Polis, Stapleton to face off in Nov.
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The Colorado governor’s race is set: Democrat Jared Polis will face Republican Walker Stapleton in a November election in which President Donald Trump, marijuana and big money are expected to dominate.
The two candidates easily won their respective nominations in Tuesday’s primary election, each defeating three rivals with campaigns that appealed to the party’s most ardent supporters.
Polis, a five-term Boulder congressman, would become the nation’s first openly gay man elected governor if he succeeds, and his win Tuesday represents a sharp leftward shift that will test whether Colorado is a true blue state.
Stapleton, the two-term state treasurer and Bush family relative, is competing to become only the second Republican elected governor in 44 years and aligned himself with Republican firebrands to win the race.
The two candidates didn’t waste a moment before taking aim at each other.
“On almost every question before us in this election … Walker Stapleton comes out on the wrong side, and the people of Colorado know that,” Polis said in his victory speech at a Broomfield hotel ballroom, mentioning health care, immigration and honesty as is-
where his rival falls short.
From a stage in Greenwood Village, Stapleton blasted Polis for supporting tax hikes, the marijuana industry and “a government takeover of your health care.”
“The choices could not be clearer,” Stapleton said at his victory party. “The difference could not be more stark.”
The Associated Press declared Stapleton the winner 30 minutes after polls closed at 7 p.m. He defeated former state Rep. Victor Mitchell, businessman Doug Robinson and former Parker Mayor Greg Lopez.
The preliminary results at 8 p.m. showed Stapleton at 48 percent and Mitchell at 30 percent. Lopez took 12 percent, and Robinson, a nephew of Mitt Romney’s, received 9 percent, according to the secretary of state’s office.
Polis secured the nomination at 7:45 p.m., defeating former state Treasurer Cary Kennedy, former state Sen. Mike Johnston and Lt. Gov. Donna Lynne.
He took 44 percent support compared with Kennedy’s 25 percent, according to early results. Johnston stood at 23 percent, and Lynne finished with 7 percent.
“Together we are going to make Colorado even better, even stronger,” Polis told a hotel ballroom in Broomfield.
The early figures show turnout at roughly 27 percent among the 3.8 million eligible Colorado voters.
Trump and the political conversation in Washington dominated much of the race. Democrats bashed the White House and embraced government-run, universal health care and Republicans battled for the superlative of “most loyal to Trump” with all but one candidate refusing to disavow his policy on family separation at the U.S.-Mexico border.
Democrats are vying to hold the governor’s mansion after the departure of term-limited Gov. John Hickenlooper and use it as a bulwark against the Trump administration in Washington.
Polis ran a campaign aimed at diehard Democrats with promises to implement all-day preschool and kindergarten for every child and a single-payer, Medicare-for-all health care system in Colorado — both of which were ballot initiatives rejected by voters in prior elections.
Republicans, who are trying to elect their first governor since Bill Owens won a second term in 2002, see an opportunity in Colorado to push back against a blue wave in other states.
Stapleton embraced former U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo, a hard-liner on immigration, to secure a place on the ballot at the state party assembly after fraudulent petitions nearly cost him a place on in the race.
The two candidates will compete in a state that remains mostly purple. Hillary Clinton won the state’s electoral votes for president in 2016 by 5 percentage points, despite repeated Trump visits to the state in the final weeks. But Republicans hold three of the four statewide offices.
The November governor’s race is expected to draw big money in a race already flooded with cash. The influx — much of it from super PAC-styled committees that can accept unlimited donations — pushed the cost of the primary election near $40 million. Polis, one of the richest members of Congress, spent $11 million of his own fortune.
Entering June, when ballots first began to land in mailboxes, the result appeared clear with Polis and Stapleton holding double-digit leads in their respective races. But a significant portion of voters — 1 in 3 Republicans and 1 in 4 Democrats — remained undecided.
The role of unaffiliated voters only added another wild card to the mix. For the first time, the plurality of Colorado voters are not members of a political party and had the opportunity to cast ballots in either party primary under a voter-approved 2016 initiative.
The initial results show that registered party members far outpaced ballots from unaffiliateds, who posted a 25 percent turnout rate.
Allyson Bower, a 24-year-old unaffiliated voter who lives in Adams County, cast her ballot Tuesday for Polis because of “his view on universal schooling for the kids — and I know he’s more child-focused than most governors.”
Eric Castillo, a 47-year-old from Westminster, is an unaffiliated voter who picked the Republican primary ballot. He picked Stapleton because of his stance on the Second Amendment.
“I want to make sure we don’t lose our right to own guns, Castillo said.