The Glenwood Hot Springs Protection Act, backed by Bennet, Hurd and U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper, was announced during a virtual press call with local officials, tribal representatives and community leaders who said the quarry poses a threat to Glenwood Springs’ hot springs, tourism economy and quality of life. The bill was introduced in the House as H.R. 9826, Hurd said Thursday. Bennet said a companion bill was being introduced in the Senate the same day.

“Together we’re introducing bipartisan legislation with Senator Hickenlooper and Representative Hurd to stop the BLM from approving any expansion of the Mid-Continent Quarry,” Bennet said. “The Glenwood Hot Springs are part of who we are as Coloradans, and I am glad to lead this fight to protect them.”

The announcement came after  in June, moving the proposal into technical review before a future public review process. .

Delvin Rodriguez was not among them. But it wasn’t for lack of trying: In late October, a month after he was arrested during a traffic stop on his way to a construction site near Dillon, the 39-year-old Colorado resident, who did not have permanent legal status, agreed to leave the country. Two of his sisters recalled that Rodriguez had spoken with a lawyer, who told him fighting his case would be expensive and likely unsuccessful, in part because he’d been arrested by immigration authorities when he first entered the country in 2018.

At first, through phone calls from the detention center in Aurora, he’d assured his sisters that he was only on vacation. After he met the lawyer and decided to stop fighting his removal, he was calm, his family remembered.

“I said that it was OK. I respected his decision,” remembered one sister. Both spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear of retaliation by ICE. “Everything’s in God’s hands. Either way, he was going home.”

But Rodriguez did not go home. Before Christmas — more than two months after he first entered the detention system — he was dead in Mississippi, one of a growing number of immigrant detainees who’ve died in custody over the past 18 months.

Rodriguez was the first person arrested in Colorado to die in immigration custody in eight years, according to a review of the agency’s official releases, and he was the 32nd immigrant to die in federal custody under President Donald Trump’s second administration. In the seven months since his death, that total has increased to 55.

His death was ruled a suicide by a Mississippi medical examiner, according to an autopsy report obtained through a public records request. At least nine other detainees have died by suicide since January 2025, amid the federal government’s efforts to rapidly increase arrests while gutting the independent agencies charged with scrutinizing the country’s rapidly expanding immigrant detention network.

In the months since, his family and a Colorado advocacy group have pressed for answers on the circumstances of his death and why he was still detained. With the help of a U.S. senator, some details have emerged only in recent days.

After his arrest, Rodriguez spent 66 days in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Aurora detention facility,  according to ICE detention records analyzed by The Denver Post. He was briefly logged at a holding room in Arizona before moving again, on Dec. 1, to one of the nation’s largest detention facilities, housed in a private prison in Mississippi.

When he arrived, Rodriguez called his sisters. He told them he had not eaten much because there wasn’t enough food, they recalled. He was anxious about why he hadn’t left the country yet.

Two days later, he was isolated in an open-door cell after he exhibited behavior that “concerned” staff at the Adams County Correctional Center in Mississippi, said Alex Sánchez of Voces Unidas, an advocacy group working with Rodriguez’s family. Sánchez was present for a briefing about Rodriguez’s case last week by U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet’s office. The cell’s open door would allow staff members to monitor him “at all times,” and Sánchez said the setting sounded akin to suicide watch.

His sisters remembered talking to Rodriguez on the phone. They said he still seemed calm.

On Dec. 4, the day after he was moved to the cell, Rodriguez was found unresponsive around 4:15 p.m. On-site staff gave him CPR, and paramedics arrived at roughly 4:40 p.m., according to statements from ICE and CoreCivic, the company that operates the prison. He spent the next 10 days on life support in a nearby hospital, where .

Officials from ICE and from CoreCivic have released little additional information about his case.

“Where was the staff (who) were in charge? Were there cameras, what truly happened?” his sister said earlier this year in an interview with The Post, before the family was provided details about his placement in a special cell. She spoke Spanish and communicated through an interpreter. “We want a test of justice for him.”

It’s unclear when the center’s staff members last checked on Rodriguez before he was found unresponsive, or why he was able to attempt suicide in a setting that seemed designed to prevent it.

“It was the middle of the day, so where were they?” Sánchez said of the staff members who were supposed to monitor Rodriguez. “How does it happen in the middle of the day, especially when it sounds like staff did some kind of intervention (the day before)?”

, detainees at risk of suicide “may” be placed in a “suicide-resistant cell with constant (one-to-one) monitoring” that must be documented every 15 minutes. The cell must be free of “objects or structural elements that could facilitate a suicide attempt.”

ICE denied a records request seeking documents about Rodriguez’s case, citing an ongoing law enforcement investigation. An unnamed agency representative did not respond when asked about the investigation, instead referring The Post to .

Suicides in detention centers face scrutiny

In a May investigation into detainee suicides, that ICE detention centers have repeatedly fallen short in ways that violate ICE’s own standards. An examination of the 10 suicide deaths found the detainees died in facilities that had ignored signs of distress, delayed mental health treatment and failed to monitor detainees who were already deemed at risk.

They also permitted detainees to have access to materials that could be used for self-harm, the AP found. Rodriguez used items in his cell to hang himself, according to the autopsy report, an ICE statement and information gleaned by Sánchez during the briefing by Bennet����ap office. Several other detainee deaths have involved similar means, according to a Post review of ICE fatality reports.

“Someone should not be able to kill themselves in a detention center or a prison,” William Lopez, a public health professor at the University of Michigan who studies incarceration and deportation, told The Post. “… One should not be able to kill someone else in one of these facilities; one should not be able to harm someone else. The fact that it����ap been happening, again, points to ineptitude.”

When ICE announced Rodriguez’s death, the agency said he had received a mental health screening two days before he was found in his cell and that he was cleared for the general population. The report does not mention that staff members were concerned about his behavior or that they had placed him in a cell for closer monitoring.

Last week, Rodriguez’s family learned more about the circumstances surrounding his death from Bennet’s office, which had been briefed by officials from the Department of Homeland Security.

In a statement, Bennet spokeswoman Sophie Ulin said agency officials had explained “the timeline of events and outlined the procedures that were followed.”

ICE did not respond to questions about the briefing. In a March statement, ICE spokeswoman Angelina C. Vicknair said that all detainees are “provided comprehensive medical care from the moment they enter ICE custody … (including) a medical, dental, and mental health intake screening within 12 hours of arriving at each detention facility, a full health assessment within 14 days of entering ICE custody or arrival at a facility, and access to medical appointments and 24-hour emergency care.”

CoreCivic also did not respond when asked about the family’s briefing. In an April statement to The Post, spokesman Brian Todd said the incident had been thoroughly reviewed.

“We adhere to all applicable federal detention standards in our ICE-contracted facilities, including our Adams County Correctional Center,” he wrote. “Our immigration facilities are monitored very closely by our government partners at ICE, and they are required to undergo regular review and audit processes to ensure an appropriate standard of living and care for all detainees.”

As of April, the Mississippi facility was the second-largest ICE detention center in America by average daily population, at Syracuse University. A said it had five mental health observation cells, 202 detention officers and six mental health providers for a facility capable of housing more than 2,100 detainees at a time.

Brandon Riches, an immigration attorney in Mississippi who previously conducted legal training for detainees in the facility, said the detention center was one of the nicer ones he’d been in. But it still felt like a “maximum-security prison.”

“Locks on the doors, push the button to get through, the whole nine yards,” he said.

Still, like many other detention centers, the facility has a checkered history.

In May, that the facility had failed to properly review and document staff members’ use of force.

In 2012, three years after Adams County opened its doors, immigrant detainees launched a deadly riot over the facility’s conditions. An affidavit by an FBI agent, first reported by the , said detainees rioted over “inadequate or substandard food, medical conditions and disrespectful staff members.” Hostages were taken, and one correctional officer was killed.

Nine years later, in 2021, that a sick detainee died in the facility after staff failed to send the patient to the hospital. Federal inspectors also criticized the facility’s communication between detainees and staff, as well as its grievance standards.

‘He had been through a lot’

In his final conversations with his sisters, Rodriguez told them the facility was crowded and that he wasn’t receiving enough food.

He’d supported his sisters and mother since he began working at age 18. He’d served in the Nicaraguan military, then worked in construction in Costa Rica before traveling to the United States, where he applied for asylum.

“He had been through a lot before relocating to the U.S.,” said Karen McCarthy, an attorney who represented Rodriguez during his prior immigration proceedings. They also lived in the same neighborhood in Summit County. “He struck me as an honest person. I enjoyed getting to know him. He was always very cordial and polite, and somebody you wanted as a neighbor.”

When ICE announced Rodriguez’s death, the agency said he had been scheduled to fly home on Dec. 13 — the day before he was removed from life support.

The Mississippi prison to which he was moved is a short drive from a major airport in Alexandria, Louisiana. A sort of reverse Ellis Island, Alexandria is one of the primary departure points for deportation flights, particularly for those heading to Nicaragua, , a nonprofit group that defends immigrants’ and refugees’ rights. There were 10 flights to Managua, the country’s capital, in November, and nine more in December.

Why Rodriguez wasn’t on any of those flights is unclear.

Federal agencies have declined to provide specific information about his case, and he did not have a lawyer for most of his time in detention. His family said he had signed papers with ICE to stop contesting his removal. ICE records indicate his deportation order was signed Oct. 24.

Rodriguez told his sisters he was missing some sort of travel document, though his family had his passport. To maximize efficiency, ICE often keeps people from the same country detained until it can fill an entire flight, according to several immigration attorneys who spoke generally about ICE practices. Deportation timelines vary based on factors that are often opaque, those attorneys said.

“People don’t actually get deported rapidly all the time,” said Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, a national advocacy group. “There are a lot of cases in which individuals can languish in detention for days, weeks, even months prior to deportation. That����ap because the actual act of deportation itself requires coordination inside the government.”

Rodriguez’s missing travel document may have slowed his deportation, attorneys said. Hans Meyer, an immigration attorney in Denver, said Rodriguez may have had “horrifically bad luck, and he got disappeared into a horrible black hole.”

On the day that Rodriguez died, there were more than 68,400 people in immigration detention centers across the United States. That was an all-time high, .

“That is just the reality of the system,” Reichlin-Melnick said. “People get caught in it and fall through the cracks and end up not being deported, even though they desperately are asking to be.”

That is roughly how much was spent on all of Colorado’s competitive primaries for statewide and federal office — and almost all of it went to influence Democrat-vs.-Democrat contests as voters picked who would represent the party in November’s election, according to an analysis by The Denver Post. Millions more went to down-ballot races, such as local legislative races.

The rain from the proverbial storm of cash poured down in the form of candidate mailers, door knockers, and TV and digital ads, and in less apparent campaign infrastructure and polls. The vast majority of the money went directly to campaigns and supported direct messaging, staffing and other expenses of running for office.

But more than a third — almost $25 million — flooded the races through super PACs and other outside groups that approach politics with different levels of opacity.

The money also didn’t do much to predict eventual winners. Four of the most-monied candidates seeking statewide or federal offices won their primaries. Four others lost.

Paul Teske, a political scientist at the University of Colorado Denver, said it can be tough to tease out how much of a difference money can make in a campaign, especially if spending between candidates is in the same ballpark. But the amount this time also seems striking, even if there isn’t an immediate apples-to-apples comparison to prior election years.

“People realize this is a way to influence policy that can be effective — if it’s the right place, at the right time, in the right way,” Teske said.

Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg appears to have been the single largest player in Colorado politics in the June 30 primaries. The billionaire pumped $5 million in cash into a state super PAC backing U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet����ap failed bid for governor against Attorney General Phil Weiser. Weiser ended up winning the race by more than 13 percentage points.

The race for the Democratic nomination for governor by far outstripped every other race in the primaries, with more than $24.5 million spent by either the super PACs backing the candidates or by the campaigns themselves.

That money was almost evenly split between the super PACs and the campaigns, though that number is skewed by the super PAC backing Bennet, Rocky Mountain Way. That political action committee spent nearly $11 million, almost twice as much as Bennet����ap official campaign spent.

The Republican side of the governor’s race saw a relatively paltry $4.1 million spent through June 29, the cutoff for the most recent batch of campaign data. Nonprofit leader Victor Marx, who had more than $3.2 million of that money backing him either directly or through a state super PAC, narrowly secured the nomination Thursday over state Sen. Barb Kirkmeyer and third-place state Rep. Scott Bottoms.

On the federal side of the ledger, the money becomes even more opaque — though there was less of it. Campaigns’ federal reports cover fundraising and spending through June 10, though outside groups had to file more frequent spending reports in the lead-up to the election.

State Rep. Manny Rutinel benefited from the most outside money, $5.5 million, in his successful campaign for the Democratic nomination in the 8th Congressional District. By comparison, Shannon Bird, the former state representative who lost to Rutinel, saw $1.7 million spent to buoy her.

More than $3 million of outside help for Rutinel came from the Latino Victory Fund and the associated Latino Victory Project. Those groups have received money from Opportunity Forward Alliance, a dark-money group that describes itself as backing business-friendly policies, and 5000 Broadway Productions, the production company founded by Lin-Manuel Miranda.

He also benefited from almost $1 million spent by You Can Push Back, a super PAC supported by . And $1.2 million backing Rutinel’s campaign came from the SOMOS PAC, a super PAC that was backed by the nonprofit Advocacy Action Fund. That nonprofit has been linked and has a history of giving to self-styled progressive and abortion-rights advocacy groups.

That 8th District race — expected to be one of the most competitive in the nation, again — will almost certainly draw a gob-smacking amount of money and attention as the November general election nears. In 2024, the candidates and outside groups spent more than $40 million on the election that saw U.S. Rep. Gabe Evans, a Republican, win the seat. It was among in the country and is seen this time as key to whichever party will hold the House majority next year.

Now Evans is running for reelection in the 8th District, which stretches from the north Denver suburbs to Greeley.

U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette, who was on the wrong side of the primary night’s biggest upset in Colorado, was the second-largest beneficiary of outside money, largely as part of a last-minute surge to preserve her office. More than $2.3 million flew into that race to defend DeGette, whose 1st Congressional District mostly covers Denver.

Of that, more than $1.5 million came from the Pro-Choice Majority Action PAC, which in turn receives money from the EDW Action Fund, a pro-Democratic women’s group that is , or AIPAC.

By comparison, now-Democratic nominee Melat Kiros, a democratic socialist who beat DeGette by 13.4 percentage points, had just over $500,000 in outside spending support her campaign against the 30-year incumbent. Kiros’ campaign also spent less than $600,000 directly, or less than half of DeGette’s total campaign spending.

The Associated Press called the race for Marx late Thursday afternoon, nearly nine days after polls closed. He led the runner-up, state Sen. Barb Kirkmeyer, 39.9% to 39.4%, with 99% of ballots counted, .

Marx had taken his first narrow lead over Kirkmeyer the day after the June 30 primary, and though the race remained close, he never lost the advantage. While outstanding deficient and overseas ballots helped delay a final call on the race, those votes only served to expand Marx’s margin. He led by 2,414 votes at 7:10 p.m. Thursday, out of nearly 523,000 ballots cast.

Victor Marx, the Republican nominee for Colorado governor, has an unusual backstory. Here’s what to know.

State Rep. Scott Bottoms was a distant third, with 20.8% of the vote.

A veteran lawmaker and former Weld County commissioner, Kirkmeyer had jumped to an early advantage on the strength of early ballot returns. But as votes returned on Election Day began to filter in, her lead thinned and collapsed. Within 48 hours of polls closing, and with few ballots left to count in Kirkmeyer's Front Range strongholds, her path to retake the lead had all but vanished.

Marx will next face Democratic Attorney General Phil Weiser in November. No Republican has been elected to the governor's office in more than 20 years. Four months out, Weiser appears to be heavily favored to continue Democrats’ electoral dominance.

"My team and I have put together this special message that I want every Coloradan to hear —Republicans, independents, unaffiliated voters, and Democrats who are open to a better way," he said. "Because what we're building now is bigger than a primary victory."

In a video, he appealed to Coloradans who are frustrated with the status quo and don't think things can change — citing his victory as proof they can.

"Now Phil Weiser, he's a smart fella — but he represents the current system, because he is part of it," Marx said. "And that current system has made Colorado more expensive, less safe and harder for regular families to trust government."

In a separate statement, Kirkmeyer said she was proud of the race that she had run and the "clear vision" she had laid out for the Republican Party here.

"While we came up short in what appears to be the closest Republican gubernatorial primary in Colorado history, I’m grateful for every voter who placed their trust in us," she wrote.

Echoing the pledge she'd made before Election Day, she pointedly did not endorse Marx. She said only that she hoped voters "choose the path that is best for Colorado" in November.

Kirkmeyer also threw a final jab at Marx, who declined in late May to tell 9News how many people he'd killed as an adult.

Kirkmeyer wrote that, "for the record, I still haven’t killed anyone."

First-time candidate shrugged off questions

Marx's primary win is a remarkable result for the embattled Colorado GOP and for Marx, a former Marine, martial arts instructor and nonprofit leader whose extensive and much-scrutinized personal history had drawn national headlines. It's also attracted sharp criticism from other Republicans.

In his video, Marx appealed to Republican primary voters, saying there was room in his campaign for those who supported his opponents.

Marx had entered the fray last fall with no political profile and no experience as a political candidate. But by the time voters began receiving ballots last month, he'd ridden an atypical — if thoroughly modern — campaign to fundraising dominance and front-runner status.

Kirkmeyer’s support largely flowed from northern Front Range counties, nudging her ahead initially. But Marx picked up bigger margins among Election Day voters — meaning those more conservative voters skeptical of mail-in balloting.

He also won ruby-red El Paso County while racking up smaller wins in rural counties and grabbing enough in the Front Range to edge Kirkmeyer.

Map: Where did the votes come from in the Colorado primary races for governor?

In a pitch reminiscent of President Donald Trump, the arch-dealmaker, Marx has cast himself as a solutions-focused negotiator disinterested in partisan squabbles. In 2003, he founded All Things Possible Ministries, a Christian nonprofit that has provided stuffed animals and trauma support to people. It has also done work in conflict areas in Syria and Iraq, where Marx primarily worked away from the front lines as a funder and facilitator.

By 2024, the nonprofit's annual revenue had surpassed $7.5 million, and Marx has said the group — from which he has resigned — now primarily works to help law enforcement.

Despite his outsider status, Marx was considered the likely winner in the weeks before Election Day. His narrow victory, then, came as something of a surprise, and, on election night, he speculated that Bottoms — a conservative pastor from Colorado Springs — had pulled votes from him. In El Paso County, Bottoms earned more than 20,000 votes, or 24% of the county’s Republican total.

Though Marx out-raised and out-spent both Kirkmeyer and Bottoms, it was Kirkmeyer who had been perceived as the expected nominee when she entered the race last year. Marx had never run for office before, and the stories he’s told about his life — that he’d killed a man at age 7, been involved in "high-risk humanitarian" operations across the globe and could free people from demonic possession — drew intense scrutiny and national punchlines.

But he repeatedly shrugged off questions about his background and said he stood by all that he had said and written.

Through his personality-heavy, direct-to-voter campaign, he encouraged Colorado Republicans to shrug it off, too. He spent heavily on direct mailers, which provided a boost to both his fundraising and name recognition.

Marx eschewed policy discussions and skipped nearly every debate. When he did participate in one, he spent part of the event leaning on the lectern, with his dog at his feet. Rather than deliver a closing statement, he prayed.

Campaigning his own way

Though he leaned into his outsider status, the aw-shucks appeal belied a careful campaign shaped by Marx's emergence from a political environment forged by Trump: He skipped one debate after a moderator pressed him about his background, and he held a rally instead; his campaign later highlighted how many more people attended the rally than the debate.

His media operation was led by a former Turning Points USA staffer, and his campaign touted its social media posts' views at Marx's watch party last week. He was comfortable as a podcast guest, regularly released videos of himself and repeatedly assured voters that he was no politician.

Though Marx had little backing — or trust — from institutional Republican forces, the PAC that supported his campaign was established by a former senior official from Gov. Bill Owens' administration. Marx also was endorsed by U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert, the most nationally visible Colorado Republican.

His approach proved to be enough for Colorado Republicans to back him. But his next task will be far harder.

In November, he will face a surging Weiser, who last week dismantled U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet on his way to the Democratic nomination. Weiser proved an adept fundraiser and campaigner with statewide appeal, and he will look to lead a restless Democratic base that elected progressive candidates up and down the ballot.

In a statement Thursday, Weiser said Marx's "views and style are far out of step with Coloradans, and his nomination for governor is a threat to our state’s values and our future."

Republicans' last statewide win was in a University of Colorado at-large regent's race in 2016. The state GOP has had four elected party chairs since the last Republican gubernatorial bid in 2022, which ended with a culture war-focused Heidi Ganahl — who had won that at-large regent seat — losing by nearly 20 percentage points to Gov. Jared Polis.

Simultaneously, Marx may also have to contend with an independent candidacy from Greg Lopez, a former Republican congressman and gubernatorial candidate who is gathering signatures to make the fall ballot.

What an interesting primary election for the Democrats. Name recognition was supposed to give the victory to Sen. Michael Bennet, but it did not. He announced his campaign, saying he could get more done in Colorado than in Washington, D.C. So, I guess the honorable thing to do would be to retire from his Senate seat. Then, in an ironic twist, Phil Weiser could appoint his replacement.

Name recognition, and it would seem, name recognition only, brought victory to Jena Griswold. She’s an attorney with no courtroom or prosecutorial experience. Her future staff in the attorney general’s office are going to have so much fun at staff meetings.

Then there is state Rep. Sean Comacho’s defeat. Sean, we just wanted to know the source of all that dark money. Maybe you should go see Disclosure Day.

Finally, there is U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette’s defeat, which happened due to laziness and complacency. I’m not exactly sad to see DeGette go, but now we have a candidate for November who believes the state of Israel has no right to exist and should not have weapons to defend itself. Melat Kiros seems like a smart person. But if you can’t make a distinction between the government of Israel and its people, maybe not.

James Ronald LaFollette, Denver

Over the years, The Denver Post has run a goodly number of opinions I’ve submitted, and I appreciate it. However, I’ve submitted a few proclaiming my disapproval of the policies and actions of the state of Israel, which is not antisemitic. I harbor no animosity or prejudice against the Jewish faith nor its culture. Not one of those submissions was published.

It would seem the results of the Denver Democratic primary are an indication that I was and am not alone in this persuasion. I am anti-colonialism, as Israel is primarily an Eastern European colony. I am anti-genocide as this is clearly the aim of Israel’s campaign to eliminate both the Palestinian state and its people. Finally, I resent tremendously the use of my tax dollars to not only support but also promote both of the above.

Bill Starks, Arvada

I applaud The Denver Post Open Forum for its wisdom in selecting the op ed of Vivian Weinstein of Denver on the June 27 opinion page. Werinstein and I are both of the Jewish faith and support Melat Kiros, Colorado Democrat candidate for the upcoming midterm House seat long held by Diane DeGette. Having experienced genocide waged against her Ethiopian family, Melat Kiros has expressed sympathy for the Palestinians of Gaza.

To be sure, the thugs of Hamas and Hezbollah committed a horrific massacre of young Jewish civilians enjoying a music festival on October 7, 2023. Israeli Jews had every right to retaliate with great force. But what has followed has been nothing short of an all-out genocide against Gazan and Lebanese civilians.

Democratically elected Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu no doubt considers himself a peaceful leader, but he has waged brutal aggression against his perceived enemies on the West Bank and many parts of the Middle East. His aggression continues to this day. He is, in fact, an autocrat.

Netanyahu acts like a king, as does U.S. President Donald Trump. The two of them teamed up to bomb Iran in a war that, by all accounts, has been a dismal failure. War must necessarily be the last resort. Displaying humanity must be a moral imperative among the world’s leaders. But because of Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu, I find that in my old age, I am embarrassed to be a Jewish American. We must do better. We must not tolerate Kings.

Barry Sharcot, Denver

I feel sad for Michael Bennet that he doesn’t get to come home to Colorado yet, but we still need him in Washington. I believe Weiser is best in tune to Colorado’s local needs, and Michael has been a great advocate for Colorado for many years.

Unlike much of the outside funding of other campaigns, I suspect a lot of Michael’s reflected the respect he has from other parts of the country, especially the western states.

Thank you, Bennet.

Gail Ryan, Lakewood

To Monica Duran, Joe Neguse, Jason Crow, and Britany Pettersen,

I was disappointed in you all and never understood your support for Michael Bennet. That said, please take note that Corporate Democrats who are supported by billionaire-funded Super PACs, which run disparaging campaigns against the people’s democratic candidates, are no longer winning in Colorado.

Louis Kolker, Lakewood

I voted for Julie Gonzalez for U.S. Senate in the June primary because I don’t believe that John Hickenlooper has the qualities that will be needed to meet the challenges that face our country in the years ahead. Democrats need a fighter, not a compromiser, to deal with Trump and the MAGA Republicans in Congress.

We need universal healthcare, but Hickenlooper is opposed to Medicare for All. He has a history of voting for Trump nominees. He’s too old (and I’m 79). I hope he will learn the right lessons from his pathetic 53% to 47% “victory” on Tuesday. People are sick and tired of politics as usual. So, if he wants to leave a meaningful legacy for his time in the Senate, I suggest that he scrap his centrist tendencies and concentrate his efforts on making the future brighter for our children and grandchildren.

Mike Dubrovich, Parker

The cost of wolves to ranchers is far more than just a number on paper

���:��“What’s really killing cattle in Colorado,” June 28, guest commentary.

Erik MMolvar’scolumn on the impact of the reintroduction of wolves in Colorado makes the point that the losses ranchers suffer due to those wolves are relatively minor in terms of the losses from other causes. I assume that Molvar hopes readers conclude that complaints about wolves are overblown.

However, my conclusion is that raising cattle is fraught with risks, and the presence of wolves has added yet another risk to ranching. Like all of agriculture, ranching is a risky but necessary industry subject to many variables outside of anyone’s control, stretching from weather to selling in a market that sets prices regardless of the costs incurred. Wolves add to the risks, minor or otherwise, and impact the profitability of ranching.

While the sstate’scompensation helps, I doubt that it fully compensates for the additional costs of having wolves in the environment. For example, does the compensation include a value for the time needed to go through the claim process rather than attending to other tasks or the extra diligence expended to minimize the losses? My observation is from the perspective of someone who has lived his life in urban and suburban areas and never worked in ranching or farming.

Shawn Thompson, Denver

1stBank to PNC transition has been rough

���:��“Rebrand sparks outcry,” “June 27, news story.

I’m one of the 1stBank customers leaving PNC. I’ve been a 1stBank client since 1985. Their customer service was always fantastic. After the merger was announced, PNC sent me a self-praising letter promising customer service as good or better than 1stBank. We shall see, I thought.

Next, I read they are laying off almost 800 of their Colorado employees. Then, I get a thick transition letter with a task list for me, with a list of deadlines. I didn’t ask for this, and I’m not your employee, so why am I doing your work for you? Concerned about a direct deposit, I needed PNC customer service. In the transition letter to Coloradans, customer service hours were given in Eastern Time because not a single person in this national bank could take the five seconds required to translate Eastern Time to Mountain Time. Rude.

Anyway, I called the customer service number printed on the transition letter. After 30 minutes on hold, I was told, “We are not allowed to answer transition questions. Here’s the number for that.” Put on hold again. I’m moving my accounts to Bank of Colorado.

Joan Jacobson, Lakewood

A bright spot in the blight of gambling

“Howsports betting became Colorado’s ticket to funding $140 million in water conservation projects,” June 18, news story.

Thank you for your coverage of the conservation projects that are funded by sports betting. I did not realize there was a bright spot in this cancerous activity that has become so popular.

C. Greenman, Lakewood

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.

It was a phone call that secured her support — and not even one that Lang received herself. She’d met someone at a May Day labor rally who had a transgender child. The otherwise stranger told Lang about calling the Colorado Attorney General’s Office to express worry about the Trump administration’s for children like hers.

Weiser — the elected attorney general since 2019 — responded, Lang said, by calling that constituent personally to promise he would use his office to protect those rights.

“That’s an example of governing — it’s not about political power, it����ap about being here to serve the people,” said Lang, a 37-year-old Denverite. “That really spoke volumes to me.”

Voters like her helped propel Weiser, 58, to a stunning victory on Tuesday over U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet — a man who had previously won three statewide elections by ever-increasing margins, lined up a who’s who of Democratic endorsements before his campaign even launched, benefited from $11.4 million in super PAC support backing his candidacy, and enjoyed, polls long showed, a massive edge in name recognition.

But Bennet’s advantages didn’t always break through to voters — and there were also harder-to-gauge intangible factors that can vary from voter to voter, like which candidate comes across as more personable or more trustworthy.

Lang said she read the news daily, particularly after Donald Trump’s victory in the 2024 presidential election “catalyzed” her. She knew Weiser had sued the Trump administration repeatedly; she couldn’t place Bennet or what he had done.

The surprise delivered by Tuesday night’s primary result wasn’t necessarily Weiser’s victory itself. He had campaigned himself into striking distance in the final month of the race, while Bennet����ap support seemed calcified. Most political observers, by then, saw a world where either man could become the Democratic nominee.

The surprise was the thoroughness of Weiser’s victory — more than 13 percentage points as of Thursday evening, with most ballot-counting complete.

“Weiser ran an amazing campaign,” Colorado State University political science professor Kyle Saunders said. “He didn’t have the name recognition six months ago. He didn’t have the backing. And this wasn’t some squeaker you can explain away with turnout.

“There’s no doubt, to my eye, that Weiser was helped by anti-incumbent sentiment. But this was a shellacking.”

‘Discontent among the Democratic base’

From the time Bennet announced he was running in April 2025, three months after Weiser entered the race, the senator was dogged by questions about why he’d want to leave Washington, D.C. — and why he needed to give up one of the most powerful political positions in the country to make a difference for Colorado.

While not a true incumbent, Bennet nonetheless faced the drag of an anti-incumbent year as he sought another office.

And now, instead of being able to move back to Colorado full time, Bennet will remain in Washington, with more than two years left in his Senate term — while Weiser faces the Republican nominee who emerges from a primary race that was, as of late Thursday, still too close to call. In increasingly blue Colorado, the Democrat will go into the fall general election campaign as a heavy favorite.

A pair of polls by the bipartisan Colorado Polling Institute, from September and April, pointed to that broader discontent with incumbents, especially among Democrats frustrated with the Trump administration — and with what their elected officials were doing to fight it.

The April poll found Bennet’s favorability among Coloradans had dropped from the prior year’s poll results, from 45% to 40%. His unfavorable rating had risen, from 31% to 39%.

“CPI had been picking up on discontent among the Democratic base throughout the past year, and the primary became the release valve,” said Kevin Ingham, a principal from the Democratic polling firm Aspect Strategic, which works with CPI. “Every race is different, but the data was all pointing towards a uniquely difficult environment for any longtime Democratic incumbent.”

That sentiment was apparently most stark in Denver. Voters in the Democratic primary there ousted longtime U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette in favor of attorney Melat Kiros, a 29-year-old democratic socialist who’s now the nominee. Denver was also where Weiser did best, winning almost two votes for each one cast for Bennet. And it’s where Bennet’s Senate counterpart, U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper — who still won the Democratic nomination for reelection Tuesday — trailed his challenger, liberal state Sen. Julie Gonzales, by nearly 9 percentage points.

Map: Who’s leading in the Colorado primary race for governor?

Amy Kenreich, a 46-year-old Denverite, said she saw Weiser as more progressive overall than Bennet, with values that she shared. But as much as she supported Weiser, she was driven just as much by an antipathy for Bennet that stretched back to his time running Denver Public Schools nearly 20 years ago.

She accused him of using his time there to bring “the privatization movement to education in Denver,” and she saw him as likely to do the same as governor.

The flood of outside money into the race, including $5 million from New York City billionaire Michael Bloomberg to support Bennet, only reinforced that feeling.

"Once people understand what's going on, see what's going on, it's disgusting — and they're outraged,” Kenreich said. “People are more likely to take action if they're angry about something, and they're angry about billionaire influence for sure."

Making personal connections

Danielle Varda, an Arvada volunteer for Weiser’s campaign and a Democratic candidate for the Colorado House of Representatives, said she saw the election as a rejection of an "ivory tower of election-knowers.”

“We just saw how slick your mailer is, and how many go out," Varda said. "It����ap the difference between authenticity and a gimmick. I think Bennet was relying on the machine, the way everyone tells you you’re supposed to do it. And times are just changing.”

She contrasted that with Weiser. She described him as someone who, “when he meets people, he looks them in the eye and remembers their name.”

Varda had her own moment like that about a year ago. Weiser had already made it clear he wouldn’t issue endorsements in state House races. But when they both attended an event, he made sure to talk with her and get her phone number.

“He made that one little personal connection, and I felt seen,” Varda said. “I felt like he cared who I was. … If you multiply that by a million, that����ap Phil Weiser.”

From there, the two politicians' networks overlapped. Varda didn’t have an opponent in the primary, having won out at the local assembly, but that moment with Weiser motivated her to use her connections to campaign on his behalf.

She recalled meeting with Democratic groups in Golden — typically thought of as a more moderate enclave of metro Denver, Varda said — and found people eager for a fighter. Weiser would go on to win Jefferson County with 57% of the vote.

Bennet declined media interviews after a show-of-unity Democratic Party event on Thursday that drew many candidates and officials. But during a speech congratulating Weiser (and after chuckling about Weiser’s unofficial slogan: “Phil Weiser for governor; Michael Bennet for Senate"), he praised his opponent����ap work.

“It����ap hard to start in the position Phil was in, and knock on every door and make those calls and get out to every single community and win this race,” Bennet said. “I was amazed to watch the work that he did and to see the loyalty of the team that he built all over the state of Colorado, from the very beginning.”

Weiser, for his part, emphasized lessons he learned from past governors, including Roy Romer and Hickenlooper, and from former U.S. Rep. Ed Perlmutter.

“If you’re knocking on doors, you’re there to listen and learn,” Weiser said. “... You shake every hand. You honor every voter. You’re there to serve, and you do it with a smile because this work is about the people of Colorado."

Marx held a roughly 2,000-vote lead throughout the day, an advantage that had not been seriously threatened since he overtook Kirkmeyer on Wednesday evening. As of 6 p.m. Thursday, he led Kirkmeyer 39.8% to 39.4% with more than 515,000 votes counted, according to The Associated Press. State Rep. Scott Bottoms was in a distant third with 20.7%.

The AP had still not called the race by Thursday evening. But with 97% of outstanding votes counted, Kirkmeyer’s path to regain the lead from Marx was vanishingly narrow. Her campaign had hoped late votes from Arapahoe County, the only area with substantial ballots left to tally, would break for Kirkmeyer. Ten percent of the county was still outstanding Thursday evening.

But officials there had reported thousands of ballots earlier in the day, and they had done little to bring Kirkmeyer level.

Marx spokesman Roger Hudson said Thursday that the campaign was confident they would win and that they were waiting on media outlets to declare Marx the winner.

“We know our voters, we knew where they were, and they certainly have delivered,” he said. He pointed to the few ballots outstanding in Arapahoe County. “It would be really difficult for (Kirkmeyer) to find those extra votes.”

Kirkmeyer opened up an initial lead on Marx as early votes were first reported in the hours after polls closed Tuesday. But the lead narrowed as late ballots, which broke for Marx, began to come in Tuesday night and Wednesday. Twenty-four hours after results were first posted, Marx had overtaken Kirkmeyer and, though she stayed close enough to keep the race in place Thursday, she was unable to reestablish herself.

The winner of the race will face Attorney General Phil Weiser, who cruised to the Democratic nomination Tuesday. He beat U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet by nearly 120,000 votes.

Throughout the day Thursday, Marx held Kirkmeyer at arm’s length as the final batches of votes, largely from Arapahoe County, began to filter in. His advantage stood at 2,028 by 6:10 p.m., with an estimated 97% of the vote counted, according to the Associated Press, which had still not called the race by early Thursday evening.

Marx had 39.8% support to Kirkmeyer’s 39.4% — a razor-thin margin with more than 515,000 votes tallied so far, , though the margin was well above the state’s automatic recount threshold. Rep. Scott Bottoms, a conservative pastor from Colorado Springs also seeking the GOP nomination, was in third, with 20.7%.

Roger Hudson, Marx’s spokesman, said late Thursday that the campaign was confident Marx’s lead would not slip and that they were eagerly awaiting a final call from media outlets.

“There’s never been any contraction in the momentum of this race,” he said. “We know our voters, we knew where they were, and they certainly have delivered. … It would be really difficult for (Kirkmeyer) to find those extra votes.”

Laurel Boyle, a spokeswoman for Kirkmeyer, said Thursday afternoon that Kirkmeyer remained hopeful and that the campaign was waiting on the last batch of ballots from Arapahoe County. The county still had roughly 10% of its ballots to count, according to the AP.

Kirkmeyer had led for nearly 22 hours after the polls closed, seemingly built by people who voted earlier in the run-up to Election Day. But Marx steadily gained ground on the veteran lawmaker as late votes filtered in from around the state. By early evening Wednesday, he had overtaken Kirkmeyer, and she did not make up much ground on him as Thursday wore on and the number of outstanding ballots dwindled.

Marx’s campaign had said earlier Wednesday afternoon that it felt confident that trend would hold and be enough to push the nonprofit leader from Colorado Springs into first place.

Early evening updates came within minutes of each other from El Paso County, where Marx has led, and Denver, where Kirkmeyer has led, among others. Those election offices had spent the day processing tens of thousands more ballots, and they resulted in an overall shift in Marx’s favor when they landed.

Hudson had said Wednesday that he felt more confident in Marx’s chances than he had Tuesday night, when Marx told supporters that he could still overtake Kirkmeyer.

“It’s more proof of the fact that those late voters, in-person voters, are Victor Marx voters,” Hudson said.

It was unclear when AP would call a final winner. The state’s automatic recount law would be triggered if the margin between Marx and Kirkmeyer is less than 0.5% of the leading vote-getter’s total. Currently, that’s a little more than 1,000 votes.

In an interview late Wednesday morning, Kirkmeyer said she remained confident, pointing to ballots that were outstanding at the time in Larimer, Arapahoe, Boulder and her native Weld counties. She led in all of those places, though Marx had pulled ahead in Adams County, maintained a lead in ruby-red El Paso County and comfortably won Mesa and Pueblo counties.

She said that if she could maintain and pad out her support along the Front Range, then those counties “are going to help carry me through to a win in this election.”

“We thought it would be a competitive race,” she said. “I was in session until the middle of May. I couldn’t do a lot of campaigning.”

But as many of those ballots were counted into Thursday, Marx was in the lead.

Map: Who’s leading in the Colorado primary race for governor?

Hudson said that concerns around mail-in voting, which have taken hold among conservative voters amid President Donald Trump's repeated and baseless claims of election fraud, likely spurred more hardline Republican voters to cast their ballots in person on Election Day. Those would then be among the last votes to be counted.

That trend would make sense for the candidates: Kirkmeyer is a more traditional, fiscally conservative and moderate Republican. Marx has played more to the base, eschewing policy debates in favor of social media outreach and wearing his controversial personal history -- which has attracted extensive public scrutiny -- on his sleeve.

Whoever wins will take on Attorney General Phil Weiser, the Democratic nominee, in November, after he crushed U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet in their primary contest Tuesday.

The most nationally resonating story of the night was the final one, where attorney Melat Kiros, a self-described democratic socialist, beat out 15-term U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette after mounting an insurgent campaign for the Denver seat.

But it also subverted many Democrats’ expectations when Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser handily beat Sen. Michael Bennet in the nomination race for governor. The better-known Bennet, who had won three statewide Senate races, entered the primary last year with an avalanche of support from the Democratic establishment.

Colorado election results for the 2026 primary

And Sen. John Hickenlooper, who secured the party’s nomination for a second term, was winning by less than 10 percentage points as of Wednesday afternoon — despite outraising challenger Julie Gonzales, a state senator, almost 10-to-1. In Denver, both candidates’ home turf, Hickenlooper was trailing Gonzales, revealing some voter dissatisfaction.

Here are major takeaways from Tuesday’s primaries.

Voters seek fighters

In the Democrats’ race for governor, Weiser credited his win to an electorate that wanted politicians who are authentic — and willing to fight for them. Central to his campaign was also the dozens of lawsuits he’d filed or joined against the Trump administration.

“For over a year, the establishment, pundits and so many others said this wouldn’t be a race at all — it would be a coronation,” Weiser said, referring to the underdog status he had through much of the race. “They counted us out, and they underestimated all of you.”

Meanwhile, Bennet and DeGette — neither of whom had faced real primary threats in recent reelections, despite occasional challengers to DeGette — will likely look back at their losses and kick themselves for not taking these challengers more seriously before it was too late.

Bennet all but cleared what was expected to be a crowded primary field just by announcing he wanted the governor’s office just over a year ago. But then Weiser seemed to out-hustle Bennet.

Kiros, meanwhile, out-organized DeGette. She wasn’t even alive when DeGette first entered office, but she nearly kept the longtime fixture of Denver political life off the primary ballot entirely. That prompted a campaign reshuffle, but there wasn’t enough of a shift for DeGette to beat an opponent backed by extensive — and dedicated — grassroots organizing.

“Tonight, Denver voters of all ages, all races, all religions sent a clear message: We will not wait,” Kiros said during her victory speech to supporters. “We will not wait to bring the fight to (President) Donald Trump and the oligarchy. We will not wait to demand that Congress abolish ICE and pass Medicare for All. We will not wait to end the politics of the past. To get big money out of our elections. To reject corporate PACs and AIPAC (the American Israel Public Affairs Committee). And no, we will not wait to end the genocide in Gaza.”

Progressives win up and down the ballot

A slew of other progressive — or at least anti-incumbent — Democratic wins were playing out further down the ballot.

Several farther-left statehouse candidates in Denver and the surrounding suburbs beat their more moderate opponents. Rep. Sean Camacho, who represents east Denver and is the co-chair of the moderate Opportunity Caucus, lost to progressive challenger Iris Halpern. Chela Garcia Irlando whalloped Andres Carrera for a soon-to-be-vacant Senate seat representing downtown and northwest Denver.

A network of outside groups tied to the dark-money group One Main Street spent more than $3 million on several primary races this year. But they lost in several that were opposed by progressive and labor groups, including in One Main Street����ap efforts to oust incumbent Democratic Reps. Kenny Nguyen and Jamie Jackson.

Even Gabriel Cervantes, who had received little financial help after controversial social media posts came to light, won his primary challenge against another Opportunity Caucus member, Thornton Rep. Jacque Phillips.

In Colorado's battleground congressional district — the 8th, which includes north suburbs — the farther-left candidate prevailed in the Democratic primary. Though the dynamics were a little different from the state legislative races, Manny Rutinel, a state representative, defeated former lawmaker Shannon Bird after progressive groups tended to back Rutinel.

Big money has a tough night

It was a bad night for big money.

The dark-money spending in statehouse primaries — which had propelled moderate candidates to wins two years ago — appeared to bear little fruit across metro Denver. Republican gubernatorial candidate Victor Marx, who raised and spent more than his two GOP opponents combined, was narrowly leading state Sen. Barb Kirkmeyer by Wednesday evening but had trailed for all of Tuesday night and most of the day Wednesday. That race has not yet been called.

While Weiser raised more direct cash in the Democratic race, Bennet was backed by a deep-pocketed outside group that raised an eye-watering $11.4 million, almost half of which came from New York City billionaire Michael Bloomberg. As DeGette’s situation grew more perilous in recent weeks, vast sums of outside money poured in to prop her up, too.

And ultimately, little of it seemed to matter.

To be clear, the winners — or, in some cases, apparent winners — spent vast fortunes, too. But the money backing Weiser, Kiros and progressive statehouse candidates was often more transparent in its origins, mostly given directly to the candidates and less extensive in its spending.

Unaffiliated voters break blue — hard

Colorado’s unaffiliated voters, who make up more than half of the total electorate, returned more than twice as many Democratic primary ballots as they did GOP ballots. (In Colorado's system, they receive both in the mail, but can vote only one of them.)

Whether that means these independents all lean left or were simply more enticed by a ballot with more competitive races than the Republican contests offered is yet to be seen — but it proves the bloc is a potent one.

Map: Who’s leading in the Colorado primary race for governor?

Colorado’s automatic voter registration system defaults to an unaffiliated registration, meaning voters need to take an extra step to declare as a Democrat, Republican or member of another party. The open primary system also disincentivizes them to register with a party. In short, the lack of party affiliation doesn’t mean those voters lack a political preference or are middle of the road — but it does mean campaigns have to work harder to identify those who will pull primary ballots.

Overall, the Colorado Secretary of State's Office reported that 1.47 million ballots had been returned statewide as of noon Thursday, a number that could still rise as clerks continue processing ballots. That amounted to about 36% of active voters, or nearly 32% of all registered voters.

Battle for direction of GOP still too close to call

While Colorado’s Democratic voters bucked some of their party’s standard-bearers Tuesday night, Republicans were still locked in a fight over the immediate future of their party.

Until early Wednesday evening, Kirkmeyer, perhaps the most high-profile and well-respected Republican in deep-blue Colorado, had narrowly held off an outsider challenge by Marx, a nonprofit leader who outraised and outspent Kirkmeyer. But as new results were uploaded by multiple counties, Marx took a narrow lead. The outcome was still unclear (check the latest results here), and state Rep. Scott Bottoms, a pastor, in some ways competed with Marx for far-right voters' support. (He'd won about half as many votes as either of the other two candidates.)

But Kirkmeyer's competitiveness bucked expectations, both from Marx and some in the more traditional GOP operative space, that Marx would easily win. And it also showed that the battle over the battered, broke and beleaguered Colorado GOP — one waged between the more establishment, moderate faction and the right-wing and grassroots elements — was far from settled.

Colorado election results for the 2026 primary by county

Conservative political observers saw the GOP primary as more than just a fight between candidates. It represented an existential contest for the future of the party. Kirkmeyer brought decades of experience, along with a deep knowledge of the state budget and the inner workings of the state Capitol.

Dick Wadhams, who ran the campaign for the only Republican to win the governor’s office over the past 50 years, warned earlier in the race that Kirkmeyer was the only GOP candidate who could keep a general election debate with the Democratic nominee grounded in policy, rather than conspiracy theories or questions about a larger-than-life biography.

A win for her in the primary wouldn't necessarily portend a win in November, especially with Colorado trending steadily blue over the past decade. But it would mean the best chance for Republicans up and down the ballot to avert getting wiped out by voters who want serious leadership in the state, according to Wadhams, a Kirkmeyer supporter.

“This governor’s race is going to help answer the question, ‘Is this party serious or not?’ ” Wadhams said ahead of the primary.

Staff writers Elliott Wenzler and John Aguilar contributed to this story.