Dem
47
GOP
53
Normally, this would be the lead item. But the Supreme Court decisions were too big to relegate to anything other than the first spot. And then, the shenanigans in Congress are really a complement to that, since the SAVE Act, the Birthright Citizenship Act and the other key legislation could end up joined at the hip. So, the Colorado primary results get to be third. Sorry, Colorado.
Let's start at the top of the ticket. Sen. Michael Bennet (D-CO) need not cancel his lease in Washington, because he's going to be staying in the Senate. In the Democratic gubernatorial primary, he was easily bested by the somewhat leftier AG Phil Weiser, with the AG taking 55.7% of the vote to Bennet's 44.3%. On the Republican side of the contest, the GOP has a good chance of avoiding the two crazypants candidates. At the moment, with 88% reporting, the most sane of the three Republicans, state Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer, has 39.99% of the vote. The killer Cajun karate kid, Victor Marx, has 39.61%. The pedophile-ring-obsessed state Rep. Scott Bottoms is out of the running, with 20.4%. None of these three people is going to be elected governor, but if the GOP can avoid Marx, then they won't be at risk of the whole Republican ticket getting dragged down.
And now, the race that everyone is talking about. There is zero chance that the D+29 CO-01 is going to flip, but the progressive and 68-year-old Rep. Diana DeGette (D) was challenged by the even more progressive, much younger (29), and much more staunchly anti-Israel lawyer Melat Kiros (D). Kiros won in a walk; 51% to 42%. Does this speak to lefty Democrats' desire for generational change? Or their increasing dislike of the nation of Israel? Maybe both. As we have noted, many people on the right (and maybe some on the left) will try to make Kiros the face of the entire Democratic Party. More thoughts on that subject in the next item.
The other Colorado House race that had Hillary vs. Bernie undertones was the one in the EVEN CO-08. There, incumbent Rep. Gabe Evans (R) found out that he will face the leftier of his potential opponents, state Rep. Manny Rutinel (D). Rutinel is also quite young (31), though he's not particularly focused on Israel. He's also Latino in a district that is 38.5% Latino. Hard to know what carried the day for him, but it was a rout, as he took 61.5% of the vote. Rutinel will certainly give Evans all he can handle.
There are two other Colorado House districts that are (barely) in swing territory. CO-03 is R+5, and is represented by Jeff Hurd (R), who is running for reelection. He will face off against U.S. Army veteran Dwayne Romero (D), who easily won his primary with 54.9% of the vote. Romero is running on affordability (which is already in contention for 2026's word of the year) and on various land-use/environmental issues that play well in Colorado.
Meanwhile, CO-05 is also R+5, and is represented by Jeff Crank (R), who is also running for reelection. Crank's opponent will be Jessica Killin, who took an impressive 62.6% of the vote in her primary. Killin is, like Romero, a veteran. Unlike Romero, she used to work on the Hill as a congressional staffer. Her main issue—and you surely didn't see this coming—is affordability. She also wants to secure lots of money for the Space Force and for the Air Force, a position that might have something to do with the fact that CO-05 includes Colorado Springs (home of the Air Force Academy, and former home of the Space Force Command).
And finally, this is a little bit out of order, if we consider rank, but Sen. John Hickenlooper (D), who is fairly moderate and very boring, fought off a younger (74 vs. 43) and more progressive challenger in state Sen. Julie Gonzales (D), 55.3% to 44.7%. So, the young, progressive challengers were not successful in every race yesterday. And now, Hickenlooper can join Bennet in renewing his lease in Washington, since state Sen. Mark Baisley (R) has no meaningful hope of winning the seat. Every race rater has it as "Safe D" or "Solid D"—whichever one that particular rater uses to indicate "Sorry, nothing to see here."
There isn't going to be too much election action for the next few weeks, unless you happen to be deeply invested in whether or not Shady Cove, OR, Mayor Lena Richardson (I, but really R) gets recalled next week. The next big elections are the primaries in Arizona on July 21. (Z)