U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper has won a second term, beating out a Republican state lawmaker and a self-funded independent challenger.
The Associated Press called the race for Hickenlooper immediately after polls closed at 7 p.m. As of 10:01 p.m., Hickenlooper led with 61% support to Republican state Sen. Mark Baisley’s 35%. Forward Party candidate Bob Chew had 2.5% of the vote.
“The voters’ will is clear,” Hickenlooper, 74, said at his victory speech at about 7:30 p.m. “We’re going to rebuild what (President Donald Trump) tore apart.”
He slammed tariffs, violence by federal immigration police and damage to the healthcare system. He also promised the Senate would be “getting to the bottom of this illegal activity” allegedly committed by the Trump administration.
The near-snap call showed Hickenlooper entered the race as a heavy favorite. One of the state’s best-known political figures, he has broad name recognition and has raised millions of dollars, first to ward off a surprisingly close primary challenge from a progressive state senator and now to get past Baisley and Chew.
A former Denver mayor and Colorado governor, Hickenlooper has said he will retire after finishing this second term, at which point he’ll be 80. He was first elected in 2020, defeating Colorado’s last remaining statewide Republican, Cory Gardner.
Given Colorado’s recent Democratic shift, Hickenlooper’s reelection bid would have been favored under most circumstances. But that’s particularly true this year, when Democrats nationwide are expected to have a strong midterm election night. Indeed, as money poured into Senate races elsewhere, no outside money came to help Baisley, and no liberal groups felt the need to spend to defend Hickenlooper.
Baisley, among the state Capitol’s most conservative lawmakers, entered the race late and has raised little money. He’s also largely backed Trump’s most polarizing policies, which have been particularly unpopular in Colorado.
Chew, meanwhile, hoped to attract unaffiliated voters who are fed up with Democrats and Republicans. His primary issue is the national debt, and he’d hoped to form an independent caucus in the Senate that could force concessions from other lawmakers. He spent more than $3.5 million of his own money on the race.
Baisley and Chew had hoped to draw in unaffiliated voters dissatisfied with the Democratic Party. Outsider candidates have succeeded lately, including in Colorado: Hickenlooper beat his primary challenger, state Sen. Julie Gonzales, by fewer than 6 percentage points, despite a massive fundraising and name-recognition advantage.
Still, the Senate result Tuesday showed that the energy that propelled Gonzales is still broadly behind Democrats in Colorado. Hickenlooper has acknowledged that voters here are angry and want change, which may explain both his closer-than-expected primary race and the success of left-wing insurgent candidates like Melat Kiros.
But his rapid reelection victory shows those voters aren’t interested in the change offered by a Trump-friendly Republican like Baisley or a libertarian-minded independent like Chew.
Source: www.denverpost.com
