State Attorney General Phil Weiser is the projected winner of the pivotal race to be the Democratic nominee for governor of Colorado, defeating Sen. Michael Bennet.
Weiser is term-limited out of the attorney general’s office and running for governor for the first time. This was also Bennet’s first run at the state’s highest office, after three terms in the U.S. Senate.
Weiser and the eventual Republican nominee will face off in a November general election to replace term-limited Democratic Gov. Jared Polis.
Weiser told supporters late Tuesday after the primary night victory they “made it clear that we need a leader who will fight back, never bend the knee.”
“From every corner of Colorado you made it clear that when we show up, when we listen to one another and we work together, we can win and make life better for all of us,” he said.
In his victory speech, Weiser paid tribute to past governors, including Billy Adams for helping drive the Ku Klux Klan out of Colorado politics, Roy Romer for standing up for LGBTQ rights when it was unpopular and Ralph Carr for leading opposition to Japanese internment camps during World War II.
“To all who voted today, thank you for making a critical point clear, that in America, and in Colorado, we believe in a government of the people, by the people and for the people,” he added.
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For much of the busy primary election, Bennet was seen as a frontrunner, running on his record as a moderate senator and focusing his campaign on affordability. But Weiser tried to capitalize on a wave of anti-establishment sentiment by framing Bennet as a Washington insider.
Weiser — who has sued the Trump administration dozens of times — cast himself as a fighter against President Trump, and attacked Bennet for voting to confirm some of the president’s Cabinet nominees. He vowed in a debate earlier this month to “stand strong against a lawless, bullying administration” rather than trying to “curry favor.”
Bennet pushed back on those criticisms, saying he voted for Trump nominees when it was “the right thing to do for Colorado.” He also suggested Weiser’s legal strategy against the Trump administration is driven by politics, and accused Weiser of being “missing in action” and filing fewer lawsuits during Mr. Trump’s first term.
How the governor should interact with Mr. Trump has been a hotly contested question in Colorado politics for months.
Polis had faced intense pressure from the president to grant clemency to Tina Peters, a former county official and supporter of Mr. Trump’s false voter fraud allegations who was sentenced to years in state prison for allowing unauthorized access to voting machines. Polis decided to commute Peters’ sentence last monthdrawing widespread criticism from Colorado Democrats, including both Weiser and Bennet.
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Television viewers were subjected to numerous attack ads about the Weiser-Bennet contest. CBS Colorado Political Reporter Shaun Boyd said in a Reality Check that the ads picked on each candidate in various way for not having strong enough “anti-Trump credentials.”
Boyd also reported that after entering the race, Weiser accepted tens of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from 68 lawyers whose firms engaged with his AG’s office. His opponent claimed that created a conflict of interest.
In November, Bennett will face the Republican nominee elected in Tuesday night’s Colorado GOP primary. State Sen. Barb Kirkmeyer, state Rep. Scott Bottoms and Victor Marx are the candidates in that race. The nominees will also be up against former Congressman Greg Lopez, who left the Republican Party in January to run for governor as an unaffiliated candidate.
A Democrat has been in the governor’s office in Colorado for the past 20 years.
Election Day is Nov. 3.