For David Seligman, that focus would be a continuation of what he called his “life’s work.” A Harvard Law grad, Seligman since 2018 has led the Denver-based nonprofit Towards Justice, which has backed litigation and legislation to support ride-hailing app drivers, renters, migrant workers and meatpackers.

“I’ve seen throughout my career that there are two sets of law in this country,” he said in an interview. “There’s one for those with wealth and power, and one for the rest of us. Especially as the Trump administration is dismantling … the parts of the government that are there to protect workers, consumers, small businesses and the environment, it’s critical right now that we make sure those with wealth and power play by the same set of rules as the rest of us.”

Seligman enters an increasingly crowded 2026 Democratic primary field to succeed term-limited Attorney General Phil Weiser. Secretary of State Jena Griswold is an immediate front-runner, but other candidates include Boulder District Attorney Michael Dougherty and former state House Speaker Crisanta Duran.

He said he wants to build upon and expand the work of Weiser, who is running for governor. Weiser has filed or joined lawsuit after lawsuit against the Trump administration since January. Before that, his office had pursued consumer-protection investigations and lawsuits — some of which Seligman’s firm was involved in — against landlords and companies like Wyatt’s Towing.

Seligman said he would continue that work while focusing on medical debt, corporate price gouging and responding to the the federal government’s withdrawal from regulatory oversight.

Against the longstanding political figures in the AG’s race, Seligman — who’s never run for office — stands as a relative unknown among the broader voting public. His early challenge will be elevating his message and finding a constituency in a crowded political environment and in a Democratic Party still searching for a path forward.

Seligman’s charted path will likely be the most liberal of the AG field. He spoke at U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders’ Greeley rally earlier this year, and he joins the race with endorsements from most of the progressive lawmakers in the state Capitol. That includes the state House’s third-ranking Democrat, Rep. Jennifer Bacon, along with former state Democratic Party chairwoman Morgan Carroll.

“Right now, people know that the world feels deeply unfair and deeply scary,” Seligman said. “And I want to fight to be their lawyer to make sure the law is on their side — and not on the side of billionaires and corrupt politicians.”

Rep. Jenny Willford, a Northglenn Democrat, spoke about the new lawsuit during a news conference in the state Capitol on Tuesday. She said she was sexually assaulted in February by a man “using someone else’s profile” and who “wasn’t the driver presented to me by the Lyft app.”

Her suit accuses Lyft of failing to ensure its drivers pass required background checks and don’t share profiles. It alleges that Lyft rolled back safety protections the company announced after media outlets reported several years ago on on rides arranged through the apps of Lyft and its main competitor, Uber.

“Every passenger should know that if they pay for a ride-share, the person actually picking them up matches the driver listed in the profile — that the driver can pass a background check, that they meet the legal qualifications to be a transportation network company driver in our state, and that they are safe and the driver will not physically or sexually assault them,” Willford said.

The lawmaker was recently elected to her second term in the House. She was flanked Tuesday by supporters and her attorneys, including former state Democratic Party chair Morgan Carroll.

Her suit, filed in Adams County on Monday, is against Lyft and Shanu Transportation, a local company owned by Kholmurod Halimov. Halimov was the registered user of the Lyft driver profile assigned to pick up Willford, according to the suit.

But she was picked up after dinner with friends by a different man, who was also driving a car registered to Halimov’s company.

The driver made inappropriate and sexual comments to her, she said, and she removed her heels because she believed she would have to run out of the car. She was then sexually assaulted near her home, she said.

In a statement, the company said that “safety is fundamental to Lyft, and the behavior described in this incident has no place in our society. We take reports of sexual assault very seriously, and when incidents such as these are reported to us, our trained team takes immediate action to investigate and works with local law enforcement so that appropriate actions can be taken.”

Halimov did not respond to an email seeking comment. The Denver Post was unable to contact the man identified in the suit as the driver who assaulted Willford; it is not naming him because he has not been charged with a crime.

James Burlison, a spokesman for the Northglenn Police Department, confirmed that “a report has been filed” with the police department when asked about Willford’s case. But he declined to comment further, citing the open investigation.

Though she was assaulted in February, Willford said DNA samples from the case had not yet been tested. Those samples are caught up in the Colorado Bureau of Investigation’s testing backlog: Agency officials told lawmakers last week that it now takes more than 500 days on average to process kits preserving sexual assault evidence.

Willford called that delay “egregious” and called on the state to address it.

Carroll said no arrest had been made in the case because of the testing backlog. She said the alleged assailant was believed to still be in Colorado.

Willford and her lawyers accused Lyft of failing to adequately address who have reported being sexually assaulted, pointing to the company’s own count of more than 4,150 incidents over a three-year period. Willford argued that Lyft had not done enough to stop drivers from sharing profiles with unauthorized drivers, including with some who may not have passed background checks.

In its statement, the company said that its terms of service “strictly prohibit the impersonation of another person or entity, and such behavior can and does lead to a permanent ban from the platform.”

The suit argues that the company violated Colorado laws regulating transportation companies and consumer protection. It alleges that Lyft rolled back plans to require annual background checks. The suit also alleges that Halimov, Shanu Transportation’s owner, would not have passed a background check had Lyft required it, and it accuses his company of negligence and false imprisonment.

When Willford told Lyft about her assault, the company refunded her for the $85.53 ride and said it would not match her with the same driver again, she said.

As a result of the assault, she said, she’s suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder.

“I have a platform that most people don’t have and a daughter to raise in this world,” the legislator said. “It’s why I’m here to say that Lyft needs to take their systemic problems of sexual assaults, fake profiles, sold or rented profiles, and profile-sharing very seriously — and do something now.”

Across 10 contested Democratic primaries along the Front Range, for instance, more than $1.1 million already has been raised ahead of the June contest, . Some — like an open Senate seat in Arvada and a House seat in Lakewood — have surpassed $100,000 in cumulative fundraising with five months to go before the primary and with outside spending yet to begin.

Spending on Democratic primary races has slowly increased in recent years, as the party’s power in the statehouse has grown and competition for safe seats has intensified. Traditional Republican backers, like business groups, are now spending more to influence Democratic primaries as Republican power in the Capitol has reached a historic nadir and more left-wing candidates run in state primaries. Simultaneously, Democrats’ growing power has revealed deeper ideological and stylistic fissures among both candidates and voters that manifest in primary challenges and spending.

“It is a lot of money,” said Morgan Carroll, who previously served as both the president of the state Senate and the chair of the Colorado Democratic Party. Her partner, Rep. Mike Weissman, is running in a competitive primary for a state Senate seat. “Overall, our general elections have actually become more expensive, and I think our primary elections have become more expensive. And maybe it����ap not a perfect truth, but for the most part, the bluer the state, the more expensive the primary.”

When Carroll first ran 20 years ago, a competitive primary would maybe hit $50,000 in fundraising. That’s become routine: In Lakewood, for instance, Kyra deGruy Kennedy has raised more than $63,000 in a race to replace her husband, Rep. Chris deGruy Kennedy, in the House. Her opponent, Lakewood City Councilwoman Rebekah Stewart, has topped $72,000.

Arvada Rep. Lindsey Daugherty has more than $111,000 in her bid to move to the state Senate, against just over $100,000 from Westminster City Councilman Obi Ezeadi, who’s funded more than a quarter of that total himself. Various sitting legislators have donated to both sides of that race.

Several of the races — which include seats in Denver, Boulder, Fort Collins and the east metro suburbs — are generally between a more left-wing candidate, favored by progressive activists, unions and their allies, and a more moderate or mainstream opponent, backed by traditional Democrat boosters and, increasingly, business groups. The Colorado Apartment Association, for instance, has donated thousands of dollars to more moderate candidates in Aurora and Arvada, as the legislature continues to debate sweeping solutions to the state’s housing crisis.

Loren Furman, the president and CEO of the Colorado Chamber of Commerce, said business groups broadly were looking to back more moderate candidates. Carroll said some of the division falls along a populist or corporate fault line, but she also said it’s hard to pull a consistent thread that connects every contest. Those divisions are sharpened by new corporate spending, she said, and further influenced by local voter tendencies and candidates’ stylistic approach to legislating.

All of the contested metro primaries are currently held by Democratic legislators and are generally considered safe Democratic seats. That means the primary contests on will likely determine who will head to the legislature come November.

Three freshman Democrats are facing primary challengers: Denver Reps. Elisabeth Epps and Tim Hernández, and Boulder Rep. Junie Joseph. Hernández, a teacher who’s among the more left-wing members of the legislature, is up against immigration judge Cecelia Espenoza, whom he beat in an August vacancy committee. Espenoza raised $50,000 in the last two months of the year, in the wake of criticism that Hernández faced for comments and social media posts about Israel and Gaza.

While primaries aren’t new, sitting lawmakers wading into those races against their colleagues is, legislators and Democratic campaign veterans said.

Rep. Judy Amabile has donated to opponents of two of her House colleagues who are facing primary challenges, Epps and Junie Joseph. Both Epps and Joseph also donated to Amabile’s opponent for an open state Senate seat.

Amabile said her donations “aren’t necessarily against anybody.”

“My support for somebody’s opponent, it can be a lot of different things,” she said. “You can have a friendship, or I can think this person is better suited, or I more line up with them on policy. … I think it certainly can be an affirmation that you support somebody or want to be supportive of them.”

Part of what’s fueling the inter-legislative donations is specific to Epps and the fallout from the November special session, during which Epps disrupted House proceedings and castigated other legislators over a pro-Palestine legislative amendment. As of early January, more than a dozen Democrats — including Senate President Steve Fenberg and House Majority Leader Monica Duran — have endorsed or donated to lawyer Sean Camacho, who’d briefly run in the primary against Epps in 2022.

The November incident prompted House Speaker Julie McCluskie to publicly rebuke Epps, who earned a law degree and backed an assault-weapons ban and safe drug-use sites last year. McCluskie also removed Epps from a powerful House committee (Epps was also part of a lawsuit against the legislature for violating the state’s open-meeting laws).

In the weeks since he filed to run, Camacho has pulled in more than $58,000. That’s more than Epps has on hand at the moment, though critics and supporters alike noted her unique ability to fundraise through grassroots and online support. In 2022, Epps’ primary race was the most expensive in the state, with Epps directly raising more than $232,000 to her opponent’s $185,000.

Carroll said the unusual legislative donations in the Epps-Camacho race went beyond a left-or-moderate ideological split and instead touched on what “stylistic” approaches lawmakers — and voters — want in the Capitol.

“Not everybody’s necessarily landing in the same place,” Carroll said, “but I think you’ll find a lot of the support for Sean Camacho … from sitting legislators is because they want someone they can work with.”

Denver Post reporter Nick Coltrain contributed to this report.

Stay up-to-date with Colorado Politics by signing up for our weekly newsletter, The Spot.

A record number of women will fill state House and Senate seats — a majority, . The state will have the largest LGBTQ caucus of any legislature in the country, Nearly two-thirds of the House’s 65 members will be women, many of them people of color. And for the first time in the state’s history, the House’s top three leadership positions will all be held by women.

“I wasn’t sure how much longer it was going to take,” laughed Morgan Carroll, the chair of the state Democratic Party and a past president of the state Senate. “Sooner or later, it was going to happen.”

It took work to get here, Carroll and four top House lawmakers said. An ascendant Democratic Party had to buck historic midterm election trends in November to grow their majorities in the statehouse. Women had to win competitive races across a redistricted map. Newly elected Democrats in the House had to, in the words of Rep. Jennifer Bacon, “be about what we say we’re about” and elect women to leadership. People like Carroll had to be “extra combative” to defend women’s presence in the Capitol. Organizers had to build political infrastructures that encouraged women to run and pushed voters to support them.

In hindsight, having female leaders in a caucus that’s dominated by women seems inevitable, said Bacon, a Denver Democrat elected as House assistant majority leader in November. But it was intentional. It took work, she said. “And so in that way, we built it to be inevitable.”

Political organizations have worked for years on recruiting women — and women of color — to run for office, Bacon said, and she had risen through that base. An educator with a law degree, she was first elected as a member of Denver Public Schools’ board before earning a seat in the statehouse in 2020. She joins Rep. Monica Duran, the incoming majority leader, and Rep. Iman Jodeh, the co-whip and the legislature’s first Muslim lawmaker, as women of color elected to help lead the House’s Democratic supermajority.

Next to them stands Rep. Julie McCluskie, a Dillon Democrat stepping into her third term in the House. McCluskie will officially become the chamber’s next speaker Monday, She described participating in the Women’s March several years ago as a “defining moment.”

“The three of us in the top leadership seats in the House, I believe that we’ve created an environment where those voices that have often been marginalized can be not only heard but recognized in our policymaking,” McCluskie said. “A diversity of voices, a diversity of opinions, I think is incredibly important to solving the problems that we face as a state.”

The election — and the leadership picks — are historic, but they’re not just checking a box, leaders said. An increased number of women — particularly of color — will have a tangible impact on policy and legislation. They pointed to the passage of the Reproductive Health Equity Act last year, which protects abortion access, and the elimination of taxes on feminine hygiene products and diapers as evidence of past influence.

McCluskie beat out two other veteran lawmakers to become speaker in November, after serving as the chair of the legislature’s powerful Joint Budget Committee. She and her counterpart in the Senate, Boulder Democrat Steve Fenberg, have described this session as a continuation of Democratic priorities from previous years.

McCluskie said three of the party’s priorities for this year — housing, health care and child care — were women’s and family priorities. The party’s victories in November, Duran said, showed that Colorado voters are in step with those goals, too.

“Colorado is saying, ‘This matters, this is important, we are going to fund this, we are going to prioritize this,'” she said. “And that����ap what I think really makes a difference. We can talk about things that matter, but we’re putting our money where our mouth is.”

That’s not to say there will be full political alignment. The Democratic caucus in the House is big, and its diversity also comes from its broad political bearings. McCluskie is viewed more as an experienced moderate leading a caucus with a growing progressive wing. She held that line, Bacon said, and the majority of the caucus fell in behind it.

There are layers beneath the surface-level diversity, too, Duran and Bacon said. Duran brings the perspective of a Latina woman, “a domestic violence survivor and a homeless mom.” Bacon said her role in leadership will bring a new, emphasized voice on criminal justice to the top of legislative debates. She pointed to the fentanyl bill passed last year — which, among other things, tightened criminal penalties for possessing certain amounts of the drug.

She was a no-vote on that bill. The Democrats’ approach to criminal justice was a major theme of the Republican push to unseat Democrats in 2022, in Colorado and across the country. Democrats were expected to lose seats, in part because of crime. They didn’t, and now Bacon’s in leadership. There’s a lesson there, too, she said, about what Coloradans believe and value versus what politicos expected them to believe and value.

“When I’m in a room, I will ask the question: ‘How many people are going to go to jail for a misunderstanding of the root causes of crime?'” she said. “That was also why a lot of us ran for leadership because we felt like our themes were expressed in isolated experiences. And so that����ap something I think motivated, quite honestly, a lot of us to want to run for leadership, to want to be able to open that up more.”

Carroll said there was a balance, between the novelty of a historically diverse legislature and a sense that this should just be normal. She felt the shift slowly during her years in the legislature, starting in 2006 and stretching over a decade. She had to be combative and felt more challenged than her male colleagues. She saw the same aggression levied at female committee chairs. Attitudes slowly changed. More women were elected, the novel became routine.

The election of McCluskie, Duran and Bacon — as well as Rep. Brianna Titone, a transwoman, as the co-caucus chair — to leadership positions is a further sign of that shift from novelty to normalcy, Carroll said.

Bacon isn’t quite sure what broader conclusions to draw just yet. Every Coloradan who cast a ballot in November voted for one House candidate, she said. They didn’t elect Jennifer Bacon as assistant majority leader or Iman Jodeh as co-whip. But most of them elected Democrats, who share common goals around housing, health care, criminal justice, around governance. The importance of diverse leadership and membership, she said, is in how those voices are included in shaping the pursuit of those goals.

The impact on policy matters. But there are implications beyond that, too.

“Honestly, when you see someone who looks like you in a position like the speaker’s in, myself and Rep. Bacon are in, then you feel like, ‘OK, there’s someone who looks like me,'” Duran said. “That fear kind of goes away, in all honestly. It really does. ‘I can say something. I can be part of that.'”

Stay up-to-date with Colorado Politics by signing up for our weekly newsletter, The Spot.

Morgan Carroll has led the party for six years, during which Colorado has shifted from a purple state to one controlled solely at the state level by Democrats. Her decision to step down through April 1, announced in a party press release, comes a month after that dominance was underscored in an election that many had predicted would be a red wave repudiation of Democratic governance. Instead, Carroll will step aside from a party with complete, historic dominance of the state.

“It has been an extraordinary experience to be in the trenches with all of you for the past 6 years,” Carroll said in the press release. “We have needed to do a lot of healing, a lot of growing, a lot of planning and a lot of organizing, in order to meet the moment and existential threats to democracy, our climate, and the fundamental rights of our communities.”

Carroll was not immediately available for comment Wednesday afternoon.

She had previously served in both the state House and Senate and rose to lead the latter chamber. She ran unsuccessfully to represent Colorado’s 6th Congressional District in 2016, after which she became state party chairwoman.

When Carroll assumed the role of party chairwoman in 2017, Democrats controlled the governor’s mansion but none of the other three statewide seats. They won all four in 2018 and successfully defended all of them last month, while padding out their majorities in both the House and Senate, winning two competitive congressional districts and nearly unseating U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert.

Carroll’s Republican counterpart, Kristi Burton Brown, has yet to announce whether she’ll run again to serve as party chair. She told the Denver Post earlier this week that she should make a decision in the “near future.”

The unusual rift means a union that represents 130,000 Colorado workers and donates more than $100,000 every election year has placed a moratorium on its own donations until next May, sending a message while also leaving itself time to reenter politics before the 2022 primary and general election.

“At a time like this, the labor movement and the Democratic Party should be operating as close partners to meet this moment and address (economic) issues,” Colorado AFL-CIO executive director Dennis Dougherty wrote in an email to fellow union leaders this week.

“But rather than connect to move us out of the clutches of poverty, we have instead been excluded from caucus discussions about policy creation in favor of bringing business and opposition groups to the table, disregarded as allies and relegated to afterthoughts,” he added.

Dougherty did not cite specific legislation or statements that led to the rift. Reached by phone Wednesday, the union leader declined to comment or answer questions about his email.

Union membership ticked up nationally between 2019 and 2020 but only after decades of decline, corresponding with a decline in organized labor’s political power. Unions are often dissatisfied with the Democratic Party but feel tied to a party that is more aligned with them than Republicans, said Ryan Lamare, a professor of labor relations at the University of Illinois.

“Unions don’t typically take such a concrete step,” Lamare said. “What they tend to do is express their dissatisfaction vocally, to say, ‘here’s what we want’ or ‘here’s how we want you to improve things.’ They don’t usually go so far as to formally withdraw financial support for the party … that����ap quite a rare step.”

The Colorado AFL-CIO’s timing is important to keep in mind, he said.

“Unions are very strategic with what they do and they are likely to have timed this to send the Democratic Party in Colorado a message,” Lamare said, “but to not necessarily send them a message that is going to undercut the electoral aspirations of the party.”

The Colorado AFL-CIO has donated about $700,000 to Democratic candidates and left-leaning causes the past three election cycles. The majority of the money went to issue committees rather than candidates, in part because the committees can legally receive far larger donations. In 2020, it gave $27,300 to an issue committee pushing for paid family leave and $25,000 to an issue committee opposing a state income tax cut, among other donations.

It����ap not clear if the union will stop donating to issue committees. Dougherty’s email states that the union won’t contribute directly to the party, political action committees that aid Democratic candidates for the legislature, party events “or any other channels/events.” Dougherty also declined to clarify that Wednesday.

It����ap also unclear whether the rift has expanded or will expand to other unions. Dougherty’s email calls on fellow labor unions to join the Colorado AFL-CIO in stopping donations but several large unions in Colorado declined to comment or did not respond to requests Wednesday.

Of the roughly $200,000 the union donated in 2020, about $75,000 went to candidates. Rep. Daneya Esgar, a Pueblo Democrat, received $1,700. When asked Wednesday about the AFL-CIO’s decision, Esgar did not address it in her statement.

“Southern Colorado is union strong,” the statement said. “My door is always open to our partners in organized labor, and I stand with them in our fight to boost workers and protect their rights. I am proud of what we have been able to accomplish together.”

The union publicly expressed frustration at statehouse Democrats as recently as last month, calling out five Democrats who voted against , which would have made it easier for workers to file harassment claims.

“Workers across Colorado elected democrats to stand up for racial and economic justice,” the union tweeted June 8, claiming the bill would have been “good for Colorado workers and racial justice” but “was killed in the House Judiciary Committee by five Democrats.” In 2020, the union donated to two of the five Democrats who voted to kill the bill and endorsed four of the five.

One of the groups that the Colorado AFL-CIO will stop supporting is the House Majority Project, which works to elect Democrats to the Colorado House. Chairman Chris Kennedy, a Democratic state representative from Lakewood, said House Democrats “will continue to view the AFL-CIO, their affiliates and other labor organizations as crucial partners with the House Majority Project.”

Colorado Democratic Party chair Morgan Carroll said in a statement that the party “will always stand in solidarity with our union brothers and sisters.” Colorado Republican Party chair Kristi Burton Brown said hers “is the real party of the working class.”

“We will work with all people to empower them to rise, to choose their own path forward, to open jobs and career growth, to support industry and trade schools, and to pursue their own American Dream,” Burton Brown wrote on Twitter Tuesday.

Staff writer Saja Hindi contributed to this report.

Updated at 9:55 a.m. July 23, 2021: An earlier version of this story showed incorrect totals of Colorado AFL-CIO donations to Democratic candidates and left-leaning causes. The donations are $700,000 in three election cycles, including $200,000 in 2020 and $75,000 of that going to Democratic candidates.

It also marks the first time in 20 years — since the 7th District’s creation north and west of Denver in 2001 — that Colorado will gain representation in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Colorado has gained 744,518 people in the past decade, according to the Census Bureau, and now has an estimated 5.8 million people. There are about 331 million Americans, an increase of roughly 7% over the past decade — the smallest single-decade increase .

It isn’t clear where Colorado’s 8th Congressional District will be placed. That’s the job of the Colorado Independent Congressional Redistricting Commission, a panel of a dozen citizens who are tasked with reshaping the state’s congressional map for the next decade. The commission, which was chosen by random drawing, has until December to draw the map, and the 8th Congressional District seat will first be up for election in 2022.

“Colorado’s new congressional district should be located in the Front Range urban corridor,” said Marco Dorado, the state director of the nonpartisan group Colorado All On The Line that supports redistricting, in order to “provide fair representation to the state’s various communities of interest.”

All 435 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives are reapportioned every 10 years in accordance with Census results on population.

States that have grown to the point of gaining a seat are Colorado, Oregon, Montana, Florida, North Carolina and Texas, which will add two. States that will lose a seat due to population declines or modest population gains are California, Illinois, Michigan, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia.

Commissioners and political observers across Colorado anticipated Monday’s announcement for months. In 2019, the legislature set aside $6 million for Census outreach with hopes of counting more Coloradans and adding a congressional seat, and early Census estimates an eighth district.

“This is great news for Colorado and great news for Republicans,” Colorado Republican Party chairwoman Kristi Burton Brown said in a statement. “Come 2022, Coloradans will send another strong, conservative leader to D.C. to fight for our state.”

The Colorado Democratic Party also cheered the announcement Monday, with chairwoman Morgan Carroll saying, “A new congressional district means more representation for the people of Colorado, and that is welcome news.”

The Census Bureau’s announcement comes at a time when the state’s Congressional Redistricting Commission fears it will not meet its fall and winter deadlines for drawing new districts. The federal government will not deliver the data commissioners need until August — several months later than expected. Commissioners are considering several options, including using preliminary Census data and requesting that the Colorado Supreme Court move back the commission’s deadlines.

President Donald Trump knows all too well that he can’t defend his record of failure. From putting millions of Americans out of work, including more than 200,000 in Colorado alone, to waging a relentless campaign to dismantle the Affordable Care Act, Trump’s presidency has been an utter disaster for working families. So it����ap no surprise Trump resorted yet again to spewing lies and empty rhetoric to distract from his failed leadership.

One of the biggest concerns of the night came near the end when Trump tried to, once again, undermine our vote-by-mail system through lies. Here in Colorado, we’ve had vote-by-mail for years and are considered the golden standard across the nation. Republicans and Democrats agree that it is easy, convenient, and official. No amount of conspiracies pushed by Trump or the GOP can change that fact.

Worse than Trump’s lies and tantrums was his agreement to condemn white supremacists on national television only to do the exact opposite. Trump delivered a rallying cry for the Proud Boys to “stand by.” For the president of the United States to fail to condemn white supremacy isn’t just beyond the pale, it����ap un-American.

The only thing Trump’s embarrassing performance succeeded in doing last night was reminding Colorado voters that he is unfit to lead our country, or keep Americans safe and healthy.

Trump claimed that he was taking the COVID-19 pandemic seriously. He has lied to Americans since February by deliberately downplaying the pandemic even though he knew how deadly it was. Trump told the truth to Washington insiders, but he misled the American public. Now, more than 200,000 Americans have lost their lives to the coronavirus, including over 2,000 Coloradans — more than any other country in the world.

Trump also said he had a plan to ensure access to affordable, quality health care. But nothing could be further from the truth. In reality, Trump has repeatedly attempted to undermine the Affordable Care Act, threatening to rip away health care coverage from working families, spike costs, and deny protections for pre-existing conditions. In fact, his lawyers are in court right now trying to tear down the ACA, and that case will be heard just one week after the election. That����ap why Trump and Republicans are doing everything they can to jam a Supreme Court nomination through the U.S. Senate. If Trump and Republicans succeed, that justice could cast the deciding vote to overturn the ACA — and thousands of Coloradans could lose their coverage in the middle of a global pandemic and at a time when complications from COVID-19 could become the next deniable pre-existing condition.

Meanwhile, Trump’s health care plan has been crystal clear for the past four years: overturn the ACA and possibly rip health coverage away from 2.4 million Coloradans with pre-existing conditions. All while handing out massive giveaways to the wealthy and well-connected like himself.

Here’s the facts: the ACA has protected millions of Coloradans with pre-existing conditions from being denied coverage, and lowered our uninsured rate to 6.5%. Our state has led the way in ensuring that folks have the ability to obtain quality health care that won’t break the bank, largely thanks to Colorado Democrats who have worked tirelessly to pass bills to make sure that this is possible. From the $100 monthly insulin cap to policies that are lowering the costs of prescription drugs, increasing access to quality, affordable health care has remained a top priority for Colorado Democrats.

Health care has always been top of mind for Colorado voters. And this year, health care is on the ballot once again.

Unlike Trump, Joe Biden will protect and build on the ACA, expand access to quality, affordable health care, and lower costs. He will guide us safely through this global pandemic and, most importantly, he will be a president who brings us together instead of tearing us apart.

Last night, Joe Biden spoke directly to Colorado families about the challenges we’re facing and offered comprehensive plans to our most pressing issues. He offered a vision of courage over fear, unity over division, and compassion over hate. Coloradans were searching the stage for a leader with empathy and experience — and Joe Biden demonstrated that in spades.

This November, the stakes couldn’t be higher and the choice couldn’t be more clear. We have just 34 days left until the most important election of our lifetimes. We must make every single one of them count if we want to protect our health care, build our economy back better, and bring Americans together by sending Joe Biden to the White House this fall.

Morgan Carroll is a former President of the Colorado Senate and is the current Chair of the Colorado Democratic Party.

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.

Just ask poor, sleep-deprived John Hickenlooper who just couldn’t seem to get out of bed to participate in Democratic senate forums.

Those pesky political activists who voluntarily give their time, energy, and money are the lifeblood of his Democratic Party. But how rude that they expect you to actually show up and personally make your case on why you should be their nominee.

Don’t these irritating people understand that you’re a former governor who has been crowned the nominee by Washington power brokers? Those lesser Senate candidates are clearly inferior to the Chosen One. Just ask Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer of New York and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee in Washington, D.C. No need for a Democratic State Assembly or a Democratic Senate primary.

But Hickenlooper has finally answered the question about why he missed so many forums with his opponents sponsored by Democratic groups:

“I need my sleep.”

Yes, in response to a direct question from The Colorado Sun on why he has missed so many forums, Hickenlooper responded that he needed his sleep.

Colorado Democratic State Chairperson Morgan Carroll should launch an immediate investigation into why these shadowy activist groups are scheduling forums at 3:00 a.m. right in the middle of the former governor’s REM sleep cycle. This conspiracy should be rooted out post-haste.

But then, it was the Colorado Democratic Party that imposed rules on the forums that prevented direct questioning by the candidates of their opponents which was clearly done to protect the Chosen One from any real scrutiny in the few forums he has attended.

Hickenlooper always knew these people were out to get him but now he has hard evidence. Rather than genuflecting to the Chosen One in the Democratic caucuses, these activists who know him best gave him just 30% of their votes — despite Hickenlooper declaring “I do expect to win” — while 70% said they wanted someone else or are undecided.

But back to Hickenlooper’s sleep deprivation.

Insomnia is understandable as Hickenlooper awaits the Colorado Ethics Commission hearing to consider his ethical violations.

The Chosen One flagrantly ignored ethics rules while he was governor during his frequent jaunts on private planes owned by wealthy friends. But one incident in particular stands out.

Hickenlooper flew on a private jet belonging to the brother of billionaire Elon Musk so he could officiate the wedding of Musk’s brother on the east coast. Shortly thereafter Hickenlooper signed an executive order that directly benefited Musk’s company that builds Tesla automobiles.

Hickenlooper’s buddy Musk has been in the news recently.

The October 2019 edition of Vanity Fair wrote an exhaustive story about Musk taking a $750 million subsidy from the state of New York to finance a failing solar panel factory in Buffalo leaving New York taxpayers and unemployed workers wondering where that money went. And USA Today reported on March 24, 2020, that Musk used his political influence with the governor and attorney general of Nevada to prevent workplace safety inspectors from total access in his gigantic and secretive “Gigafactory” outside Reno.

No wonder Musk and ethically challenged Hickenlooper are buddies. They have so much in common.

As pathetic as Hickenlooper’s campaign work ethic and ethical lapses are, he will probably still win the Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate. The Schumer-DSCC power axis has made sure he has raised millions more than his impoverished challengers.

But those challengers are not without complicity in this outcome. So far, not one of them has seriously attempted to hold Hickenlooper responsible for his laziness and ethical failings. Their failure will allow his millions to swamp their campaigns.

As a result, Colorado Democrats will probably nominate an ethically flawed candidate who will be woefully unprepared to take on the most talented and aggressive Republican candidate and campaign since 2002 when Gov. Bill Owens and Sen. Wayne Allard were reelected.

Unlike John “It����ap the media’s job to protect me” Hickenlooper, who won two elections for governor without being truly tested and without any real media scrutiny, U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner unseated a heavily favored, popular incumbent U.S. Senator Mark Udall in 2014. Gardner is ready for the fight in November.

Meanwhile, please send sleepy Hickenlooper a pillow.

Dick Wadhams is a Republican political consultant and a former Colorado Republican state chairman.

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.

This week’s state Democratic primary, won by U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, delivered big on those promises — even as Colorado competed for attention with much larger states, including California and Texas, on Super Tuesday.

“We have clearly seen the difference a primary makes in terms of more voters participating in the decision — and when more people vote, democracy wins,” Morgan Carroll, the Colorado Democratic Party’s chair, said Wednesday.

Most major candidates visited Colorado during a stretch in February shortly after mail ballots were sent out across the state, with former Vice President Joe Biden the only Democrat not to hold a public event.

Gov. Jared Polis, a Democrat, had expressed hope last spring, when he and Secretary of State Jena Griswold announced the selection of Super Tuesday for Colorado’s reinstated primary, that the state’s voters would get that level of attention.

Then there was the turnout. More than 1.8 million Coloradans cast ballots in the Democratic or Republican primary, according to Griswold’s office, with a few still being counted. That means at least 51% of the state’s active voters participated, according to an by Louisville-based political firm Magellan Strategies.

More than 1 million of those ballots were for the Democratic primary, with unaffiliated voters allowed to participate. That participation marks an eightfold increase from four years ago, when about 124,000 Democrats turned out to caucus sites to hand Sanders a victory over Hillary Clinton.

Not all of those votes are showing in Colorado’s results, however, because ballots marked for Pete Buttigieg, Amy Klobuchar and some other withdrawn candidates weren’t counted. The biggest concern about the primary as Super Tuesday arrived was that some early voters who chose these candidates couldn’t choose again — an issue some politicians are now discussing how to address.

Back in 2016, when 64% of Colorado voters approved Proposition 107, the initiative to reinstate the presidential primary, the leaders of both major parties opposed it. They worried that open primaries would disincentivize party affiliation and could come with unintended consequences.

But their opposition has long since softened.

“We think the move from a presidential caucus to a presidential primary was the right decision,” Carroll said in a statement.

Not surprisingly, turnout in Tuesday’s primary was highest among active Democrat registrants, as nearly two-thirds voiced a preference in their side’s highly competitive presidential race. Sanders won Colorado by more than 10 percentage points.

Unaffiliated voters, too, participated eagerly, with about 42% turning out. Magellan says unaffiliated turnout was more than double what it was in June 2018, where contested gubernatorial primaries on both sides provided the state’s first test run of the new system allowing them to participate. This time, they opted to vote in the Democratic primary by a more than 2-to-1 margin.

Yet Republicans didn’t sit on their ballots, either. Even with President Donald Trump facing no serious competition in that primary, at least 54% of active Republican voters returned their ballots. Nearly 93% of GOP ballots cast were for Trump.

“As the president would say, it����ap huge,” said Lx Fangonilo, the state GOP’s executive director. “It’s amazing that we were able to turn out this many Republican ballots when it wasn’t competitive.”

While Carroll said the high primary participation showed voters are energized to defeat Trump, Fangonilo speculated that a potential drawn-out primary battle between Sanders and Biden would only help unify Republicans in November.

Both may be right.

“Looking toward November, if the data from these primaries is any indication, we are looking at sky-high turnout across the board in Colorado,” said the analysis from Magellan, a Republican polling firm based in the state.

Colorado wasn’t alone in seeing surging turnout after changing its election setup. Turnout — Maine, Minnesota and Utah — that switched to primaries from caucuses since 2016.