Colorado Will Test How Toxic Washington Is for Democrats

DENVER — Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet and Attorney General Phil Weiser were never more than a few dozen feet from each other as they crisscrossed the Juneteenth parade route last weekend, stopping for selfies and shaking hands.

That physical reality reflects their political one — an uncomfortably close fight to be the state’s next governor.

The race, one of the most expensive gubernatorial primaries in the state’s history, is now serving up a midseason litmus test for how an incensed Democratic electorate is judging candidates who are defined less by their ideological differences than by their ability to fight President Donald Trump and their ties to a poisonous Washington brand. It could amount to a warning sign ahead of the 2028 Democratic presidential primary, when a slate of senators and governors are expected to run, all looking to tap into the base’s fury.

“It’s toxic to be from Washington right now,” said Colorado state Rep. Javier Mabrey, who has endorsed Weiser. “There’s a serious anti-Washington sentiment right now, and I do think Weiser is benefiting from that.”

Tuesday’s primary didn’t start this way. Bennet, who was first appointed to the Senate 16 years ago, froze out other potential candidates and led by 31 percentage points in an internal poll his campaign released last year. That gap has narrowed significantly in recent months, according to interviews with more than a dozen Democratic elected officials and strategists. Weiser “has the momentum” while “Bennet has the name ID” and a spending advantage on TV, said one Colorado Democratic elected official, granted anonymity to discuss the race candidly.

“Even though both of them are currently elected, Bennet is seen as the incumbent, which is a detriment this election cycle,” they continued. “I don’t know who will ultimately win in this race, and it will be very close.”

That anger ricocheted through New York this week, when a pair of Democratic incumbents lost their primaries to insurgent leftist candidates backed by New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani. Progressives have already notched major wins in Maine and California primaries. Activists are ready to declare the arrival of a left-wing Tea Party, as the Democratic Party’s approval ratings remain historically low nearly two years into Trump’s second term.

“I’d much rather be running from a state than from D.C.” in the 2026 and 2028 primaries, said Morgan Jackson, a North Carolina-based strategist who has advised two attorneys general turned governors, as well as former Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper’s bid for Senate. “Being a Democrat from Washington, right now, is not a good thing,” he said.

The gubernatorial primary in Colorado doesn’t fall neatly along the insider-verus-outsider lines that defined New York’s primaries —- even if Weiser is eager to cast the race that way.

Weiser acknowledged in an interview with NOTUS that he “imagined a race for governor where people looked at my campaign, and I looked like the more insider, even establishment, view,” but “as it turns out, running against Michael Bennet, just he and I, I end up looking like I am the anti-establishment outsider.”

Indeed, no leftist candidate emerged in Colorado to challenge Bennet or Weiser, much to the frustration of some progressives. They pointed to 29-year-old activist Melat Kiros’ serious challenge to Rep. Diana DeGette for a Denver-based House seat as clear evidence there was a missed opportunity in the governor’s race. The state’s blue hue practically guarantees that whoever emerges from the June 30 primary will replace Democratic Gov. Jared Polis, who is increasingly seen as a pariah inside the party. Colorado Democrats voted to censure Polis after he granted clemency to the election denier Tina Peters.

But without a challenger from the left, Weiser, who was first elected statewide in 2018, has focused on casting himself as the best fighter against Trump.

He’s leaned aggressively on his record of suing the Trump administration, while arguing Bennet hasn’t done enough inside the Senate. Weiser has also attacked the dark money spending on ads supporting Bennet. In his first TV ad, Weiser said it’s “my job to defend Colorado from illegal actions, including Donald Trump’s, especially since the politicians in Congress won’t.”

Weiser is particularly critical of Bennet’s votes to approve a handful of Trump’s Cabinet officials.

“I still think people are underestimating the extent to which there is so much anger,” Weiser said. “When you’re in Washington, you’re not getting things done, and you’re seen as complicit in some way. It is a tough brand.”

That frustration was palpable in conversations with voters attending Denver’s Juneteenth parade. Michael Garvey, a 45-year-old who was volunteering with the Samba Colorado float, said he voted for Weiser because he champions lawsuits that “are directly related to issues that I care about, and that I see more action in that way,” while Bennet has “not done enough” to fight Trump. From the sidelines of the parade, a woman shouted to Bennet that he needed to “stay in the Senate.”

And after shaking Weiser’s hand along the parade route, Tai Beldock, a 62-year-old business owner, said she backed him because she doesn’t “want the same old” and “for the past 16 years, Bennet hasn’t been in the trenches, so maybe he’s lost touch.”

Bennet’s allies argue he’s furious with the administration and congressional Republicans, and state Rep. Yara Zokaie, who has endorsed him, said he brings that “fire over Trump” into the governor’s race. In a viral video from 2019, Bennet lambasted Texas Sen. Ted Cruz over his “crocodile tears” during the government shutdown. That clip, tapping into the frustration within the Democratic base, helped launch his brief presidential campaign.

That fire flared again when Bennet was asked in an interview about Weiser’s attack over his confirmation votes for some Trump officials. Bennet’s voice crescendoed as he defended those votes as necessary to protect Coloradans.

“At 7 a.m. on Wednesday mornings, I am on the phone with Donald Trump’s Agriculture Secretary and Donald Trump’s Interior Secretary to make sure that Colorado doesn’t get left behind [during] the worst fire danger that we have had in the history of our state,” Bennet told NOTUS. “That’s my job … I do think people in Colorado understand that, but maybe they don’t. We’ll see.”

Bennet said voting against Trump’s nominees is the “easiest vote for Democrats,” but he’s “spent my entire time in the Senate putting points on the board for Colorado.”

Bennet called his decision to run for governor, rather than stay in a comfortable Senate seat, an “insurgent” move, arguing he’s “not going to mail it in when our state is in trouble.”

He said he’s also willing to take on his own party in Washington. In July 2024, for example, Bennet was the first senator to publicly acknowledge then-President Joe Biden wasn’t capable of winning in November.

“I don’t think that I’ve been somebody who’s contributed to the stupidity of that place, or to the permanent games of shirts and skins,” he said, “but I could see why somebody might, you know, wonder about that, or might ask questions about that.”

For at least one Coloradan who heard Bennet’s pitch last week, that argument worked. Connie Paeglow, a 66-year-old voter, entered Bennet’s meet and greet at a senior center in Denver as undecided in the primary. She left a Bennet supporter. “I think he has the connections and experience, as a senator, to best know how to push back on the Trump administration,” she said.

Zokaie, a progressive state legislator who’s endorsed Bennet, acknowledged that “approval for Washington is pretty darn low right now,” and some Coloradans “might disagree with the senator’s votes,” but “I don’t see Weiser making the case that those decisions were bad or what he’d do differently.”

“With Bennet, I sense an urgency and understanding that the Democratic Party has failed to be responsive,” she said.

Bennet holds a significant spending advantage over Weiser, which several Democrats cited as a key reason he could prevail. The pro-Bennet super PAC, Rocky Mountain Way, and his campaign have dropped more than $10 million on ads — nearly half of which came from former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a major Democratic donor. Weiser and his aligned super PAC have spent just under $5 million, according to ad-tracking firm AdImpact.

“I don’t think people are making a choice between two different ideologies or ideas, it’s more — Phil is leaning into, ‘I’m taking on the establishment,’ even though he’s also the establishment, and voters have known Michael forever,” said a Democratic strategist in Colorado who isn’t working on the governor’s race and was granted anonymity to discuss the primary candidly. “I think Bennet still ultimately wins, but it shows how tying to D.C. is very powerful.”