Last night, Colorado lived up to its purple state reputation. While Democrats Michael Bennet won re-election by a narrow three-percent margin and Hillary Clinton carried the state at top of the ticket, Republican Heidi Ganahl won a statewide election for a University of Colorado Regent at-large seat.
In spite of all the hype in CD-6, it wasn’t even close. Republican Mike Coffman closed out the night with the same nine-point margin that he had over the last “great” Democrat challenger, Andrew Romanoff. In the aftermath of this race, many will second guess Morgan Carroll’s tack of running a campaign almost exclusively tying Coffman to Trump, instead of delivering a positive message of her vision for the district. We assume Carroll will go back to chasing ambulances stat.
Not much changed in the state legislature. Republicans will still hold a one seat advantage in the Senate, while Democrats have the House.
In the Senate, Republican incumbent Laura Woods lost to “China Girl” Rachel Zenzinger, who voted for a taxpayer-funded junket to China while on the Arvada City Council. Republicans have a bright spot with Kevin Priola, who defeated Jenise May to take the seat vacated by the term-limited Democrat Mary Hodge. Perennial candidate Emily Tracy lost by ten points to Republican Senator Randy Baumgardner, in a race that Democrats had hoped to have been closer.
In the House, Democrat Tony Exum took back District 17 in southeast Colorado Springs from Republican Kit Roupe, who won defeated Exum by fewer than 300 votes in 2014. Another Republican incumbent, JoAnn Windholz, lost a tight contest with Dafna Michaelson Jenet. Republican Clarice Navarro, who was also targeted by Democrats for her support of Donald Trump, won her Pueblo district by a healthy 17-point margin.