U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner is the most powerful Republican in Colorado, a fast-talking and fast-rising star within his party, a beacon of light for the political right in this increasingly Democratic state.

John Hickenlooper is Colorado’s best-known Democrat, a popular former governor with almost universal name recognition and a quirky persona that has played well in the Centennial State for two decades.

Over the next four months, Gardner and Hickenlooper will go blow-for-blow across the state in the electoral equivalent of a heavyweight title fight. Both raise massive amounts of money and neither has lost an election in Colorado, a streak of political perfection that will end for one of them Nov. 3. Closely watched here and in Washington, its one of the few races that will decide which party runs the Senate.

Hickenlooper begins the race in the lead — a rarity for a challenger facing an incumbent — because of President Donald Trump’s unpopularity in Colorado and the state’s recent Democratic leanings. Polling averages show Hickenlooper began July with a roughly 10 percentage-point head start.

Read the full story in the The Denver Post.