Incumbent U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper took the victory in Colorado’s Democratic Senate primary race against state Sen. Julie Gonzales.

The Associated Press called the win at 7:36 p.m., with preliminary results showing Hickenlooper leading with 57% of the vote.

Hickenlooper will face off in November against Republican Sen. Mark Baisley for one of Colorado’s two U.S. Senate seats, both currently held by Democrats. Baisley, a member of the Colorado State Senate representing District 4, is running unopposed in his party.

Characterized as a moderate Democrat, Hickenlooper, 74, is currently serving his first six-year term as U.S. Senator. The senator has been in office since 2003, after serving as Denver mayor and governor.

“I feel like the job’s only half done,” he said in early June. “I was a mayor and then a governor, and those are much more fun — but this is the most important work I’ve ever done.”

If reelected, Hickenlooper has stated his top priority would be to control the increases in residents’ cost of living, particularly through tackling rising costs in healthcare, housing and food accessibility. The senator has also stated that his reelection bid will be the last of his career.

The race to represent Colorado and the Democratic Party in the U.S. Senate has been largely dominated by issues including immigration, healthcare and standing up to the Trump Administration.

While Hickenlooper and Gonzales have both expressed support for dismantling Immigration and Customs Enforcement and replacing it with an alternative system, the two disagree on whether jumping to “Medicare for All” right away is the best approach for healthcare reform. 

Despite Gonzales’ active campaigning for a public debate with Hickenlooper, the two never participated in any transitional, face-to-face debates ahead of the June 30 Democratic primary. Hickenlooper previously said that weekly trips between Colorado and Washington, D.C., have made it difficult to accept debate invitations.

Hickenlooper collected around $7.7 million in contributions since 2025 and spent just under $6.2 million as of the most recent June filing deadline with the Federal Election Commission. Gonzales gathered almost $870,000 and spent $643,000 during the same period. 

Gonzales has formally pledged to take zero contributions from corporate political action committees or the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. Meanwhile, Hickenlooper has drawn attention from progressive advocacy groups like Track AIPAC for accepting contributions from pro-Israel PACs.

Colorado has shifted left over the past decade, securing Democratic majorities at the state and federal levels and leaving Republicans without a statewide election win since 2016. Hickenlooper’s seat in the Senate has alternated between Democrats and Republicans for most of the state’s history, with Republican Cory Gardner occupying the office from 2015 to 2021.