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2025 Colorado legislative session

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2025 Colorado legislative session
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General information
Scheduled session start:    January 8, 2025

Scheduled session end:    May 7, 2025

Leadership
Senate President
James Coleman (D)

House Speaker
Julie McCluskie (D)
Majority Leader
Senate: Robert Rodriguez (D)
House: Monica Duran (D)
Minority Leader
Senate: Paul Lundeen (R)
House: Rose Pugliese (R)

Elections
Next Election:    November 3, 2026

Last Election:    November 5, 2024

Previous legislative sessions
2024 • 2023 • 2022 • 2021 • 2020 • 2019 • 2018
Other 2025 legislative sessions


In 2025, the Colorado General Assembly was scheduled to convene on January 8 and adjourn on May 7.

The legislators serving in this session took office following the 2024 elections. Democrats won a 23-12 majority in the Senate and a 43-22 majority in the House. The party also controlled the governorship, creating a Democratic state government trifecta. At the start of the 2025 session, Colorado was one of 23 state legislatures where neither party had a veto-proof supermajority in both chambers.

At the beginning of the 2025 legislative session:
  • Democrats held a majority in the Colorado state House and state Senate.
  • Colorado was one of 15 Democratic state government trifectas.
  • Colorado's governor was Democrat Jared Polis.

    • Leadership in 2025

    See also: Leadership positions in state legislatures

    Colorado State Senate

    Colorado House of Representatives

    Partisan control in 2025

    See also: State government trifectas

    Colorado was one of 15 Democratic state government trifectas at the start of 2025 legislative sessions. A state government trifecta occurs when one political party holds the governor's office, a majority in the state Senate, and a majority in the state House. For more information about state government trifectas, click here.

    Colorado was also one of 23 state legislatures where neither party had a veto-proof supermajority in both chambers. Veto overrides occur when a legislature votes to reverse a veto issued by an executive such as a governor or the president. If one party has a majority in a state legislature that is large enough to override a gubernatorial veto without any votes from members of the minority party, it is called a veto-proof majority or, sometimes, a supermajority. To read more about veto-proof supermajorities in state legislatures, click here.

    The following tables show the partisan breakdown of the Colorado General Assembly in the 2025 legislative session.

    Colorado State Senate

    Party As of January 2025
         Democratic Party 23
         Republican Party 12
    Total 35

    Colorado House of Representatives

    Party As of January 2025
         Democratic Party 43
         Republican Party 22
    Total 65

    Regular session

    The list below shows up to 25 pieces of legislation in the 2025 legislative session that most recently passed both chambers of the legislature, were signed by the governor, or were approved by the legislature in a veto override. If no bills are displayed below, no legislation has met these criteria yet in 2025. This information is provided by BillTrack50.

    Legislation trackers

    See also: Legislation Trackers

    Ballotpedia’s legislation trackers are your go-to resource for staying on top of key legislative topics. We capture any bill introduced on the topic across all of the 50 state legislatures, and we track the movement of the bill every step of the way. We provide real-time updates and translate legislative legalese into easily understandable language. As of the 2025 session, Ballotpedia provided tracking on the following topics. Click on the links below to view related bills from the 2025 session:

    Standing legislative committees

    See also: Standing committee and List of committees in Colorado state government


    A standing committee of a state legislature is a committee that exists on a more-or-less permanent basis, from legislative session to session, that considers and refines legislative bills that fall under the committee's subject matter.

    At the beginning of the 2025 legislative session, there were 35 standing committees in Colorado's state government, including 14 joint legislative committees, 10 state Senate committees, and 11 state House committees.

    Joint legislative committees

    Senate committees

    House committees

    Legislatively referred constitutional amendments

    In every state but Delaware, voter approval is required to enact a constitutional amendment. In each state, the legislature has a process for referring constitutional amendments before voters. In 18 states, initiated constitutional amendments can be put on the ballot through a signature petition drive. There are also many other types of statewide measures.

    The methods by which the Colorado Constitution can be amended:

    See also: Section 1 of Article V and Article XIX of the Colorado Constitution and Laws governing ballot measures in Colorado
    Colorado Constitution
    800px-Flag of Colorado.svg.png
    Preamble
    Articles
    I • II • III • IV • V • VI • VII • VIII • IX • X • XI • XII • XIII • XIV • XV • XVI • XVII • XVIII • XIX • XX • XXI • XXII • XXIII • XXIV • XXV • XXVI • XXVII • XXVIII • XXIX • Schedule

    The Colorado Constitution provides three mechanisms for amending the state's constitution—a citizen-initiated process, a legislative process, and a state constitutional convention. Once on the ballot, a 55 percent supermajority vote is required for the approval of any constitutional amendment put on the ballot by the legislature or by a citizen initiative, except those that only remove language from the constitution, rather than adding language or changing existing language.

    Initiative

    See also: Initiated constitutional amendment

    An initiated constitutional amendment is a citizen-initiated ballot measure that amends a state's constitution. Eighteen (18) states allow citizens to initiate constitutional amendments.

    In Colorado, the number of signatures required for an initiated constitutional amendment is equal to 5% of the votes cast for the Colorado secretary of state in the preceding general election. Colorado has a distribution requirement for initiated amendments. Signatures must be collected from at least 2% of the registered voters who live in each of the 35 state Senate districts. A 55% vote is required for voter approval.

    Combined initiated constitutional amendments and state statutes

    See also: Combined initiated constitutional amendment and state statute

    A combined initiated constitutional amendment and state statute is a citizen-initiated ballot measure that amends both a state's constitution and state statute. There are at least two (2) states that allow citizens to initiate combined amendments and statutes.

    In Colorado, the number of signatures required for a combined initiated constitutional amendment and state statute is equal to 5% of the votes cast for the Colorado secretary of state in the preceding general election. Colorado has a distribution requirement for initiated amendments. Signatures must be collected from at least 2% of the registered voters who live in each of the 35 state Senate districts. A 55% vote is required for voter approval.

    Legislature

    See also: Legislatively referred constitutional amendment

    A two-thirds (66.67%) vote is required during one legislative session for the Colorado State Legislature to place a constitutional amendment on the ballot. That amounts to a minimum of 44 votes in the Colorado House of Representatives and 24 votes in the Colorado State Senate, assuming no vacancies. Amendments do not require the governor's signature to be referred to the ballot.

    Convention

    See also: Convention-referred constitutional amendment

    According to Article XIX of the Colorado Constitution, the state Legislature can refer a state constitutional convention question to the ballot. A two-thirds (66.67%) vote of legislators in each chamber is required.


    Historical partisan control

    The table below depicts the historical trifecta status of Colorado.

    Colorado Party Control: 1992-2025
    Thirteen years of Democratic trifectas  •  Four years of Republican trifectas
    Scroll left and right on the table below to view more years.

    Year 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25
    Governor D D D D D D D R R R R R R R R D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D
    Senate R R R R R R R R R D D R R D D D D D D D D D D R R R R D D D D D D D
    House R R R R R R R R R R R R R D D D D D D R R D D D D D D D D D D D D D

    Historical Senate control

    Democrats won control of the Colorado State Senate in 2018. In 2024, they won a 23-12 majority.

    The table below shows the partisan history of the Colorado Senate following every general election from 1992 to 2024. All data from 2006 or earlier comes from Michael Dubin's Party Affiliations in the State Legislatures (McFarland Press, 2007). Data after 2006 was compiled by Ballotpedia staff.

    Colorado State Senate election results: 1992-2024

    Year '92 '94 '96 '98 '00 '02 '04 '06 '08 '10 '12 '14 '16 '18 '20 '22 '24
    Democrats 16 16 15 14 18 17 18 20 21 20 19 17 17 19 20 23 23
    Republicans 19 19 20 21 17 18 17 15 14 15 16 18 18 16 15 12 12

    Before 1992

    Between 1900 and 2022, the chamber changed partisan hands 14 times.

    Historical House control

    Democrats won control of the Colorado House of Representatives in 2012. In 2024, they won a 43-22 majority.

    The table below shows the partisan history of the Colorado House following every general election from 1992 to 2024. All data from 2006 or earlier comes from Michael Dubin's Party Affiliations in the State Legislatures (McFarland Press, 2007). Data after 2006 was compiled by Ballotpedia staff.

    Colorado House of Representatives election results: 1992-2024

    Year '92 '94 '96 '98 '00 '02 '04 '06 '08 '10 '12 '14 '16 '18 '20 '22 '24
    Democrats 31 24 24 26 27 28 33 39 38 32 37 34 37 41 41 46 43
    Republicans 34 41 41 39 38 37 32 26 27 33 28 31 28 24 24 19 22

    Before 1992

    Between 1900 and 2022, the chamber changed partisan hands 19 times.


    Analysis

    Adopted legislation, 2011-2024

    See also: The State Legislative Decade - Colorado

    In 2024, Ballotpedia released analysis of bills enacted in each state in the preceding decade. The charts and table below detail legislation passed each year by party sponsorship.

    See also

    Elections Colorado State Government State Legislatures State Politics
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    External links

    Footnotes

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