SENTINEL ELECTION: Colorado BluNami – Crow ousts Coffman and Dems sweeping top state offices

AURORA | Democratic U.S. Rep. Jared Polis has defeated Republican state Treasurer Walker Stapleton in the Colorado governor’s race.

Polis’ victory Tuesday keeps the governor’s seat in Democratic hands. The 43-year-old Polis will succeed the term-limited John Hickenlooper to become Colorado’s first openly gay governor.

Polis is a five-term congressman and technology entrepreneur who promised to fight for universal health care, renewable energy standards and publicly funded preschool and kindergarten. He vowed to stand up to President Donald Trump’s efforts to dismantle former President Barack Obama’s health care law.

On election night, Polis took the stage to address a jubilant crowd at the state Colorado Democrats watch party. In his victory speech Polis stressed unity across demographic and party lines and said he would not be Governor without “pioneers” in the LGBT movement paving the way.

Stapleton is a two-term state treasurer who campaigned on defending Colorado’s constitutional restrictions on taxing and spending. The 44-year-old Stapleton insisted Polis’ ideas for funding K-12 education, roads and energy would bankrupt the state.

Colorado has not had a Republican governor since 2007.

First-time Democratic candidate Jason Crow has defeated five-term Republican U.S. Rep. Mike Coffman in a suburban Denver district.

“For me this campaign reaffirmed the Colorado spirit, the notion we are in this together and we share a common destiny,” he told a crowd of supporters at a Denver Tech Center hotel ballroom, with his kids and wife beside him.

Crow is a former U.S. Army Ranger who was national Democrats’ choice to take on Coffman. He won Tuesday after outspending the incumbent, who lost TV ad spending from the national Republican Party in the campaign’s final weeks.

Crow said during his acceptance speech that he takes the oaths he’s given — when he became an active service member and when he married his wife — seriously. The congressman-elect highlighted, more than once, his promise not to embarrass his country.

He also thanked his opponent.

“To be clear Mike Coffman and his supporters are not our enemies,” he said. “This is politics not war.”

Coffman is an Army and Marine veteran who until Tuesday had repeatedly won in a district that has increasingly turned Democratic. He faced his toughest challenge yet against Crow.

The Democrat sought to wed Coffman to President Donald Trump’s immigration policies. He also criticized the Republican’s pro-gun stance in a district that saw the 2012 Aurora movie theater shooting.

Coffman represented Colorado’s 6th Congressional District since 2009 and served twice in Iraq.

Crow served in Iran and Afghanistan.

Colorado voters have rejected a proposal to raise income tax rates to fund public education.

Amendment 73 would have increased the state individual income tax rate for people who earn more than $150,000 a year and boosted the corporate income tax rate to raise an additional $1.6 billion annually for schools.

The proposal was defeated Tuesday in a state that has typically been averse to raising taxes. Voters rejected similar measures in 2011 and 2013 by a 2-to-1 margin.

Lisa Weil, executive director of Great Education Colorado, the group behind the initiative, said the group was “proud of the two-year, community-based, grassroots effort that put Amendment 73 on the ballot. This conversation, and the effort for equitable funding for Colorado schools, will continue, as will the broad based coalition that came together to help our schools, kids and teachers.”

Opponents argued the measure would be bad for the economy and would not guarantee better academic performance. They also said the Legislature would not have been able to adjust tax thresholds to account for inflation.

Democrat Joe Neguse has won the Colorado congressional seat being vacated by Democrat Jared Polis as he runs for governor.

Neguse on Tuesday defeated Republican Peter Yu in the 2nd Congressional District that includes Boulder, Fort Collins and parts of north-central Colorado.

Neguse becomes Colorado’s first African-American member of Congress. He is the son of immigrants from the African country of Eritrea.

Neguse is an attorney, co-founder of a voter registration group and a former regent of the University of Colorado.

Colorado Democratic Rep. Ed Perlmutter has won a seventh term in Congress.

Perlmutter defeated Republican Mark Barrington on Tuesday in the 7th Congressional District that encompasses Denver’s western and northern suburbs.

Last year, Perlmutter entered Colorado’s Democratic race for governor, saying he could do more for the state in the governor’s seat than in Washington.

He abandoned that bid after fellow Rep. Jared Polis entered the race. Polis is independently wealthy and self-financed his campaign against Republican Walker Stapleton.

Perlmutter initially said it’d be unfair to run for re-election to Congress since three other Democratic politicians were already competing for his seat. He later reversed himself.

Colorado Republican Rep. Doug Lamborn has been re-elected to Congress.

Lamborn defeated Democrat Stephany Rose Spaulding on Tuesday to win a seventh term. His 5th Congressional District is centered in Colorado Springs and is heavily Republican.

Lamborn’s political career almost ended in April when the Colorado Supreme Court ruled he couldn’t appear on the Republican primary ballot for technical reasons.

A federal judge quickly allowed Lamborn back on the ballot, and he won the GOP primary.

Spaulding is an associate professor of women’s and ethnic studies at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs, and senior pastor at the city’s Ebenezer Baptist Church.

Colorado Republican Rep. Ken Buck has been re-elected to Congress.

Buck defeated Democrat Chase Kohne, a veterinarian, on Tuesday in the 4th Congressional District.

Buck will serve a third term in a strongly Republican district that stretches from northern parts of the state across the eastern Plains and into suburban Douglas County.

He is a former Weld County district attorney who unsuccessfully ran for U.S. Senate in 2010. Buck was first elected to the House in 2014.

 

VOTER TALLY — CANDIDATE RACES

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VOTER TALLY — BALLOT QUESTIONS

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