In case you had better things to do Tuesday night like vacuuming the attic or clipping the cat’s nails and didn’t have a chance to scrutinize the Colorado primary election results, don’t worry, here’s a happy summary: fringe candidates, for the most part, lost.
Those who spent money propping up those candidates are wishing they had discovered a scruple before the checks cleared. Proponents of Ranked Choice Voting are smarting, too, since Tuesday’s results showed that traditional primaries do winnow out extremist candidates after all. They won’t be able to make that argument this fall when advocating for their ballot measure.
Of the 18 far-right candidates endorsed by the Colorado Republican Party under the leadership of Dave “Let’s Go Brandon” Williams, 14 lost to reputable Republican opponents. This includes Dave Williams who pilfered the party cash box to support his own candidacy over that of Jeff Crank in the 5th Congressional District.
In the 8th Congressional District, Gabe Evan defeated former state Rep. Janak Joshi by a similarly wide margin. Joshi can finally retire the lab coat he’s been using for a campaign pop. His medical license was suspended years ago.
Also-rans did not stop Jeff Hurd from trouncing avid election conspiracy theorist Ron Hanks in the 3rd. A Democrat-aligned super PAC Rocky Mountain Values and Democrat Adam Frisch ran ads promoting Ron Hanks hoping he would be Frisch’s opponent in the fall. That half a million would have been better spent on honest advocacy for their candidate.
Here are a couple of other highlights about the parties’ lowlights:
Trent Leisy lost to Lori Garcia Sander for State House District 65. Leisy is the guy who partnered with Joe Oltmann, best known for originating the lies about Dominion Voting Systems and wanting to hang the governor, for a “MAGA Never Surrender Convoy” along the Front Range to protest the Colorado Supreme Court decision barring Donald Trump from the 2024 ballot. If the convoy happened, no one noticed. He dropped his bid for Congress when better known MAGAs jumped in the race and set his sights on the State House. Tim Arvidson, a man with a longer rap sheet than Donald Trump’s lost to Lisa Frizell for State Senate District 2 and Weld County picked a saner candidate for county commissioner over Lori Seine.
Far left State Reps. Tim Hernandez and Elisabeth Epps also lost. They can rant about Israel and Jews all they want but without the title of elected official, who’s going to listen? Yara Zokaie and Mike Weissman, however, beat moderates in their races for State House and Senate respectively. The Denver Democratic Socialists’ endorsed CO House endorsements lost. Maybe they can do a “Never Surrender” convoy with Leisy.
Former 3rd Congressional District representative, Lauren Boebert, was one of the four far-right candidates to prevail Tuesday night. Contenders in the 4th Congressional District split the non-Boebert vote giving her the victory in her newly chosen district with 43% of the vote. The district’s Democrats picked Trisha Calvarese over Ike McCorkle. Polling suggested McCorkle could beat Boebert in the general election but that Boebert would prevail over Calvarese. She’ll win that seat in November. Perhaps she’ll make up with former bestie Marjorie Taylor Greene, who also won her primary in Georgia.
Although a handful of far-right and far-left candidates won, moderates of both parties prevailed in the primary. This is good news for the state and bad news for the extremists, especially those in the Republican Party.
It is time for Dave Williams and his ilk at the Colorado GOP headquarters to resign. The base has spoken. They want representatives who are ethical and who can promote conservative ideas without promoting conspiracy theories and hateful messages. Time to hit the convoy and head to another state.
Krista L. Kafer is a weekly Denver Post columnist. Follow her on Twitter: @kristakafer.
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