Early In-Person Voting for Colorado Primaries Kicks Off on June 22

Colorado’s week-long, early, in-person voting period begins June 22 for the state’s June 30 primaries, the last round of preliminary contests in the nation’s 2026 midterms cycle until Aug. 4, when five states—including Arizona and Michigan—stage inter-party elections.

About one-quarter to one-third of Colorado’s 4.6 million registered voters are expected to cast ballots to set November elections for governor, U.S. Senate, eight U.S. House seats, dozens of state legislative posts, and other state and local elections.

The most watched battles are expected to unfold in both parties’ gubernatorial contests to succeed term-limited Democratic Gov. Jared Polis, and in the Democratic Congressional District 8 (CD 8) primary, where the winner will bring favorable odds into a November clash with first-term incumbent Rep. Gabe Evans (R-Colo.), consistently ranked among 2026 midterms’ most vulnerable House incumbents.

According to the Colorado Secretary of State’s office, as of June 1, there were 4.658 million registered voters in the state with more than 600,000 classified as “inactive,” meaning they haven’t voted in consecutive federal elections cycles.

Of those 4 million “active” voters, 1 million are signed on as Democrats, 910,000 with the GOP, 100,000 with third parties, and 2 million as independent or unaffiliated.

Since Colorado voters approved Proposition 108 in 2016, unaffiliated voters have been allowed to participate in political party primary elections. To close primaries or move into a caucus system, parties must get 75 percent approval from county central committee members 13 months before the next election. Parties have failed to meet that threshold. Republican lawsuits challenging the 2016 measure have been denied.

Therefore, since June 8, both Democratic and Republican primary ballots are being mailed to 2 million independents, giving them the option to participate in party contests or request a third-party ballot, such as Libertarian and Unity party primary slates, from local county elections offices.

Colorado is among states that mail election ballots to all registered voters. According to the Secretary of State’s office, as of June 18, more than 230,430 had returned ballots, including 87,790 from registered Democrats, 70,145 from registered Republicans, and 71,701 from the unaffiliated.

In 2024, less than one-quarter of the state’s registered voters cast primary ballots. During 2022’s midterms, about 32 percent did, indicating that while the unaffiliated will determine general election winners, relatively few participate in party ballot-setting primaries.

Congressional Races

Colorado is a “blue” state where President Donald Trump lost its 10 electoral votes in the last three elections—by 4 percentage points to Hillary Clinton in 2016, by 14 percentage points to Joe Biden in 2020, and by 11 percentage points to Kamala Harris in 2024.

Both Colorado U.S. senators are Democrats, but Republicans hold four of eight Congressional districts, reflecting a distinct rural-urban divide where the GOP dominates in the state’s vast rural swaths and Democrats prevail in urban and suburban areas.

Post-2020 Census reapportionment by a bipartisan commission solidified party holds on the state’s then-existing seven House districts, while making its newly allotted eighth district in the fast-growing I-25 corridor north of Denver among the nation’s most competitive.

Democrat Yadira Caraveo won the first CD 8 election in 2022 by 1,600 votes—0.7 percentage points—but lost her reelection bid to Evans by about 2,500 votes, or 1.7 percentage points, in 2024.

Evans is running for reelection without a primary challenger, while state Rep. Manny Rutinel of Commerce City and former state Rep. Shannon Bird of Westminster are running in the Democratic primary to win the party’s November berth.

CD 8 is one of 18 House races—14 held by Republicans—rated as 2026 tossups by the Cook Political Report, Inside Elections, and Sabato’s Crystal Ball. It is one of 44 GOP-held seats identified as “districts in play” by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

None of the state’s four incumbent House Democrats—Reps. Diana DeGette, Joe Neguse, Jason Crow, and Brittany Petterson—face primary challengers. Of Colorado’s four sitting Republicans—Reps. Evans, Jeff Hurd, Lauren Boebert, and Jeff Crank—only Hurd must win an inter-party preliminary contest to get on November’s ballot.

Sen. John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.), the former two-term governor who defeated incumbent Sen. Cory Gardner in 2020, faces progressive state Sen. Julie Gonzales in the Democratic primary.

The Republican U.S. Senate entry is already set. Veteran state lawmaker Sen. Mark Baisley does not have a primary challenger and will likely square off against the favored Democrat—most likely Hickenlooper—in November.

Dark Horse Scrutinized

Democrats own majorities in both state legislative chambers and are seeking to secure supermajorities in the 2026 elections. Coloradans haven’t elected a Republican to a statewide office since 2016 or governor since Bill Owen won reelection in 2002.

With Polis term-limited, Democrats are waging a high-profile gubernatorial primary race with Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser, also term‑limited, facing Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) for the party’s general election nomination. Collectively, their campaigns have raised more than $12 million, with Weiser garnering a Colorado governor primary record of $6.7 million.

If Bennet, reelected in 2022 to a third six-year term, defeats Weiser in what is projected to be a close race, as sitting governor, he can appoint his own U.S. Senate successor to serve out the remainder of his term through 2028.

There are 26 Republican governors and 24 Democratic governors heading into a 2026 election cycle that will see voters in 36 states cast ballots in gubernatorial races. Those 36 governors’ offices are now occupied by 18 Democrats and 18 Republicans.

Whoever emerges from Colorado’s Democratic gubernatorial primary will be the November favorite. The Cook Political Report rates Colorado’s 2026 gubernatorial election as one of 12 “Solid Democratic” races where Democrats are highly favored to win lodging at the Governor’s Mansion.

Three party rivals are seeking the GOP’s nod to take on Weiser or Bennet in the general election with a dark horse first-timer running a strong—albeit increasingly scrutinized—campaign against two veteran state lawmakers.

All Things Possible Ministries Founder and CEO Victor Marx, a U.S. Marine veteran making his first bid for public office, has emerged as the fundraising leader and poll pace-setter in his race against longtime state Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer and state Rep. Scott Bottoms.

According to Colorado’s Secretary of State’s office, as of June 18, Marx has raised more than $2.85 million in his campaign, far out-distancing Kirkmeyer’s $630,000 and Bottoms’s $227,000. A May 7–8 Cygnal survey of 606 likely Colorado Republican voters had Marx not just leading, but garnering nearly 60 percent of responses—four times more than Kirkmeyer at 15 percent.

Marx has only participated in one primary debate, and some of his claims, such as “saving” 45,000 women and children through his ministry in war-torn countries—revised to “served”—being forced to kill someone as a child, and exorcising demons over the phone, being questioned by voters.

His fundraising practices are also drawing ire from Colorado’s Republican Party, which claims at least 150 of his reported contributions exceed the state’s $1,450 individual donation cap and that more than half his campaign spending is on fundraising rather than voter outreach. Kirkmeyer and Bottoms pledge not to support Marx if he wins on June 30.