State’s congressional races proceed predictably.
U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette easily won her toughest primary fight in years Tuesday night, and fellow Democrat Jason Crow was projected the winner in his bid to challenge incumbent U.S. House Republican Mike Coffman in the fall.
Among Colorado’s other congressional races, U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn, R-Colorado Springs, also prevailed, defeating two GOP challengers in his bid to win a seventh term in the highly conservative district.
Shortly after polls closed, DeGette was projected as the winner in her 1st Congressional District race against Saira Rao, whom DeGette was leading by a nearly 3to-1 margin as votes were stilling being counted.
The seat represents all of Denver and some adjacent suburban areas in Arapahoe and Jefferson counties.
In the 6th Congressional District’s Democratic primary, Crow was declared the winner just before 8 p.m. Tuesday over his intraparty rival, Levi Tillemann.
1st Congressional District Rao, a first-time candidate, embraced the outsider role in her progressive challenge of the establishment incumbent, who is the House Democrats’ chief deputy whip. Rao pressed the case that it was time for a fresh voice — and she said Democrats such as DeGette were not doing enough to oppose President Donald Trump.
But most primary voters opted to stick with DeGette.
“It really didn’t turn out to be a very strong challenge, did it?” DeGette said in an interview. “I will say this: I’m so gratified by the vote of resounding approval that the constituents of the 1st Congressional District have given me. This opponent is, in fact, the most well-funded opponent that I’ve had . ... The voters of the 1st Congressional District understand what I’m doing and that I’m fightshow ing for them in Washington.”
Rao, for her part, did not express disappointment in the outcome of a campaign that began in January.
“I feel like we have won. Getting (nearly) a third of the votes in five months, with zero name recognition, against a 22-year incumbent is startlingly successful,” Rao said in an interview. “If you looked at the crowd tonight, it was emblematic of our movement: It was black, brown, white, gay, straight. We have built a movement. … Tonight marks the beginning, and not the end.”
She said she and others would continue to push the Democratic Party to back more progressive stances that put “people over profits.”
Two years ago, DeGette handily headed off a primary challenge, drawing 86 percent of the vote against a candidate who drew inspiration from Bernie Sanders’ insurgent presidential campaign but raised little money.
Against the better-funded Rao, DeGette looked to be headed for a robust primary victory, if by a narrower margin this time.
DeGette will proceed to the Nov. 6 election against Republican Charles “Casper” Stockham, in a rematch.
In the reliably blue district, DeGette again will be heavily favored. Two years ago, she won reelection by a 40-percentage-point margin over Stockham.
6th Congressional District The winner of the Democratic primary in the 6th Congressional District will face off against Coffman, a Republican who has held the congressional seat centered on Aurora for close to a decade, in November’s general election.
Coffman has handily defeated a string of Democratic challengers over five election cycles, starting in 2008. That’s despite the fact that the district, which stretches from Brighton to Littleton and through demographically diverse Aurora, is divided almost evenly among Democrats, Republicans and independent voters.
But the former Marine and combat veteran could be fighting to retain his seat for a sixth time running in a particularly difficult political environment for the GOP, which finds itself in a struggle to retain control of the House this fall.
Crow, at a boisterous victory party at Tequileno Mexican restaurant in Aurora, immediately went on the offensive against Coffman, calling him “a great investment in the status quo.” He said he is ready to dig in and oust the veteran Republican in November.
“Your inaction has failed this community and it’s time to go,” Crow said to loud applause in the restaurant, addressing his GOP opponent. “After fighting in the trenches for over a year, (my) team is battle-tested.”
Tillemann made headlines in his race against Crow, first when he secretly recorded — and subsequently leaked — a conversation he had in December with U.S. Rep. Steny Hoyer, a political power broker and the second-ranking Democrat in the House, in which Hoyer told Tillemann that Crow was “the favorite” to win the Democratic nomination.
Then this month, Tillemann produced a graphic campaign ad in which he subjected himself to pepper spray, in an attempt to the kind of nonlethal resources teachers could use to protect classrooms during an active shooter scenario.
Other congressional races
Lamborn, R-Colorado Springs, looked positioned Tuesday night to win a seventh term in Congress despite a pair of strong GOP challengers to his tenure in his district.
He had 54 percent of the vote to Owen Hill’s 18 percent and Glenn’s 20 percent with 86,600 ballots counted.
Lamborn was nearly kept off the ballot after a group tied to Hill challenged the legitimacy of the signatures he gathered to seek another term.
Ultimately, in a case that went before a federal judge, Lamborn’s name made it onto the ballot.
Who wins the 5th Congressional District’s GOP primary will probably be the winner in November, given the district’s strong Republican tilt.
Former University of Colorado Regent Joe Neguse and former state Rep. Diane Mitsch Bush won their respective Democratic primaries for Congress.
Neguse beat out Mark Williams, a former chair of the Colorado Democratic Party, with 67 percent of the vote in the 2nd Congressional District primary with 90,300 ballots counted.
The two men are vying for a chance to replace U.S. Rep. Jared Polis, D-Boulder, after he stepped down to run for governor.
Given the north-central Colorado district’s strong blue tilt, it’s likely that — barring unforeseen circumstances — Neguse will go on to win in November and be the state’s first black member of Congress.
The Associated Press called the race in Mitsch Bush’s favor about 9 p.m.
Mitsch Bush held a lead over Karl Hanlon, Glenwood Springs chief legal counsel, with 64 percent of the vote in Colorado 3rd Congressional District’s Democratic primary with 58,300 ballots counted.