By Chase Woodruff, Colorado Newsline

Posted June 11, 2026

 

Coloradans will vote in primary elections June 30 to determine which candidates will represent their party in the general election in November.

 

The elections cover Colorado’s four statewide constitutional offices, one U.S. Senate seat, all eight of the state’s congressional districts, state legislative districts and other races. Colorado Newsline sent questionnaires to candidates in contested primary races and is publishing responses as part of its voter guide to help Coloradans make informed choices.

 

Colorado’s junior senator is Democratic Sen. John Hickenlooper, a former Denver mayor and Colorado governor elected to his seat in 2020. As he seeks reelection to a second six-year Senate term, he has drawn a primary challenge from state Sen. Julie Gonzales, a Denver Democrat who has been one of the Legislature’s most prominent progressive voices over the last eight years.

 

Gonzales took the top spot on the ballot at Democrats’ March 28 state assembly in Pueblo, winning 74% of the more than 1,400 party delegates who cast a vote. Hickenlooper opted to skip the party assembly process and instead qualified for the ballot by submitting the required petition signatures to the secretary of state’s office.

 

In November’s general election, the winner of the Democratic primary is set to face Republican state Sen. Mark Baisley, who is unopposed in the GOP primary.

 

Primary ballots were scheduled to be mailed to all registered voters in Colorado starting June 8.

 

Voters can contact their county clerk if they have not received their ballot or check the online BallotTrax system. They can also visit the secretary of state’s website to make a plan to vote in person ahead of or on Election Day. Ballots need to be received by the county clerk by 7 p.m. on that day, so voters should mail their ballot at least eight days ahead of time or drop it off in person.

 

Hickenlooper did not return a questionnaire.

 

Americans pay the highest healthcare costs in the world, but the U.S. healthcare system produces some of the worst health outcomes of any highly developed nation. What reforms would you make to the healthcare system to change that?

 

GONZALES: Healthcare should not be a privilege, but a human right. As a U.S. senator, I’ll fight for Medicare for All, and in the meantime, I’ll take on the insurance and pharmaceutical industries profiting off our pain while pushing policies that bring us closer to universal coverage. I’ve already made affordability and accountability a core part of my work in the state legislature: I passed the first-in-the-nation Prescription Drug Affordability Review Board in 2021 and have also led on hospital transparency, consumer protections, and universal healthcare. We must pass an expanded, improved Medicare for All system as quickly as possible, while also restoring funding levels for Medicaid, the ACA, and Medicare; allow Medicare to negotiate drug prices; expand coverage to include dental, vision, hearing, and home care; and break up vertically integrated healthcare companies. I know this issue personally. I lost my mom due to complications from diabetes when I was 20, and during the COVID-19 pandemic I buried four family members. Healthcare policy is not abstract to me. It is about whether families live, whether workers can afford care, and whether we have the courage to extract the profit motive from a system that should exist to heal people.

 

How should the federal government respond to the rise of artificial intelligence technology?

 

GONZALES: The federal government must regulate artificial intelligence and related technologies before corporations use them to discriminate against consumers and workers, invade privacy, automate exploitation, or concentrate even more power in the hands of tech CEOs. I have championed policies at the state Capitol to protect personally identifying information from being weaponized against Coloradans, and have also seen firsthand the strength of the lobby to undermine policies designed to regulate AI and tech corporations. When I ran legislation to prohibit price-fixing algorithms from being used to jack up rent, I had to fight landlord-aligned lobbyists who ultimately killed the bill. When we brought the bill a second time, the lobbyists instead went straight to Gov. Polis, and he vetoed it. In the U.S. Senate, I will fight for strong data privacy protections, transparency around automated decision-making, human review, accountability for discriminatory systems, and enforceable protections against workplace surveillance and algorithmic management. Corporations that profit from automation should be required to support displaced workers with retraining, income support, and equivalent placement opportunities. I will not allow the tech industry to dictate what is possible. Unless and until strong AI regulations are in place, I support a moratorium on data centers.

 

The Colorado Fiscal Institute estimates that worsening heat, drought, wildfires and other climate change impacts could cost the state more than $50 billion between 2025 and 2050. How would you address climate change in the Senate?

 

GONZALES: Colorado is already living through the climate crisis. Water insecurity and desertification threaten farms, ranches, and entire communities, especially in rural and southern Colorado, where my family has lived for generations. We no longer have a wildfire season; we live under threat of wildfire year-round. Dangerous air quality, rising insurance premiums, higher utility bills, and rebuilding costs are already making life harder for Colorado families. My current state Senate district includes 80216, one of the most polluted zip codes in the country. I have seen firsthand the effects of environmental redlining, which is why I have fought in the legislature to hold corporate polluters accountable. Alongside the GES Coalition, Cultivando and Conservation Colorado, I advanced legislation to monitor air toxics and then championed additional legislation to hold polluters accountable. In the U.S. Senate, my vision is a fast, just transition to 100% clean energy that lowers costs, protects health and guarantees workers and communities are not left behind. We must stop new fossil fuel leasing on public lands, eliminate fossil fuel subsidies, rapidly scale renewable energy, storage, and transmission, and require strong labor standards — prevailing wage, apprenticeships and union neutrality — so the clean-energy economy is also a good-jobs economy.

 

The Senate plays a key role in shaping U.S. foreign policy. What is your highest foreign policy priority, and how would you pursue it in the Senate?

 

GONZALES: First and foremost, war and aggression alone do not connote strength; just as important is the ability to ensure that we are engaging in diplomacy. But all of that is meaningless if Congress does not ensure that our tax dollars are not being used in the commission of war crimes. I believe that all people living in Israel — Palestinians and Israelis alike — deserve safety, self-determination, and sovereignty, and that a two-state solution is likely the best path toward ensuring Palestinians can be represented in a democracy. I would support an arms embargo, oppose policies that seek to criminalize dissent or narrow protections for first amendment activities, and work to restore humanitarian funding as we work to ensure a lasting peace in the region. There is ample evidence that Israel has committed genocide in Gaza, and I stand by the findings of the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory. I would support funding Gaza’s reconstruction efforts, if requested by the Palestinian people. More broadly, I will support policies that ensure people globally are guaranteed equal rights, freedoms, and justice, and I will stand against oppressive regimes that harm marginalized people everywhere.

 

If the House were to impeach President Trump, would you vote to convict and remove him from office?

 

GONZALES: Yes. If the House impeached President Trump on supported articles, I would vote to convict and remove him from office. I’ve already heard some Democrats downplay the importance of impeachment and accountability should we take back one or both chambers. But given Trump’s attacks on democratic institutions, threats to constitutional rights, weaponization of federal agencies, and escalating authoritarian conduct, we cannot continue to proceed as if any of this is normal or justified. To me, this is not theoretical. I have chaired three separate ethics committees as a state senator to hold both Republicans and Democrats accountable when they undermined the public trust. I also testified in whistleblower litigation against Gov. Polis’s attempt to undermine my legislation (Senate Bill 25-276) prohibiting the state from sharing Coloradans’ personally-identifying information with ICE without a judicial warrant. The Senate’s duty in an impeachment trial is to defend the Constitution, not protect the powerful. I would take that duty seriously, even when accountability is politically difficult.

 

Colorado celebrates the 150th anniversary of its admission to the union this year. Who is a figure from the Centennial State’s history who inspires you, and why?

 

GONZALES: Polly Baca inspires me. She broke barriers as the first Latina elected to the Colorado Senate and spent her career expanding political representation for communities that had long been excluded from power. Her leadership matters not only because of what she achieved individually, but because she helped make it possible for future generations of Latinas and Chicanas to see ourselves as belonging in public life. Colorado is one of four states that has never elected a woman to serve as governor or U.S. senator. If elected, I would be the first woman and first Latina to represent Colorado in the U.S. Senate, and I would increase Latina representation in the U.S. Senate by 100%. My roots in Colorado go back generations — we’re the kind of Chicanos where we didn’t cross the border; the border crossed us. Polly Baca’s career reminds me that representation, political courage, and community power are built over generations. My work is rooted in that same belief: bringing community into the halls of power and ensuring the next generation has more opportunities than the last.

 

 

Chase Woodruff is a senior reporter for Colorado Newsline. This article

is republished from Colorado Newsline under a Creative Commons license. Colorado Newsline is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.