Colorado’s contested Democratic primaries turned on more than ideology, despite prominent lawmakers’ losses

When initial results dropped in Colorado’s primary elections this week, the early signs in several prominent Democratic legislative races lent themselves to an easy characterization: “moderates win, lefties lose.”

Left-wing candidates like Denver Reps. Elisabeth Epps and Tim Hernández indeed were trailing in races that had been soaked in outside spending supporting more moderate Democrats, and several — including those two — ultimately lost. But a closer examination of Tuesday’s primary results offers a more nuanced perspective on a series of nine distinct, but connected, races in Denver, Aurora, Lakewood, Fort Collins, Thornton and Boulder.

Those involved in the campaigns, along with lawmakers and officials handling the heaviest spending on both sides of the races, eschewed attempts to oversimplify their outcomes, which were largely in safe Democratic districts. While prominent progressive lawmakers lost, the party’s primary winners in several state Senate districts likely will nudge that chamber in a more left-progressive direction, assuming they win the November election.

Instead, several argued, the focus should be on the importance of campaigns and candidates, and on translating electoral success into political coalition-building. Ultimately, they said, candidates should focus on positioning themselves as representing views that are mainstream in a Democratic Party that surged to dominance in Colorado over less than a decade — now holding large majorities in both legislative chambers — and is no stranger to infighting over its ideological center.

Deep Badhesha, a left-wing activist who ties to several of the campaigns, said a main takeaway for progressives was that many of their stances are popular. But the messenger matters.

“All the attacks that seemed like they stuck were about controversies that were around (the candidates),” he said. “If you take politics as a game, you have to play underneath the rules. You can’t appear to be disagreeable; you have to appear to voters as someone who’s getting things done.”

To put it another way, Badhesha said: “Don’t be an easy target.”

The same was true in several Republican legislative primaries where right-wing or extremist candidates lost, including some who had challenged more mainstream incumbents.

Lumping the Democratic candidates and races together was made easier by the outside spenders who sought to influence the primaries, to the tune of more than $4 million. Those groups broke down generally as education reformers, business groups and trade unionists on one side versus the AFL-CIO, the Colorado Education Association and traditional progressive groups on the other.

That amount of money certainly played a role, and it likely was particularly influential in races with lower voter turnout, including Hernández’s in northwest Denver. Though he gained the seat through a vacancy committee last year, his loss to Cecelia Espenoza by a 6-point margin, as of Wednesday evening, was among the most surprising for players on both sides of the spending.

It’s undoubtedly true that more left-wing candidates lost Tuesday in those primaries, chief among them Epps, Hernández and Bryan Lindstrom. Lindstrom, a teacher, had challenged Michael Carter, an Aurora Public Schools board member, for an open House seat in Aurora. He was losing by 23 percentage points.

It’s also true that the deep-pocketed groups opposing them won a nearly clean sweep Tuesday night: One Main Street, the center of an opaque spending web, trumpeted that it won 10 of the 11 primaries in which it spent money. Colorado Labor Action, an AFL-CIO group that backed Hernández, Lindstrom and others, won three and lost three.

But drawing lessons from those races is difficult, and each can be viewed distinctly.

Epps, a first-term representative from central and east Denver, didn’t receive any outside spending support and appeared to really begin campaigning late in the season. She sent one of her first fundraising emails with 13 days to go — well after her opponent, Sean Camacho, had already raised a hefty war chest.

Epps was losing by 22 percentage points in the latest results.

Both Epps and Hernández were also dogged by widespread criticism of pro-Palestinian comments they made last year that put early targets on their back. Hernández apologized and attempted to focus on legislating, but Epps has remained outspoken and has defended her statements.

An attempt to reach Epps early Wednesday evening was not successful. In a tweet posted to X later Wednesday night, Epps expressed gratitude for her district, along with optimism and relief. In a statement on X, Hernández, a teacher, said he was proud of his work in the legislature.

“We have no illusions about what we were up against, and it’s far bigger than one opponent in one political race,” he wrote. “It’s a system that will spend whatever it has to, do whatever it has to, to maintain a vice grip over the resources that should rightfully be shared for the benefit of all.”

Other left-wing progressives without past baggage were more successful Tuesday.

Yara Zokaie, a tax attorney in Fort Collins backed by Colorado Labor Action, crushed challenger Ethnie Treick in a primary for a Larimer County district that was One Main Street’s sole loss. Kathy Gebhardt, who counted the AFL-CIO among her backers, won her primary for the state Board of Education despite more than $1 million in outside spending for her opponent, who was also endorsed by Gov. Jared Polis.

Rep. Mike Weissman, who faced a deluge of outside money from a shadowy group created solely to beat him, secured a likely spot in the state Senate on Tuesday night. So, too, did Rep. Judy Amabile — who was backed by One Main Street’s network but has staked out notably progressive positions on mental health care, criminal justice system and substance use. (Colorado Labor Action did not support Amabile’s opponent.)

In those races, the candidate who successfully argued that they represented the mainstream of Democratic voters was successful, officials involved with spending on both sides argued. Generally, they said, the better candidate won — pointing at Carter in Aurora and Zokaie in Fort Collins as examples.

“We have quality candidates that built big tents, that are collaborators, that work with other Democrats and Democratic leaders to pass meaningful legislation and get things done,” said Andrew Short, the executive director of One Main Street. Though his group fell short in Fort Collins, he called Zokaie “a very dynamic candidate.”