gubernatorial race by more than 19 percentage points.

Campaign manager Buddy Jericho declined The Post’s request to interview Marx for this story. Marx told the newspaper in June that he welcomed questions about his background and that voters “will determine if I’m a vetted candidate or not.”

Since his victory a month ago, Marx has tried to pivot, said Kristi Burton Brown, another former state GOP chair. He’s continued to hold rallies, unveiled a unified campaign platform with other GOP candidates and has held several Zoom meetings with county Republican officials.

Whether he can stop talking about his past isn’t entirely up to him, she argued.

“I think a lot of that is based on the questions that he’s asked,” she said. “I would say at this point, he’s certainly answered a lot of them, if not all of them. I don’t know if his answer makes everyone happy. I would put that on some TV hosts who keep harping on the same thing over and over.”

Kyle Saunders, a political science professor at Colorado State University, said reporters and voters were right to dig into Marx’s past, which is effectively “his only credential.”

“He’s never held office,” he said. “There’s no voting record, no budget, no administration to point to. When he says ‘let’s move on to the issues,’ he’s asking to be evaluated on things he’s never done, using the credibility of a story he no longer wants examined.”

After he won the primary campaign, Marx drew critical headlines from the opinion pages of the , and . 9News has reported on campaign finance concerns related to Marx’s merchandise sales and about . Morgan pressed the candidate on his childhood and stories about calling out demons.

The stories keep popping up from the large back catalog of previous media appearances and publications. In his books, he writes about befriending the Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson, a miraculous near-miss with a helicopter crash, and repeatedly using prayer to expel demons. He describes himself as a state champion trumpeter so adept with a butterfly knife that he wowed a group of “gang bangers” he confronted in a parking lot in Colorado Springs.

The questions and stories have not bothered his supporters.

Jeff Hunt, a conservative radio host, told The Post earlier this summer that Marx was just “brutally honest” — albeit perhaps more so than a political strategist would recommend. Rich Wyatt, the chair of the Jefferson County GOP, said everyone had parts of their history they’d prefer not to talk about. That includes himself, he said — Wyatt was sentenced to prison for conspiracy and tax violations.

He likened Marx to Donald Trump, another outsider candidate with a lengthy backstory who rode a longshot bid to the White House.

“I do think people are going to move past it,” he said of Marx’s backstory. “People are tired of career politicians like Barb Kirkmeyer.”

Marx’s victory over Kirkmeyer was significant: A first-timer candidate had raised nearly $3 million and edged out one of the most prominent Republicans in the state. But if he wants to upset Democratic Attorney General Phil Weiser, Marx will need to win over a large swath of unaffiliated voters who have backed Democrats and largely did not turn toward Trump in the red-wave 2024 election.

He’ll also need a united Republican Party behind him — including the 60% of primary voters who backed Kirkmeyer or the third-place primary finisher, Rep. Scott Bottoms. Both Kirkmeyer and Bottoms refused to endorse Marx. What’s more, former Republican gubernatorial candidate Greg Lopez has qualified for the ballot and will mount an unaffiliated run for the governor’s office, further complicating Marx’s path.

Wyatt and Burton Brown, the former state party chair, said Marx had taken steps to knit the party together. He appeared with other GOP candidates for an event hosted by the state party, announcing their unified platform for the fall election.

“He’s had several Zoom meetings with the county chairs, trying to get everybody on board because there are people who are fractured,” Wyatt said.

But Wyatt noted that the state GOP, which did not return a message seeking comment, was broke and struggling after years of infighting and accusations of mismanagement. Marx will also have to rebuild and retool his own campaign for a general election. Like Weiser, Marx spent most of his campaign cash during the primary race. Unlike Weiser, Marx’s first general election campaign finance report shows he’d since spent more than he raised last month. He has just under $137,000 in the bank, against Weiser’s $369,000.

He’s also drawn more scrutiny for accepting nearly $80,000 in improper campaign donations, and his campaign has also filed an uncommon request to refile most of its finance reports for the year. Last month, Marx also claimed, incorrectly, that he was set to be endorsed by former Gov. Bill Owens, the last Republican to occupy the governor’s mansion.

“Any one of those is survivable,” Saunders said of Marx’s early-campaign stumbles. “Together, they read as a campaign that never built the boring infrastructure (compliance, vetting, a finance operation) because a celebrity social-media campaign doesn’t need it to win a primary.”

In his interview with his wife, Marx said he took responsibility for the campaign finance issues, but that it was an honest mistake and a “nothing burger.” He said that he and his campaign didn’t know that individual supporters were limited to $1,450 in total donations. He now faces a new campaign finance complaint related to his merchandise sales.

Those missteps have drawn more media attention. Marx needs coverage to help get his message out, said Buck, the former congressman. That will likely include more “uncomfortable” questions about his background.

Marx has also said he won’t participate in traditional, moderated debates against Weiser — an apparent nod to the sharp questions he faced during a 9News debate in June.

But he may need those debates, too, Buck argued, “to show gravitas on a stage with opposing candidates (and) to earn the kind of free media that he will need to break through.”

Lopez and his running mate, lieutenant governor hopeful Taralyn Romero, submitted 11,948 valid signatures, surpassing the state’s requirement of 1,000 from each of Colorado’s eight congressional districts. Lopez, who will be listed as unaffiliated, can now join Democratic Attorney General Phil Weiser and Republican newcomer Victor Marx on the general election ballot in November.

Lopez spokeswoman Anna Garza said Lopez intends to carry his campaign through November.

“This campaign is giving voters an independent choice grounded in People Over Politics, Do No Harm, and Do What Works,” Lopes said in a statement. “We look forward to debating the issues, presenting practical solutions, and earning the trust and support of Coloradans across the state.”

A former mayor of Parker, Lopez’s independent run is the latest turn in his decades-long quest to serve in higher office in Colorado. He’d twice mounted unsuccessful GOP primary campaigns for governor before this election cycle. He also ran for the U.S. Senate in 2016 but dropped out.

After then-U.S. Rep. Ken Buck resigned in 2024, Lopez won a special election to represent the 4th Congressional District for six months ahead of that year’s general election.

He also served as the Colorado director of the Small Business Administration and later paid a $15,000 settlement after he was accused of trying to “improperly influence actions of the SBA in violation of federal law,”

This year, Lopez initially filed to run for governor as a Republican, then announced that he’d left the party and would run as an unaffiliated candidate instead. The ballot will also include some third-party candidates.

Lopez’s candidacy will likely further complicate the narrow path to victory for Marx, the first-time political candidate who won the GOP nomination earlier this month. He’s struggled initially to pull together the disparate wings of the party.

Lopez was not popular enough among Colorado Republicans to win the party’s gubernatorial nomination when he ran in 2018 or 2022. But he still earned more than 292,000 votes in the later contest. Given Colorado’s decidedly blue hue, Marx will need every conservative and unaffiliated vote he can get if he hopes to pull off a seismic upset against Weiser in November.

In a statement Tuesday, Marx spokeswoman Rachael Flick said the candidate “isn’t (focused) on other campaigns” or “internal party politics.”

“Our campaign is focused on building the broadest possible coalition of Republicans, unaffiliated voters, and anyone who believes Colorado can do better,” she wrote.

The race also echoes the 2010 gubernatorial contest, when former Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo mounted a third-party bid against Republican nominee Dan Maes and Democratic candidate John Hickenlooper, then the Denver mayor.

, with Tancredo pulling in more than 36% of the vote. Maes finished a distant and dismal third, with just over 11%.

More than 100 years later, Colorado voters could be left out of the process of selecting our representative to the upper chamber of Congress.

That����ap not how democracy should work. And the Colorado General Assembly should do something about it.

Colorado will elect a new governor this fall. If that governor turns out to be Sen. Michael Bennet, voters will have no say in who serves them in the Senate. That����ap because Sen. Bennet  says he “will be in the position to pick the replacement.”

No ballots will be cast. Voters likely won’t even know the names being considered for our state’s highest federal office until after the decision has been made. If Bennet is elected governor, that decision will fall to him alone – taking advantage of a flaw in the current system that must be corrected.

Bennet has been routinely pressed on the issue on the campaign trail, and campaign supporters were recently directed to tell anyone who asked: “There will be some really great, young Democrat who is there to vote exactly the same way that Michael votes.”

Voters deserve better. Bennet should either say now who intends to appoint or — to remove even a hint of impropriety — promise to resign his Senate seat should he win the governor’s race and let Gov. Polis make the appointment before leaving office. Then, the legislature should come up with a fix moving forward that puts the decision in the hands of voters — which is already how it works in Colorado for U.S. House vacancies.

It����ap my view that once Sen. Bennet thinks on it a bit — he will agree.

Colorado law gives governors the authority to fill Senate vacancies without any restrictions other than that the appointee satisfy constitutional requirements for the office. Sen. Bennet, whose third full term isn’t up until 2028, has confirmed his intention to make use of that authority upon election — foregoing even the marginally preferable option of allowing current Gov. Polis to appoint a replacement — and retaining his Senate seat should he lose the gubernatorial election.

One of the major problems with the current system is it gives Bennet an unfair advantage over his competition – anyone who would like to be the senator of our state (which is a lot of people) will feel huge pressure to support Bennet for governor.

Although I have no reason to doubt his good intentions, one cannot help but think of the debacle of former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who was sentenced (and ultimately pardoned by President Trump) on charges of trying to profit from his power to appoint someone to President Barack Obama’s vacated Senate seat.

While Bennet����ap decision — should he be elected governor — to select his replacement falls within the legal authority of the governor’s office, the perception of a conflict (in which those considered or, ultimately, appointed must kiss the proverbial ring) is simply too great. Anyone and everyone with a desire to be chosen to serve as senator (which comes with a huge, unearned incumbency advantage in the next election cycle) will feel pressure to play along.

I believe voters, not politicians, should have the final say on who represents them in Washington, D.C. A special election was held when Rep. Ken Buck vacated his Congressional District 4 seat in 2024, and the state legislature needs to give voters the right to pick their senator back.

Following the Blagojevich saga, several states passed laws either removing the power of appointment from governors entirely or allowing brief placeholder appointments until voters could fill the vacancy through a special election. Methods vary, and details like election timelines and whether custodial appointees are eligible to run must be considered before passing such laws in Colorado. Polling shows the commonsense point you would expect: A clear majority of Coloradans want to vote to pick their senator, not have them appointed.

As a starting point, I would suggest a special election be held to fill the vacancy as soon as practical, and a placeholder appointed – either by the governor or the legislature – only to ensure Coloradans are represented in the Senate until voters quickly select the replacement to fill the remainder of the term.

While some might decry the cost of holding a special election, I assert that a democracy that’s in the hands of voters – not politicians – is worth it. At least 15 other states have proven that by already establishing such a system, several in response to the Blagojevich mess. But let����ap get serious: It does not take being a criminal to want to use this absolute power without creating in the appointee some sense of obligation or without having them commit to policy positions they would not otherwise.

The infringement upon the democratic process that vacancy appointments impose must be recognized and addressed without any further delay. Bennet’s gubernatorial run has brought this issue to the forefront, but it����ap hardly an isolated incident. We’ve seen a plethora of vacancies in our state legislature (so much that in the last few years as many as one in three lawmakers arrived via appointment) and it’s not out of the realm of possibility that U.S. Senate vacancies could surge as well.

Bennet was appointed to his own Senate seat in 2009, going on to be democratically reelected three times. For democracy’s sake, I hope he’s one of the last appointments.

Kent Thiry has co-chaired multiple successful Colorado citizen ballot initiatives including the 2016 efforts to restore the state’s presidential primary election (Proposition 107) and to open ��DZ��ǰ������’s primary elections to unaffiliated voters (Proposition 108), and 2018 efforts to ban political gerrymandering and create independent commissions to draw ��DZ��ǰ������’s congressional and legislative voter maps (Amendments Y and Z, respectively). He is the former chair and chief executive officer of DaVita.

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In a video announcement, Lopez spoke about putting “people over politics” while hitting on Republican red-meat issues like “government overreach,” cutting taxes and regulations, and referencing conservative concerns about public education.

“People over politics means cutting through the government red tape, making life more affordable and putting families first,” he said in the video. “This movement is about listening, not dividing.”

Lopez is the highest-profile Republican to join the 2026 gubernatorial field seeking to succeed term-limited Gov. Jared Polis, a Democrat who has served since 2019. Lopez is set to compete in the GOP primary next year against at least two state lawmakers, Rep. Scott Bottoms and Sen. Mark Baisley, as well as Teller County Sheriff Jason Mikesell.

Last week, Democratic U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet unveiled his long-anticipated campaign for governor, catapulting himself to the front of small Democratic field previously dominated by Attorney General Phil Weiser.

In June, Lopez won a special election to represent the Eastern Plains’ 4th Congressional District for roughly six months after former U.S. Rep. Ken Buck stepped down early. Lopez didn’t pursue a full term, and the seat was later won by U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert, who switched from the 3rd Congressional District.

Lopez’s stint in Congress was the second shortest of any Coloradan, behind William E. Burney’s two-month stretch in the early 1940s. Lopez previously told The Denver Post that it was an “honor and a pleasure” to have worked in Congress, even if he felt like an exchange student.

Earlier, Lopez served as the mayor of Parker. He ran for governor in 2018 and 2022, losing in the primary race each time. In 2016, he briefly ran for a U.S. Senate seat. A former director for the Small Business Administration, with the Trump administration’s Department of Justice in 2020 to resolve allegations that he’d violated conflict-of-interest policies.

After less than half a year representing the 4th Congressional District, Lopez will step aside as the second-shortest-serving member of Congress in state history — behind only , who filled a vacancy in Colorado’s then-3rd District from Nov. 5, 1940, to Jan. 3, 1941.

Lopez, a Republican who was , said his congressional stint was an “honor and a pleasure,” if a bit discombobulated. The former mayor of Parker and a two-time Colorado gubernatorial hopeful rented 14 places on short-term leases to serve as home during his six months of service in Washington, D.C.

“I was like that foreign exchange student — I showed up in the middle of the year and missed the yearbook picture, but everybody liked me because they didn’t know that much about me,” he told The Denver Post last week, as he picked up pozole in Aurora for Christmas dinner with his wife of 37 years, Lisa.

Despite the truncated term, Lopez played a small but notable role in what became a convoluted electoral chess game centered on the political survival of U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert, boosted GOP billing among Colorado’s congressional delegation and, ultimately, solidified Republican control of the U.S. House of Representatives in the upcoming Congress.

“The amount of coordination and the little bit of luck to get this to come together is something I will be teaching in class for a while,” Colorado State University political science professor Kyle Saunders said. “It’s a political story, it’s a campaign story and it’s a candidate story.”

Lopez, 60, won a special election in late June to fill out the term of Ken Buck, the longtime representative of the Eastern Plains district. Buck had abandoned his seat in March — nine months before his term was up. His retirement, announced in late 2023, set in motion a switch by Boebert, who was facing tough reelection prospects in her Western Slope district, to politically friendlier territory on the other side of the state.

The plan worked: Boebert won a hard-fought 4th Congressional District primary in a crowded Republican field and went on to win election easily in November. On the same night, Republican Jeff Hurd defeated his well-funded Democratic opponent, Adam Frisch, in the district Boebert had departed less than a year prior, and two years after Frisch nearly toppled her in the midterm election.

“It led to the Republicans holding both of these seats,” Saunders said of Boebert’s move.

Lopez, chosen by the 4th District����ap central committee in late March to run in the special election, made it clear from the outset that he wouldn’t run in the June 25 primary against Boebert and nine other GOP hopefuls.

Boebert, in a statement, praised Lopez as having represented Colorado “in a principled manner” as she scraped her way to becoming his successor. The 4th District seat represents agricultural communities across a large expanse of land but also well-populated suburban Douglas County in south metro Denver.

“While his time in Congress may have been quick, Congressman Lopez absolutely made the most of it and gave a voice to ��DZ��ǰ������’s 4th District that his constituents had been without for too long,” she said. “He consistently went above and beyond his duties, from speaking up for his district in internal meetings and on the House floor to being an eager collaborator on the issues we agreed on, like cutting wasteful government spending.”

The nation’s mounting debt was a chief concern for Lopez while he was in Congress. In his final vote as a congressman, he opposed a continuing resolution to fund the government, saying on Dec. 20 that he could not “accept a bill that does nothing to address our $36 trillion debt.”

In September, he introduced a bill requiring a tally of the national debt to be listed on ballots in elections for federal office.

The next month, he introduced a bill touting a “Red Card” system to allow private businesses to hire immigrant workers who enter and live in the U.S. to work “under strict government oversight.” The arrangement, which would be critical to the 4th District’s labor-hungry agricultural sector, would not provide those workers a path to citizenship.

At the time that concern about Venuezelan gang activity and arrests in Aurora was making national headlines in September, Lopez introduced a measure that called on the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to detain and deport people in the country illegally with known gang affiliations.

None of his bills made it to the House floor for a vote, but Lopez said he was glad to have a voice in the Congress.

“I went in there knowing I was going to be there a short time,” he said. “It’s not often you get a chance to serve the people at that level.”

It wasn’t all work and grind in Washington. Lopez, during the interview, reminisced about the September day he was chosen MVP at the congressional flag football game against the Capitol Police.

As for the future and where politics might fit into it, Lopez said he was “keeping all my options open.”

“It’s been a great six months,” he said, “and maybe at some point I’ll write a book about it.”

The closely fought 8th Congressional District, where Republican state lawmaker Gabe Evans unseated incumbent Democratic U.S. Rep. Yadira Caraveo by less than 2,500 votes, accounted for nearly half of the total spending — $40 million total. Of that, $29 million was spent by outside groups in the 8th, which covers the north Denver suburbs up through Greeley.

It was one of the 10 most expensive congressional races in the country, according to campaign finance tracker .

Much of the remaining money focused on the Western Slope-based 3rd Congressional District, where Democrat Adam Frisch nearly unseated Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert in 2022 but faced a new GOP nominee this time, and the Eastern Plains’ 4th Congressional District. That traditionally ruby-red Republican district is where Boebert ran in this cycle. Campaigns filed their post-election reports by Thursday night with the Federal Election Commission.

In the 8th District, the spending showed a clear tilt toward Caraveo, the incumbent in the state’s newest seat. Her campaign directly spent more than $8 million, records show, while outside groups spent more than $16 million to either boost her or tear down Evans.

In all, more than $151 was spent for each of the 160,871 general election votes she received.

Evans spent more than $2.5 million directly, while another $13 million was spent by outside groups — or about $96 total for each of his 163,320 votes.

“Gabe Evans was the only candidate in the country to beat a Democrat incumbent in a state Kamala Harris won because we ran a disciplined campaign with the best candidate in the country,” Evans campaign spokesperson Tyler Moore said in a statement Friday. “Despite being massively outspent, Gabe’s message as a cop, soldier, husband, father and Latino resonated with everyday Coloradans who want good jobs, affordability and safe communities.”

Caraveo’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment.

The flipped seat will split Colorado’s congressional delegation between four Democrats and four Republicans, despite the state’s distinctly blue shift in recent elections. It also will give Republicans a slight buffer in Washington, D.C., where the party will enter the next term with in Congress.

The 8th District is one of the most competitive in the nation, and the political parties and House leadership spent like their potential majorities depended on it.

The Congressional Leadership Fund, a Republican-affiliated super PAC, and the National Republican Congressional Committee spent a combined $9.6 million to boost Evans’ campaign. The House Majority PAC, Democrats’ super PAC, and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee likewise combined for about $8 million to support Caraveo.

The partisan groups were four of the top five outsider spenders. The pro-cryptocurrency political action committee Fairshake rounded out the top five, with about $2.2 million spent to boost Caraveo.

Lopsided money in 3rd District

He spent nearly all of his $18 million bankroll in this cycle trying to get over the finish line after Boebert switched districts in late 2023 — aided by about $649,000 in outside money. That total spending was about 4.5 times the campaign and outside spending on behalf of Republican Jeff Hurd.

Hurd won the Republican-leaning district by about 19,800 votes, or about 5 percentage points.

In all, spending by or to support Hurd amounted to about $20 per general election vote (though he also faced a competitive primary, which accounted for some of the spending). Spending by Frisch or to support him amounted to about $102 per general election vote.

The results show that “you’ll never be able to purchase an election” if voters don’t trust the candidate’s authenticity or their party, said Nick Bayer, a spokesperson for Hurd’s campaign, in an email Friday. Frisch’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment.

“We always knew we were going to be grossly outspent, so we had to rely on Jeff’s extraordinary work ethic to be everywhere,” Bayer said. “Our team was lean and smart in any expenditure we made, and community leaders and local party organizations stepped up big time to help us get our message out.”

Spending in Boebert’s race

Meanwhile, the money followed Boebert in her move to the northern Front Range to run for the 4th District seat. She reported spending more than $5.6 million this election cycle, including to win a six-person primary race in June. Most of Boebert’s reported spending happened before the homestretch of the campaign this fall.

Trisha Calvarese, who won a three-person Democratic primary in June, saw her fundraising and — correspondingly — spending take off after Boebert won the Republican nomination. Calvarese ended up spending about $4.1 million, almost all of it after the primary, to contest the most Republican district in the state.

Boebert spent about $1.1 million in that time, according to her campaign finance reports. Boebert won the seat by more than 50,000 votes, or about 11 percentage points. Her campaign declined to comment Friday.

Including outside spending — which was much lower than in the 8th District — about $23.72 was spent by or in support of Boebert for each general election vote she won. Total spending amounted to $23.45 per vote for Calvarese, who received more outside support.

Calvarese highlighted that she outran the last Democrat to vie for the seat — Ike McCorkle by 24 percentage points in 2022 — and called herself “humbled, grateful and inspired by the might of us ordinary people and a growing labor movement.”

“In a cycle where nine out of 10 U.S. counties shifted red, Boebert had to spend big in the reddest district in Colorado,” Calvarese wrote in a text message. “Why? Because hardworking people invested in the idea of a representative from the district dedicated to doing the hard work of Congressional casework instead of self-promotional crap like Cameo.”

Money spent to win each vote

Here’s a breakdown of the equivalent direct spending per general election vote earned by major congressional campaigns in Colorado in the 2024 cycle. The figures do not include outside spending, unless otherwise noted. In some cases, candidates faced primary elections that would have contributed to spending throughout the cycle.

1st Congressional District: Rep. Diana DeGette (D, winner): $4.42; Valdamar Archuleta (R): $0.14.

2nd Congressional District: Rep. Joe Neguse (D, winner): $8.08; Marshall Dawson (R): $0.21.

3rd Congressional District: Adam Frisch (D): $98.08; Jeff Hurd (R, winner): $13.46.

4th Congressional District: Rep. Lauren Boebert (R, winner): $23.46; Trisha Calvarese (D): $21.73.

5th Congressional District: Jeff Crank (R, winner): $4.67; River Gassen (D): $1.05.

6th Congressional District: Rep. Jason Crow (D, winner): $9.78; John Fabbricatore (R): $2.14.

7th Congressional District: Rep. Brittany Pettersen (D, winner): $8.11; Sergei Matveyuk (R): $0.22.

8th Congressional District: Rep. Yadira Caraveo (D): $50.33; Gabe Evans (R, winner): $15.51. (Including outside spending, totals were $151.25 for Caraveo and $96.48 for Evans. The race was one of the most heavily contested in the country.)

Source: Federal Election Commission filings.

Colorado voters navigated a complex ballot full of policy questions and did a remarkable job of parsing through the pros and cons of each measure.

As Donald Trump regains the White House with a Republican majority in the House and Senate, we are thrilled voters in Colorado have added constitutional protections to abortion. A remarkable 61% of voters wanted reproductive freedoms in the state Constitution and repealed an outdated law preventing Medicaid from covering abortions.

Our voices on abortion, as well as a majority of voters who supported abortion rights in Arizona, Florida, Missouri, Maryland, Montana, Nevada, and New York, send a strong message that abortion should not be banned by federal lawmakers.

Colorado voters spoke out clearly that they wanted to be tougher on crime, allocating $350 million from the state’s general fund for police officer’s salaries, retention bonuses, training and a fund for if they are injured or killed. Voters also said they don’t want murder suspects to be eligible for bail and want criminals to serve at least 85% of their sentences.

This tracks with what happened nationwide, where every county in California approved a ballot measure repealing a law considered to be soft on crime. It also partially explains Trump’s big win.

But Colorado voters rejected other conservative measures, including a ballot measure that would have guaranteed Coloradans school choice. While we love our charter schools, we recognize that vouchers for the wealthy students already attending private schools will only undermine our public school funding.

The most surprising outcome of all was that voters rejected a ban on mountain lion and bobcat hunting and trapping. Coloradans have historically voted at the ballot box in favor of animal rights, and it was a refreshing turn of course for a measure that went too far to be soundly rejected.

Denver voters took a similar course this election striking down attempts to shut down a lamb slaughterhouse and to ban fur sales within city limits. Both measures were brought by a group that believes killing any animal for food or clothing should be classified as animal cruelty.

For years, we’ve lamented the existence of an urban/rural divide but that gap seems to be closing – 55% of voters opposed the Proposition 127 hunting ban. Respecting all forms of outdoor recreation in a state loved for its wild places is healthy. Voters, however, also voted to tax gun sales, making sure firearms help pay for the victims’ advocacy services in this state.

Our state is politically diverse. As of Thursday 1.47 million people had voted for Kamala Harris and 1.16 million had voted for Trump.

Coloradans replaced three retiring or fleeing incumbent Republicans at the ballot this year. Jeff Crank, a long-time Republican commentator from El Paso County and Jeff Hurd, a Republican newcomer to politics who grew up in Grand Junction, will join our stalwart Democratic Party incumbents who all won safe elections: Diana DeGette, Joe Neguse, Jason Crow, and Brittany Pettersen. We are excited to see how Crank and Hurd navigate D.C. politics and wish them well.

Lauren Boebert will also return to Congress only this time representing Congressional District 4. We will miss Ken Buck.

Meanwhile, the race in ��DZ��ǰ������’s newest congressional district is too close to call. Incumbent Yadira Caraveo was only winning by 2,300 votes with thousands of ballots remaining to be counted.

No matter what happens chaos unfolds in Washington as Trump retakes the White House, we are confident that Coloradans will stick together and work for a brighter future for everyone who calls this great state home.

To send a letter to the editor about this article, submit online or check out our guidelines for how to submit by email or mail.

The Associated Press declared Boebert the winner at 9:18 p.m.

according to the latest unofficial results. Democrat Trisha Calvarese had nearly 43% of the 392,639 of the ballots tallied.

Boebert said Democratic contender Trisha Calvarese called to concede, and shortly before 10 p.m., Calvarese issued a concession statement to the media that highlighted the 10-percentage-point margin — saying she “significantly over performed” expectations.

Also on the ballot were Frank Atwood of the Approval Voting Party with 1.30%; Hannah Goodman of the Libertarian Party with 2.41%; and Paul Noel Fiorino of the Unity Party with 0.29%

ELECTION RESULTS: Live Colorado election results for the 2024 election

Boebert’s defection from the 3rd Congressional District created a stir in a part of the state where the Republican candidate is usually a shoo-in. But Calvarese’s effort to upset Boebert drew millions of dollars in contributions in recent months.

Even so, the district that encompasses a huge chunk of eastern Colorado, is considered the safest in the state for Republicans. Ken Buck, who stepped down early after announcing he wouldn’t run again, won reelection by nearly 24 percentage points over his Democratic opponent in 2022.

“In these uncertain times, as we start a new political chapter, I know this to be true: Love exists. People are good. I’m not going anywhere,” Calvarese said in her statement. “Despite the outcome tonight, I’m committed to the dignity of working people and a democratic future that belongs to ALL of us.”

Boebert, 37, an outspoken supporter of former President Donald Trump, barely defeated Democrat Adam Frisch for a second term in the 3rd District in 2022. She pulled up stakes in western Colorado and moved to Windsor after a contentious divorce and generating international headlines for her ouster from the touring Broadway musical “Beetlejuice” at Denver’s Buell Theatre.

Calvarese, 38, who recently returned to Highlands Ranch where she grew up, has called out the Beetlejuice incident as well as Boebert’s vote against expanding health care coverage for veterans who were exposed to toxic burn pits while deployed. The Democrat, who won a three-way race in the primary election, called her challenge of Boebert “absolutely winnable,” citing a poll released in May showing nearly half the respondents with an

However, Boebert, despite being called a carpetbagger for switching to the 4th District, defeated five opponents in the GOP primary, winning three times as many votes as the next-closest candidate. While Boebert’s controversial statements and actions, like heckling President Joe Biden during a State of the Union speech, have garnered criticism, her support for gun rights and cracking down on illegal immigration and her opposition to abortion resonate with conservative voters.

Calvarese, who worked for the National Science Foundation and the AFL-CIO, the nation’s largest federation of labor unions, supports abortion rights, investing in renewable energy to address climate change and ensuring access to health care

Frisch conceded to Hurd on Wednesday at about 3:30 p.m. By then, Hurd had just over 50% of the vote to Frisch’s 46.8%, with 354,331 votes counted.

“I told voters — and I intend to follow up on that promise — that securing the border will be a top priority, growing our energy economy and protecting water and agriculture, so those are going to be my top priorities when I’m sworn in,” Hurd said in a phone interview.

On Wednesday afternoon, he described himself as “a little tired, but very happy and excited to move on to serving this district where I was raised and where I’m raising my family.”

To Coloradans, including his constituents in District 3, “they can expect a sincere, hardworking, authentic representative who will never forget where he came from and who he’s serving,” Hurd said.

, which provides nonpartisan analyses of electoral races, ranked the race as one that leaned Republican. That was a shift from its former ranking as “likely Republican,” which made it more competitive for Frisch.

ELECTION RESULTS: Live Colorado election results for the 2024 election

The other two candidates on the ballot were the Unity Party of Colorado’s Adam Withrow and James Wiley, a Libertarian.

District 3 encompasses much of the Western Slope. A handful of cities — Grand Junction, Pueblo, Aspen, Durango and Glenwood Springs — also fall within its jurisdiction.

The area tends to vote red, but Frisch put up a fight in 2022 against Boebert, losing only by about 500 votes. Since then, Boebert has left the 3rd District to focus on succeeding U.S. Rep. Ken Buck in the Eastern Plains’ conservative 4th District.

Hurd, an attorney in Grand Junction, won the GOP  around 41% of the vote. Former State Rep. Ron Hanks trailed at No. 2 with almost 29%, followed by former Colorado State Board of Education member with close to 10%.

Frisch, who previously served as an Aspen city councilman, won the Democratic primary in June uncontested.

He ran on a platform focused on protecting the local water supply, helping families afford household necessities and addressing immigration issues, according to the candidate questionnaire he answered for The Denver Post.

“A few moments ago, I called to offer my congratulations to Jeff Hurd for being the next Representative for ��DZ��ǰ������’s 3rd Congressional District,” Frisch said in a news release. “While we were not victorious, I believe that this campaign was part of an important movement that seeks to turn the political temperature down and start focusing on the real challenges that face communities like the ones in CD3.”