Colorado election preview, 2024
| Election Analysis Hub, 2024 |
| Election analysis |
|---|
| Top 15 elections to watch Municipal partisanship Uncontested elections Competitiveness reports: Congress State executives State legislatures |
| Elections coverage |
| Election results, 2024 Election previews Congressional elections State government trifectas State legislatures State executives Governors Municipal elections Mayoral elections |
| Previews by state |
Last updated: Oct. 16, 2024
Thousands of general elections are taking place across the United States on Nov. 5, 2024. Those elections include offices at the federal, state, and local levels. This is one of 50 pages in which Ballotpedia previews the elections happening in each state as part of the Daily Brew’s 50 states in 25 days series.
This page provides an overview of all elections happening in Colorado within our coverage scope on Nov. 5, 2024. Those elections include eight for U.S. House, 18 of Colorado's 35 state senate seats, and all 65 state House seats. Additionally, there are 14 statewide ballot measure on the ballot in Colorado. This page also includes more information about election day in Colorado, including:
- How to vote in Colorado
- The elected offices that Colorado voters can expect to see on their ballots
- The races in Colorado that Ballotpedia is covering as battlegrounds
- The ballot measures that voters in Colorado will decide on
- Ballotpedia's Sample Ballot Lookup Tool
- The partisan balance of Colorado's congressional delegation and state government
- Past presidential election results in Colorado
- The competitiveness of legislative elections in Colorado
- The candidates who are on the ballot in Colorado
Voting information
- See also: Voting in Colorado
What's on the ballot?
2024 elections
- See also: Colorado elections, 2024
At the federal level, Colorado voters will elect 14 U.S. Representatives. To learn more about the U.S. House elections in Colorado, click here.
At the state executive level, Colorado is holding elections for three seats on the board of regents and four seats on the board of education.
Eighty-three seats in the Legislature are up for election, including 18 seats in the Senate and all 65 seats in the House. There are eight open seats in the Senate and 16 in the House.
Three seats on the Colorado Supreme Court and six seats on the Colorado Court of Appeals are up for election.
At the municipal level, Denver, Adams County, Arapahoe County, and El Paso County are holding elections. To read more about the elections in each municipality, click here.
Voters will decide on 14 statewide ballot measures.
Below is a list of Colorado elections covered by Ballotpedia in 2024. Click the links to learn more about each type:
| Colorado elections, 2024 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Office | Elections? | More information |
| U.S. Senate | — | — |
| U.S. House | ✓ | Click here |
| Congress special election | ✓ | Click here |
| Governor | — | — |
| Other state executive | ✓ | Click here |
| State Senate | ✓ | Click here |
| State House | ✓ | Click here |
| Special state legislative | — | — |
| State Supreme Court | ✓ | Click here |
| Intermediate appellate courts | ✓ | Click here |
| School boards | — | — |
| Municipal government | ✓ | Click here |
| Recalls | ✓ | Click here |
| Ballot measures | ✓ | Click here |
| Local ballot measures | ✓ | Click here |
Legend: ✓ election(s) / — no elections
Subject to Ballotpedia's scope
Your ballot
- See also: Sample Ballot Lookup
Noteworthy elections
As of Sept. 25, 2024, Ballotpedia identified two battleground races in Colorado. Those are the race that we expect to have a meaningful effect on the balance of power in governments or to be particularly competitive or compelling. Click on the links below to learn about each race.
- Colorado's 3rd Congressional District election, 2024
- Colorado's 8th Congressional District election, 2024
Ballot measures
There are 14 statewide ballot measures on the ballot in Colorado.
| Type | Title | Subject | Description | Result | Yes Votes | No Votes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Amendment 79 | Constitutional rights; Insurance; Abortion | Provide for a state constitutional right to abortion and repeal provision banning the use of public funds for abortions |
|
1,921,593 (62%) |
1,179,261 (38%) |
|
| Amendment 80 | School choice; Constitutional rights | Provide that "each K-12 child has the right to school choice" |
|
1,507,236 (49%) |
1,548,679 (51%) |
|
| Amendment G | Tax exemptions; Veterans | Expands the property tax exemption for veterans with a disability to veterans with individual unemployability status |
|
2,212,022 (73%) |
812,638 (27%) |
|
| Amendment H | Judiciary | Creates an independent judicial discipline adjudicative board and create rules for the judicial discipline process |
|
2,150,820 (73%) |
793,642 (27%) |
|
| Amendment I | Bail | Remove the right to bail in cases of first-degree murder when the proof is evident or the presumption is great |
|
2,058,063 (68%) |
953,652 (32%) |
|
| Amendment J | Family | Remove the provision of the state constitution that says "Only a union of one man and one woman shall be valid or recognized as a marriage in this state" |
|
1,982,200 (64%) |
1,099,228 (36%) |
|
| Amendment K | Initiative process; Judiciary | Change deadlines for filing initiative and referendum petition signatures and judicial retention notice deadlines to remove one week in order to allow one extra week for the secretary of state to certify ballot order and content and election officials' deadline to transmit ballots |
|
1,293,879 (45%) |
1,591,312 (55%) |
|
| Proposition 127 | Hunting | Prohibit trophy hunting, defined as "intentionally killing, wounding, pursuing, or entrapping a mountain lion, bobcat, or lynx; or discharging or releasing any deadly weapon at a mountain lion, bobcat, or lynx" |
|
1,382,048 (45%) |
1,671,710 (55%) |
|
| Proposition 128 | Criminal sentencing; Parole | Require that persons convicted of certain violent crimes serve more of their sentences before being eligible for parole |
|
1,869,231 (62%) |
1,140,284 (38%) |
|
| Proposition 129 | Business; Animals | Create the profession of veterinary professional associate (VPA) requiring a master's degree and registration with the state board of veterinary medicine |
|
1,572,545 (53%) |
1,407,814 (47%) |
|
| Proposition 130 | Law enforcement; Budgets | Allocate state revenue to a new fund, called the Peace Officer Training and Support Fund, for law enforcement recruitment, retention, training, and death benefits |
|
1,583,118 (53%) |
1,415,528 (47%) |
|
| Proposition 131 | Primary elections; RCV | Establish top-four primaries and ranked-choice voting (RCV) for federal and state offices in Colorado |
|
1,385,060 (46%) |
1,595,256 (54%) |
|
| Proposition JJ | Water; Gambling; Taxes | Allow the state to retain tax revenue collected above $29 million annually from the tax on sports betting proceeds |
|
2,340,370 (76%) |
721,237 (24%) |
|
| Proposition KK | Firearms; Taxes | Levy a 6.5% excise tax on firearms and ammunition manufacturing and sales to be imposed on firearms dealers, manufacturers, and ammunition vendors and appropriating the revenue to the Firearms and Ammunition Excise Tax Cash Fund to be used to fund crime victim services programs, mental and behavioral health programs for children and veterans, and school security and safety programs. |
|
1,675,123 (54%) |
1,406,112 (46%) |
State analysis
Partisan balance
A total of five Democrats and three Republicans represent Colorado in the U.S. House. In the U.S. House, Republicans have a 220-212 majority with three vacancies.
Democrats have a 23-12 majority the state Senate and a 46-19 majority in the state House. The last time Republicans controlled either chamber of the Legislature was in 2018, when Republicans controlled the Senate.
Because the governor is a Democrat, Colorado is one of 17 states with a Democratic trifecta. It has held this status since 2019 when Democrats assumed a majority in the Senate.Colorado's attorney general and secretary of state are also Democrats. This makes Colorado one of 20 states with a Democratic triplex.
Past presidential election results in Colorado
How a state's counties vote in a presidential election and the size of those counties can provide additional insights into election outcomes at other levels of government including statewide and congressional races. Below, four categories are used to describe each county's voting pattern over the 2012, 2016, and 2020 presidential elections: Solid, Trending, Battleground, and New. Click [show] on the table below for examples:
| County-level voting pattern categories | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | |||||||
| Status | 2012 | 2016 | 2020 | ||||
| Solid Democratic | D | D | D | ||||
| Trending Democratic | R | D | D | ||||
| Battleground Democratic | D | R | D | ||||
| New Democratic | R | R | D | ||||
| Republican | |||||||
| Status | 2012 | 2016 | 2020 | ||||
| Solid Republican | R | R | R | ||||
| Trending Republican | D | R | R | ||||
| Battleground Republican | R | D | R | ||||
| New Republican | D | D | R | ||||
Following the 2020 presidential election, 60.4% of Coloradans lived in one of the state's 21 Solid Democratic counties, which voted for the Democratic presidential candidate in every election from 2012 to 2020, and 34.5% lived in one of 36 Solid Republican counties. Overall, Colorado was Solid Democratic, having voted for Barack Obama (D) in 2012, Hillary Clinton (D) in 2016, and Joe Biden (D) in 2020. Use the table below to view the total number of each type of county in Colorado following the 2020 election as well as the overall percentage of the state population located in each county type.
| Colorado county-level statistics, 2020 | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Solid Democratic | 21 | 60.4% | |||||
| Solid Republican | 36 | 34.5% | |||||
| Battleground Democratic | 2 | 3.2% | |||||
| New Democratic | 1 | 1.1% | |||||
| Trending Republican | 3 | 0.5% | |||||
| New Republican | 1 | 0.3% | |||||
| Total voted Democratic | 24 | 64.7% | |||||
| Total voted Republican | 40 | 35.3% | |||||
State legislative competitiveness
According to Ballotpedia's annual state legislative competitiveness report, Colorado had a Competitiveness Index of 41.7, ranking it 12th of the 44 states that held elections.
- 24 of the 83 seats up for election were open (29%).
- Seven of the 59 incumbents who ran for re-election faced contested primaries (12%).
- 70 of the 83 seats up for election were contested by both major parties (84%).
2010-2024
Hover over column headings to learn more about their contents.
| State Legislative Competitiveness Index in Colorado, 2010-2024 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Open seats | Incs. in contested primaries | Major party competition | Competitiveness Index | Rank | |||||||||||||||||||
| 2010 | 23.8% | 1.6% | 84.5% | 36.6 | 15 / 44 | |||||||||||||||||||
| 2012 | 38.8% | 7.5% | 85.9% | 44.1 | 8 / 44 | |||||||||||||||||||
| 2014 | 28.0% | 3.4% | 76.8% | 36.1 | 13 / 44 | |||||||||||||||||||
| 2016 | 28.9% | 8.5% | 80.7% | 39.4 | 11 / 44 | |||||||||||||||||||
| 2018 | 30.5% | 8.8% | 87.8% | 42.4 | 11 / 44 | |||||||||||||||||||
| 2020 | 24.1% | 7.9% | 86.7% | 39.6 | 9 / 44 | |||||||||||||||||||
| 2022 | 39.0% | 14.0% | 92.7% | 48.6 | 7 / 44 | |||||||||||||||||||
| 2024 | 28.9% | 11.9% | 84.3% | 41.7 | 12 / 44 | |||||||||||||||||||
In 2024
Hover over column headings to learn more about their contents. Click on headings for more state-specific information.
| State Legislative Competitiveness Index in Colorado, 2024 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chamber | Open seats | Incs. in contested primaries | Major party competition | Competitiveness Index | ||||||||||||||||||||
| House | 24.6% | 10.2% | 87.7% | 40.8 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Senate | 44.4% | 20.0% | 72.2% | 45.6 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Total | 28.9% | 11.9% | 84.3% | 41.7 | ||||||||||||||||||||
List of candidates
See also
Footnotes
