My brothers and sisters in Christ, I draw your attention to this:
On election night, it looked like Hick had easily beat Senadora Julie Gonzales. My memory is that he was like 58 and she was like 42. Now, when most of the votes are counted, he definitely beat her, but it was pretty close for someone who raised about $900K and spent $700K, versus Hick’s massive $9.8 million raised and $8.5 million spent, which doesn’t count the (I’m sure) millions in third party spending that went his way.
So here we have a fixture in Colorado politics, a guy who has been Mayor of Denver, Governor of Colorado and Senator. He had to spend 10X his opponent to win by 6 points.
I’m a big woulda-shoulda-coulda guy because that’s how you learn what to do next time. First, I would have thought that failing to co-endorse with Melat Kiros was a big mistake, but right now Gonzales is winning in Denver City/County by 2,500 votes more than Kiros. (CO-1, Kiros’ district, is basically the City and County of Denver, so that comparison is valid.) Maybe the Senadora knew what she was doing, and maybe Kiros’ door knockers also pushed Gonzales, but Gonzales apparently made the right call.
Second, Kiros started her campaign on July 9, 2025. Gonzales started hers on December 8, 2025. Those five months are huge for a campaign, especially for a statewide one like Gonzales’.
Kiros raised $660K to win a compact urban district. (DeGette raised $1.4 million, and had millions more in third party spending.) Maybe Gonzales could have raised a little more, but dios mio, the bang for the buck she got in a statewide race is pretty fucking awesome.
The take-aways:
Start early.
Money matters but you can mount a credible primary challenge for well under $1 million. In a Congressional district or a Senate race, that’s small-donor territory.
PACs air-dropping late ads doesn’t make that much difference, especially in a mail-in voting state. (You can vote almost a month ahead in Colorado.)
For some folks who are disenchanted with the Democratic incumbents, an even-slightly-credible incumbent is an automatic vote. I’m guessing this will be even more true after two more years of Jeffries/Schumer.
I agree with Josh Marshall. A couple of Hickenlooper types need to fall in 2028 for anything good to happen in the Senate in 2029. Bennet is up in 2028, and I’d be surprised if he runs. If he doesn’t retire, I’m guessing a challenger like Senadora Gonzales can take him down. If he does retire, I would imagine that a “wait their turn” boring Democrat isn’t going to win the primary.
It’s a whole new world, in Colorado at least.
