{"id":736078,"date":"2026-07-01T03:03:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-01T03:03:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/736078\/"},"modified":"2026-07-01T03:03:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-01T03:03:12","slug":"weiser-wins-colorado-democratic-governor-primary-race-over-bennet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/736078\/","title":{"rendered":"Weiser wins Colorado Democratic governor primary race over Bennet"},"content":{"rendered":"

Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser has won the state\u2019s Democratic primary for governor<\/a>, NBC News projects, upsetting Sen. Michael Bennet after a campaign that centered on who would be more effective in standing up to President Donald Trump. <\/p>\n

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While both candidates have long been mainstays in Colorado Democratic politics, Weiser entered the race as the underdog. His victory signals that his antiestablishment message broke through in an environment in which Democrats across the country have expressed frustration with the status quo, including in their own party.<\/p>\n

With more than 80% of the expected vote counted, Weiser led Bennet by 10 percentage points. <\/p>\n

Weiser will now head into the general election to succeed term-limited Democratic Gov. Jared Polis as the front-runner in a state where voters have not elected a Republican governor in more than two decades. <\/p>\n

Bennet, who has been in the U.S. Senate for 17 years and ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020, was seen as a clear favorite when he launched his primary bid for governor last year. <\/p>\n

But Weiser, who is in his second term as attorney general, gained traction as the two candidates traded attacks<\/a> over their anti-Trump credentials in a race in which there was little daylight between them on policy. Both have pushed affordability, housing and environmental issues as top priorities, as well as fighting Trump\u2019s immigration agenda.<\/p>\n

Weiser has attacked Bennet for having voted to confirm several of Trump\u2019s Cabinet nominees as a member of the Senate and has cast him as a Washington insider. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe Democratic Party doesn\u2019t show up, listen and fight,\u201d Weiser said at a debate<\/a> this month. <\/p>\n

During another recent debate<\/a>, Weiser said that \u201cCongress is not doing its job\u201d and that \u201cCongress should be a check on a lawless, bullying administration. It hasn\u2019t been.\u201d Weiser has also attacked Bennet for missing votes as a senator \u2014 though one of his lines on the stump has been<\/a> \u201cMichael Bennet for Senate, Phil Weiser for governor.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Bennet has criticized Weiser for not being more aggressive as the state\u2019s top lawyer in suing the Trump administration. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe attorney general says he\u2019s really tough but was completely missing in action in Donald Trump\u2019s first term when more than 20 Democratic attorneys general across this country filed a lawsuit against the administration because they were separating kids from their parents at the border,\u201d Bennet said at a debate<\/a>. \u201cIt\u2019s not about the lawsuits he brought. It\u2019s the lawsuits he didn\u2019t bring.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bennet has voted in favor<\/a> of eight of Trump\u2019s Cabinet nominees and against 15 during Trump\u2019s second term. Weiser has filed or joined at least 50 lawsuits against the administration.<\/p>\n

Since Jan. 1, 2025, Bennet\u2019s campaign and allied outside groups have outspent the pro-Weiser camp on ads by almost 2-to-1, according to the ad-tracking firm AdImpact. Ads on both sides focus heavily on an anti-Trump message. <\/p>\n

\u201cPeople ask me why I\u2019m running for governor. My answer? Because I\u2019m not willing to allow Donald Trump to define Colorado\u2019s future,\u201d Bennet said in one of his ads<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Weiser said in an ad<\/a>: \u201cI\u2019ll always stand up to bullies. Especially Donald Trump. Congress isn\u2019t doing it \u2014 but I am.\u201d<\/p>\n

Before he was elected attorney general in 2018, Weiser was the dean of the University of Colorado Law School.<\/p>\n

Bennet was first appointed to the Senate in 2009 to serve out the rest of Sen. Ken Salazar\u2019s term after he was appointed to a position in President Barack Obama\u2019s Cabinet. He was last re-elected in 2022, so he will remain in the Senate until 2029.<\/p>\n

In Colorado\u2019s Republican primary for governor<\/a>, state Sen. Barb Kirkmeyer held a narrow lead over Victor Marx, a Marine veteran and ministry leader, with state Rep. Scott Bottoms running in third place.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser has won the state\u2019s Democratic primary for governor, NBC News projects, upsetting Sen.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":736079,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4,450,451,3,452,453],"class_list":["post-736078","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/736078","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=736078"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/736078\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/736079"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=736078"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=736078"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=736078"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}