Despite hefty dark-money spending, Colorado progressives notch big victories in statehouse primaries

Progressive statehouse candidates raced to victory in several Democratic primary contests in metro Denver, unseating two sitting lawmakers and overcoming millions of dollars in opposition spending amid a marquee night for more liberal candidates across the Front Range.

The wins in Tuesday’s primary amounted to a clean sweep for the outside spending group funded by the state’s largest labor unions, with progressives toppling four candidates backed by a network of largely opaque PACs that spent well over $2 million on the races this year.

The liberal primary victories in races for safe seats reverse, in part, gains made by the centrist organization One Main Street two years ago. That’s when the dark-money group, which doesn’t disclose all of its donors, won nearly every race in which it engaged to support “pragmatic” Democrats.

The latest results came amid an ongoing power struggle within the state legislature’s dominant Democratic Party, which has played out in primary campaigns for several years.

“This is a warning sign to any politician who thinks their political future lies in corporate money rather than the interests of working people across the state,” Dennis Dougherty, the executive director of the Colorado AFL-CIO, which funded the labor PAC, said in a statement Wednesday.

One of the candidates who won two years ago, Rep. Sean Camacho in Denver’s House District 6, fell to progressive challenger Iris Halpern on Tuesday night. Camacho had unseated one of the Capitol’s most left-wing — and controversial — lawmakers in 2024, former Rep. Elisabeth Epps, only to fall himself in another deep-pocketed primary.

Camacho was behind by roughly 1,300 votes as of Wednesday morning, when he conceded. District 6 roughly follows the East Colfax Ave. corridor from the state Capitol to the Aurora border.

His loss will be a blow to moderate Democrats in the legislature, where Camacho was the co-chair of the One Main Street-linked Opportunity Caucus. That group is composed of more business-friendly lawmakers. The caucus has been heavily criticized by more liberal legislators and groups, and Camacho’s loss gave a win to the labor groups, which wanted to knock the caucus back on its heels.

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