On November 3, Colorado voters joined what the state's own reporters called a "blue tsunami." Democrats won the races for governor and U.S. Senate by more than 25 points. They won two-thirds of both chambers of the Legislature. And they beat three of the four Republicans Colorado sent to Congress.

Only one of those four Republicans survived. Two of the ones who lost are now acting like the count is the problem.

Here's the good, the bad and the ugly.

The good: three Republican seats, and a 7–1 delegation

Going into Election Day, Colorado's eight House seats were split evenly: four Democrats and four Republicans. Now it's seven Democrats and one Republican.

• Gabe Evans lost the 8th District, and it wasn't close. Democrat Manny Rutinel leads 55.4% to 40.7%, or 158,784 votes to 116,602, in NBC News' count with about 97% of the vote in. Two years ago Evans took the seat by less than a point, 49.0% to 48.2%. The AP called the race at 9:49 p.m. on election night. Evans had more than $10 million in Republican super PAC help, including $344,000 from Elon Musk's America PAC, according to Colorado Newsline. Rutinel said "neither a trillionaire nor the president of the United States could buy this election." Evans had told voters his Medicaid vote would protect "the people who need it most." A year later, nurses named 12 Colorado hospitals at risk.
• Jeff Crank lost a district that had never elected a Democrat. The 5th District, centered on Colorado Springs, had sent only Republicans to Congress. Democrat Jessica Killin, an Army veteran, beat Crank 51% to 46% when the AP called it on Thursday. Two years ago Crank won the open seat with 54.7%. During the campaign, Virginia Giuffre's family went on TV to say Crank had covered up Epstein's crimes. He voted to block the Epstein files when the vote was 211–210, and voted to release them only once it was 427–1.
• Lauren Boebert lost Colorado's most Republican district. The Associated Press called the race for retired Navy Rear Admiral Eileen Laubacher at 12:53 p.m. on Friday, November 13, ten days after the polls closed. Laubacher had 48.8% to Boebert's 47.9% with about 99% of the vote in. Two years ago, Boebert won the district with 53.6%. The 4th hadn't elected a Democrat since 2008. Boebert spent the week refusing to concede and letting her lawyer hint at a problem with the count. More on that in the ugly.

At the top of the ballot, Democrat Phil Weiser beat Republican Victor Marx for governor 61.1% to 33.3%. Four years ago, the Republican nominee got 39.2%. Marx declined to debate Weiser. His own primary opponents called him a "con man" and a "grifter" and wouldn't endorse him, Colorado Newsline reported. Sen. John Hickenlooper beat Republican state Sen. Mark Baisley 60.5% to 35.0%. Democrats were also on track to win attorney general, secretary of state and treasurer.

The Legislature: two-thirds in both chambers

Democrats flipped one seat in the state Senate and up to six in the state House, according to preliminary results. They expect a 24–11 Senate and a 49–16 House. That's a supermajority in both: at least two-thirds of the seats.

Why it matters: with two-thirds, Democrats can put constitutional amendments on the ballot without a single Republican vote. They can also override a governor's veto if they stick together. And Republicans get even fewer seats on the committees every bill has to pass through.

Some of the flips:

• House District 19, Weld County. Democrat Jillaire McMillan beat Republican Rep. Dan Woog with almost 60% of the vote.
• House District 16. Steph Vigil won back her old seat from Republican Jill Haffley with 57.3%.
• House District 50, Greeley. Former city council member Tommy Butler had 60% against Republican Rep. Ryan Gonzalez. On election night, Gonzalez posted on X: "Mr. President, you would be more effective if you would just shut the f*** up."
• Senate District 30, Douglas County. Democrat Kevin Leung declared victory over Republican Rep. John Carson with 52.5%. Republican-backed groups spent millions to hold the seat.

Ballot measures

Republicans have leaned more and more on ballot measures as they lose ground at the Capitol. This year, voters turned most of them down:

• Amendment 81 failed, 55.3% no. It would have made local police tell the Department of Homeland Security when they charge certain immigrants. A group of the state's district attorneys opposed it.
• Amendment 84 failed, 63.4% no. It would have made voters write part of their Social Security, driver's license or ID number on their mail ballot envelopes.
• Proposition 136 failed. It would have locked the state income tax at 4.4%. Instead, voters passed Amendment 87 with 51.6%, which raises taxes on people making over $500,000 a year and cuts them for people making less.

Advance Colorado, a conservative group that doesn't tell the public who funds it, was behind several measures this year. Only one passed.

The bad: one survived

Jeff Hurd won a second term in the 3rd District, which covers much of the Western Slope, the San Luis Valley and the area around Pueblo. He leads Democrat Dwayne Romero 164,159 to 157,853, or 49.3% to 47.4%, with about 96% of the vote in. Two years ago he won the seat with 50.8%. The AP called it Friday morning, three days after the polls closed.

Colorado Newsline called Hurd "a lone bright spot for the Colorado GOP." He ran as a "voice of independence" from Trump. Romero called him a "rubber-stamp vote" for Trump's agenda, including the 2025 budget law and its Medicaid cuts, which are expected to hit rural places like the Western Slope especially hard.

Romero had a point. In April 2025, Hurd signed a letter saying he would not back any bill that cut Medicaid coverage for vulnerable people. Five weeks later, he voted for one, and then voted for it again. More than 32,000 people in his district are projected to lose coverage.

The ugly: they lost, and they won't say so

On election night, Mark Baisley lost the Senate race by about 25 points and called Hickenlooper to concede. That's how it's supposed to work. Two of the House Republicans who lost have done something else.

Boebert: "very unusual voting patterns"

Boebert's campaign lawyer is Scott Gessler. He's a former Colorado secretary of state, the official who runs the state's elections, and he represented Trump in the 2024 lawsuit that tried to take Trump off Colorado's ballot. Last week he said the campaign was investigating "some very unusual voting patterns."

He didn't give any proof or say what the patterns were, the Colorado Sun reported. He said he didn't have enough information yet. And local election officials haven't reported any problems with voting in the 4th District this year.

There's no mystery in the numbers. Colorado recounts a race on its own only when the gap between the top two candidates is less than half a percent of the leader's votes, the Sun explained. Half a percent of Laubacher's votes was about 930. Her lead was more than three times that.

Boebert told reporters on Wednesday she wouldn't concede until every vote was in. "So why would I concede if the votes aren't all in?" she said. That much was fair: counties had until Friday, November 13, to finish. On Friday afternoon, the AP called the race for Laubacher.

But waiting for the count is one thing. Hinting that something is wrong with it is another. As we reported last week, when Boebert won by 546 votes in 2022, the recount moved four votes, and her opponent conceded without questioning anything.

Boebert had her own explanation for why she lost: "There's a lot of money dumped on my head," she said, adding that she was "hoping to prove that seats just can't be bought, but maybe I'll be proven wrong." She has said she won't run again in 2028. The money part is true. As of late October, Laubacher had a 6-to-1 money advantage, and Boebert's campaign had spent just $1.1 million this cycle.

Evans: down by more than 42,000, asking for a recount

Gabe Evans' gap is about 42,200 votes in NBC's latest count. Half a percent of Rutinel's votes is under 800. A recount can't close that.

Evans refused to concede and told Colorado Public Radio he wants a recount anyway, as The Center Square reported. On election night, already down by double digits, he told supporters, "We are going to fight till the very end."

Where this comes from

None of this is new for Colorado's Republicans in Congress.

• Boebert voted against certifying the 2020 election, which Joe Biden won, Colorado Newsline noted.
• Jeff Crank spent years as a talk radio host. On air in November 2020, he told listeners Democrats planned to "commit ballot fraud," and said votes should be "thrown out" over a claim that had already been debunked.
• Evans voted for the SAVE America Act, which would make Americans show proof of citizenship, like a passport or birth certificate, to register to vote.

All three were happy to question how other people vote. Now two of them are questioning the counts in their own races.

The rest of the ugly

• Two anti-trans measures passed. On a night Colorado rejected nearly everything else Republicans offered, voters approved Proposition 134, which bans transgender students from school sports teams that match their gender, with 52.2%. They also approved Proposition 135, which bans gender-affirming surgery for minors, with 51.9%. Children's Hospital Colorado and UCHealth, two of the state's major providers of gender-affirming care, have never performed those surgeries on transgender minors. Both measures came from Protect Kids Colorado, a group led by an anti-LGBTQ+ activist. Gov.-elect Weiser has said he's open to the Legislature changing both.
• A mandatory prison sentence for fentanyl dealing. Proposition 132, backed by Advance Colorado, passed with 52.6%. It sets an eight-year mandatory minimum for selling fentanyl and other synthetic opioids. It also ends the protection from felony charges for these crimes that state law gave people who report an overdose.

What the results show

Colorado Democrats beat Gabe Evans 55.4% to 40.7% and Jeff Crank 51% to 46%, flipping a Colorado Springs seat that had never elected a Democrat. Eileen Laubacher beat Lauren Boebert 48.8% to 47.9% in the state's most Republican district, leaving Colorado's delegation 7–1. Democrats won the governor's race by nearly 28 points and two-thirds of both chambers of the Legislature. Jeff Hurd was the only one of the four Republicans to win, 49.3% to 47.4%, down from 50.8% two years ago. Before she lost, Boebert's lawyer said the campaign was investigating "very unusual voting patterns," and never named one. Evans asked for a recount of a race he lost by more than 42,000 votes.

Source

Democrat Laubacher declares victory against Republican Rep. Boebert in Colorado's 4th District — Lindsey Toomer, Colorado Newsline, November 9, 2026.