AURORA | Election returns show three Aurora area Democratic state lawmakers have retained their state House seats, and longtime State Rep. Mike Weissman won the Colorado Senate seat to be vacated by Sen. Rhonda Fields.
The outlier is the outlier House District 56, which stretches far east onto the rural plains.
In Senate District 28, Weissman, a Democrat, was leading Republican correctional officer Pedro Espinoza, a political newcomer, with more than 62% of the vote as of press time.
Weissman is a progressive who aims to focus largely on curbing, or at least exposing, the influence of money in politics. He narrowly beat business attorney Idris Keith in an unexpectedly tight Democratic primary influenced by an unprecedented infusion of so-called dark money from a group seeking to defeat him. The June primary was the most expensive in state history, and the group’s backers remain unknown.
Dem State Sen. District 29 Janet Buckner was uncontested for re-election. House District 36 candidate Michael Carter handily won against his only challenger, Forward Party member Eric Mulder.
Senate District 28 straddles Adams and Arapahoe counties, and includes northern Aurora, Watkins and Aetna Estates. It has been represented since 2017 by Sen. Rhonda Fields, who is term-limited out of the seat and ran unopposed for a seat on the Arapahoe County Commission.
Aurora Region State Legislative Races 2024
| Legislative Office | Candidate | Adams County | Arapahoe County | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Senate District 21 | D-Dafna Michaelson Jenet | 25,837 | 471 | 26308 |
| Senate District 21 | R-Frederick Alfred Jr | 22,657 | 2,172 | 24829 |
| Senate District 28 | D-Mike Weissman | 7,034 | 17,795 | 24829 |
| Senate District 28 | R-Pedro Espinoza | 3,328 | 10,672 | 14000 |
| House District 40 | D-Naquetta Ricks | 0 | 18,120 | 18120 |
| House District 40 | R-Darryll Gibbs | 0 | 12,531 | 12531 |
| House District 41 | D-Iman Jodeh | 0 | 16,810 | 16810 |
| House District 41 | R-Robert McKenna | 0 | 9,849 | 9849 |
| House District 56 | D-Alessandra Navetta | 1,654 | 2,717 | 4371 |
| House District 56 | R-Chris Richardson | 4,972 | 4,528 | 9500 |
In Aurora’s other state Senate race, incumbent Sen. Dafna Michaelson Jenet apparently held on to her Senate District 21 seat despite a challenge from Republican challenger Frederick Alfred Jr. As of press time, Michaelson Jenet had won 53% of the vote.
The former state representative from Commerce City was appointed to the Senate seat in August 2023 when Sen. Dominick Moreno resigned for a position in Denver Mayor Mike Johnston’s administration. Michaelson Jenet says services for youth and access to healthcare and mental health treatment will be her top priorities.
Hers is a mixed urban and rural Senate district spanning from parts of Westminster and Federal Heights on the west to Bennett, Strasburg, Byers and Shamrock on the east.
Meanwhile, incumbent Democratic state Rep. Iman Jodeh appears to have easily held on to the House District 41 seat for which she was challenged by Republican Rob McKenna, a compliance specialist for an oil and gas contractor.
Jodeh had snagged 61% of the vote as of press time.
Her district is bounded by Tower Road to the east, Hampden Avenue to the south, Dayton Street to the west and Mississippi Avenue to the north.
The daughter of Palestinian immigrants, Jodeh serves as a community advocate for the Interfaith Alliance of Colorado. And, as co-founder of the Colorado Muslim Leadership Council and spokesperson for the Colorado Muslim Society, she has fought Islamophobia and racism. She leads programs building relationships with and cultural understanding of Middle Easterners.
Jodeh aims to continue pushing social policies that help immigrants and other vulnerable communities, including Venezuelan migrants in Aurora.
Incumbent Rep. Naquetta Ricks, a Democratic mortgage broker, apparently won her third term representing southeast Aurora’s House District 40, challenged by Republican trucker Darryl Gibbs.
Ricks, as of press time, had won 57% of the vote.
In 2020, she became the first African immigrant to be elected to the Colorado Legislature, and the first Liberian American to win a seat in any state capitol.
Ricks sought re-election touting her legislation preventing homeowners associations from foreclosing on homes because of overdue fees and her work ending predatory towing practices and prohibiting excessive towing and impoundment fees. She helped pass a law ensuring that medical debt cannot be factored into a person’s credit score. She championed a policy allowing relatives of people receiving mental health treatment to share information about their loved ones’ behavior with their care providers. Also on mental health care, she helped create a law requiring Medicaid to pay for culturally appropriate forms of treatment, when needed.
In House District 36 — the seat previously held by Weissman — former Aurora Public Schools director Michael Carter, a Democrat, is leading Army veteran and small-businessman Eric Mulder, a member of the Forward Party.
Carter had 66% of the vote as of press time.
He won a June primary contest against local progressive Bryan Lindstrom after the race drew thousands in dark money donations.
In House District 56, Elbert County Commissioner Chris Richardson, a Republican, has apparently beaten Democrat challenger Alessandra Navetta with 75% of the vote in early returns.
That district includes the eastern rural parts of Arapahoe, Adams, and El Paso counties, plus the entirety of Elbert, Lincoln, Kit Carson, and Cheyenne counties.
The seat was held for three terms by Republican and former Arapahoe County Commissioner Rod Bockenfeld, who did not seek re-election because of health reasons.