Election 2020: Colorado Democrats stay in charge at state Capitol, boost their ranks in Congress

Colorado's Democrats fended off a challenge to their control of the state Legislature and increased their presence in Washington in the election that ended Tuesday.

But Democrats weren't the whole story, as a pistol-packing Republican newcomer won a race with a political-veteran Democrat to represent southern and western Colorado in Congress.

With a few legislative races still close in Wednesday’s partial unofficial returns, Democrats maintained their majorities in both the state House and Senate.

In fact, Democrats may have added at least one seat to their narrow 19-16 state Senate advantage, with Democrat Chris Kolker well ahead of Republican Suzanne Staiert in the race to succeed Republican Jack Tate in Senate District 27, representing Centennial.

In the state House, where Democrats enjoyed a 41-24 advantage heading into the election, the party's control was not in doubt, even with a few races still unresolved as of Wednesday.

In House District 38 in the Littleton-west Centennial area, Democrat David Ortiz defeated incumbent Republican Richard Champion by a margin of nearly 13 percentage points. Champion had been appointed to the seat after Susan Beckman resigned to take a job in the Trump administration.

Meanwhile, in the Pueblo area's House District 47, Democratic incumbent Bri Buentello was losing to Republican Stephanie Luck by about 7 points.

In the west Jefferson County foothills, where Lisa Cutter in 2018 became the first Democrat in decades to win the state House District 25 seat, she was leading Republican Donald Rosier, a former Jefferson County commissioner, by nearly 5 points in her bid for a second term.

As for Colorado's representatives in the nation's Capitol, John Hickenlooper's win over incumbent Cory Gardner in the U.S. Senate race, coupled with the results of contests in Colorado's seven U.S. House districts, will leave state Democrats with one more seat in the halls of Congress next year.

In Wednesday’s unofficial returns, Democrat Hickenlooper was leading Republican Gardner, 54% to 44%. He will join fellow Democrat Michael Bennet in the Senate; Bennet has said he plans to run for re-election in 2022. Colorado voters were targeted with more than $64 million in television ad spending in the Hickenlooper-Gardner Senate contest.

And Democrats maintained their 4-3 majority in Colorado's U.S. House following the election, with incumbents winning re-election in six of the state's seven districts.

The state's most competitive U.S. House race was in the sprawling 3rd Congressional District, encompassing Colorado's mostly rural southern and western reaches. Republican newcomer Lauren Boebert, a Rifle restaurant owner and gun-rights advocate who defeated GOP incumbent Scott Tipton in the primary, defeated Democrat Diane Mitsch Bush, a former state House member from Steamboat Springs, by more than 5 percentage points in unofficial returns, keeping the seat in Republican hands.

Elsewhere, Democrats were on pace to win at least three races for district attorney in metro Denver counties, with Democratic Denver DA Beth McCann cruising to re-election and one race still undecided Wednesday.

In unofficial results, Democrat Alexis King was leading Republican Matthew Durkin by 10 points to succeed term-limited Republican DA Pete Weir in the 1st Judicial District, encompassing Jefferson and Gilpin counties. In the 17th Judicial District, serving Adams and Broomfield counties, DA Dave Young, not allowed to run again, will be replaced by fellow Democrat Brian Mason.

And in the race to succeed term-limited Republican George Brauchler in the 18th Judicial District, including Arapahoe, Douglas, Elbert and Lincoln counties, the race between Democrat Amy Padden and Republican John Kellner was a virtual tie as of Wednesday.

Democrats appeared poised to gain their first majority in more than 40 years on the University of Colorado Board of Regents with the apparent win of Ilana Spiegel to represent the 6th Congressional District on the CU panel, succeeding Republican John Carson. Unlike most boards of regents overseeing public universities, the CU board is elected.

For more stories from Rocky Mountain PBS and our news partners about the 2020 election, click here