This story was updated on June 26, 2024, with final initial election results. The next update on July 4, 2024, will include overseas and military ballots and those with signature issues.
Boulder lawmakers are set to return to the Colorado Capitol next year, securing solid leads over their Democratic primary challengers. These primary races marked the first significant challenges for the incumbents and prompted the highest campaign spending seen in years.
Several high-profile local races were on the Democratic primary ballot this year, including three seats for the state legislature and a spot on the state Board of Education. Preliminary ballot return data indicates that about a third of Boulder County voters participated in the primary election.
In Senate District 18, state Rep. Judy Amabile won with about 77% support, according to preliminary election night results. Amabile ran against Jovita Schiffer, an independent education consultant. The district includes the City of Boulder as well as Superior, Gunbarrel and Niwot.
Amabile, whose son was diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder and experienced homelessness, said she plans to keep working on legislation related to mental health and criminal justice reform.
“There are people who are counting on me to continue that work,” she told Boulder Reporting Lab outside an election night party at the Velvet Elk Lounge in downtown Boulder. “That’s why I got up every morning at 5 o’clock and set out to knock on doors and to make phone calls and to do the work.”
Schiffer said she felt good about the election despite the unfavorable results. She noted that one of her campaign goals was to engage younger people. She said she hopes to see that a record number of young people voted in this year’s primary.
“This doesn’t change the trajectory of my work. It just changes the title,” Schiffer told Boulder Reporting Lab outside an election night party at Boulder’s Outback Saloon bar and grill, which she referred to as her campaign headquarters. “I feel like we have accomplished so much.”
Rep. Junie Joseph, a family lawyer and former member of the Boulder City Council, holds a more narrow but clear lead in her bid to keep her seat representing House District 10, which encompasses the City of Boulder east of Broadway. She finished with an 18-point lead over her challenger, Tina Mueh, a retired middle school science teacher and former president of the Boulder Valley Education Association.
Joseph was appointed to the seat in August 2022 by a vacancy committee and then won the general election, but she had not yet run in a primary. Having voted for relatively controversial legislation, such as a failed bill that would have overridden local control of land-use matters, she said she wondered whether voters would still support her.
“I believe I have led courageously. But I was a bit afraid that I was doing too much. Will the people stand by me?” Joseph told Boulder Reporting Lab. “Voters will decide which vision for the community will prevail.”
Mueh said she was proud of her campaign and thanked everyone who supported her.
“I feel like I didn’t leave anything on the table,” Mueh told Boulder Reporting Lab. “The work continues. I am always going to be working for our community.”
The race for a vacant seat, House District 49, was won by Lesley Smith, a scientist and at-large University of Colorado regent, with 72% support, according to state election results. She ran against Max Woodfin, a mental health counselor. The district encompasses parts of Boulder, Larimer and Gilpin counties.
“For this race, what’s really driving me is climate change. And that’s something I hope I can tackle,” Smith told Boulder Reporting Lab.
Woodfin said he knew he was running against someone with more campaign experience and name recognition. But he felt his message about bringing more “humanity” and “heart” to politics resonated. As of election night, he had more than 3,600 votes.
“That’s a lot of people who decided to engage a total new comer,” he told Boulder Reporting Lab. “To me, that’s powerful.”
The Democratic primary in Boulder County is likely to decide the general election in November, given the districts’ strong Democratic leanings that make it almost impossible for Republican candidates to win.
The Democratic candidates generally agreed on key policy issues related to climate action, housing affordability and rising homelessness in Boulder. Notably, they supported repealing the state’s prohibition on rent control, underscoring Boulder’s ongoing struggle with high living costs.
Instead of debating policy, several candidates highlighted their lived experiences as a means of distinguishing themselves from their rivals. Schiffer, who was born in New York to Puerto Rican parents, would have been the first Black and Latina woman to represent Boulder in the state Senate. Joseph is the first Black woman to represent the City of Boulder in the state House. She was also the only renter running in the Boulder County Democratic primary. All of the City of Boulder’s representatives and senators at the state Capitol will be women, for the first time in decades, according to data from the Colorado Legislative Council.
Despite similarities among candidates, the primary attracted the most campaign spending in a Boulder County primary in years. Together, campaigns and outside groups spent more than $1.5 million on advertisements, mailers and phone calls ahead of the election.
Most of that money was spent on the highly watched Board of Education race between Kathy Gebhardt, a South Boulder resident and former president of the Boulder Valley School District Board of Education, and Marisol Rodriguez, a Gunbarrel resident who owns an education consulting firm. An independent expenditure committee backed by the Colorado League of Charter Schools spent nearly $900,000 on mailers, advertisements and phone calls supporting Rodriguez and opposing Gebhardt.
Gebhardt won the race with 57% support, potentially swinging the majority on the nine-member board so that it is more critical of charter school applications, according to observers. Rodriguez conceded on election night.
Gebhardt said it felt “surreal” to win in a race with so much money spent against her by an independent expenditure committee. “I’m happy the money didn’t win and that the people won and that public education won,” she told Boulder Reporting Lab.
This year’s turnout appears to be consistent with the last primary election. In 2022, only 35% of registered voters cast ballots in the primary, according to county data. In 2020, a presidential election year, about 55% of voters participated in the primary election.
This story includes the most-recent election results as of 4:15 p.m. on June 26. The Boulder County Clerk and Recorder is expected to post updated election results in the afternoon on July 4.