Colorado BioScience PAC Educates State Candidates on Life Sciences Priorities
By: Colorado BioScience Association Date: 07/06/2020
Last Tuesday was Colorado’s primary election, where voters decided on candidates for races including the U.S. Senate, U.S. House of Representatives, the state legislature, and other races like district attorney and school board. There were 1,586,290 ballots returned to county election officials, making the 2020 state primary the largest turnout for a state primary in Colorado’s history.
Below are highlights from the 2020 state primary.
Over the coming months, the CBSA team will work to ensure that state candidates understand the issues that are critical to our life sciences ecosystem through the Colorado BioScience Political Action Committee. The committee is a critical component of our political engagement, helping the association advance our advocacy priorities and promote the interests of the bioscience community.
Political engagement is all about relationships, and our PAC donations provide opportunities to establish and grow relationships with candidates who are or could be champions for our industry. It matters who is in office, and we need your involvement to ensure pro-business, pro-innovation candidates are elected.
We encourage you to help us raise funds so we can continue to meet and educate candidates about what matters to our community.
Donate to the Colorado BioScience PAC today.
If you have already donated to the Colorado BioScience PAC this cycle, thank you. We appreciate your support and commitment to growing the bioscience sector in Colorado.
U.S. Senate and House of Representatives
The headline race of the night was the Democratic party nomination for U.S. Senate. Former Governor John Hickenlooper defeated Former State House Speaker Andrew Romanoff by close to 20 percentage points. Hickenlooper will take on incumbent Senator Cory Gardner in the November general election.
There was a surprising result in Congressional District 3, an expansive district covering all of the western slope, San Luis Valley, and Pueblo, where Republican incumbent Scott Tipton was defeated by challenger Lauren Boebert. Boebert will run against former state House Representative Diana Mitsch Bush in November.
State Senate
District 8 – Republican incumbent Bob Rankin of Carbondale survived a challenge from Debra Irvine in this district representing the upper Western Slope. Rankin will now take on Karl Hanlon, an attorney from Glenwood Springs, in November. Since the district includes part of the Western Slope, the stat race could potentially be affected by the competitive U.S. House race between Lauren Boebert and Diana Mitsch Bush.
District 23 – This is an open seat. Weld County Commissioner Barbara Kirkmeyer seized the opportunity and won over Rupert Parchment for the Republican nomination. Sally Boccella defeated Galina Nicoll for the Democratic nomination in the Republican-leaning Weld County district.
District 31 – Chris Hansen became the incumbent in the district when he won a vacancy appointment at the beginning of the session. However, the runner-up for that vacancy appointment, Maria Orms, challenged Hansen in the primary. In the end, Hansen was able to win and will hold onto the seat in heavily Democratic East Denver.
State House
District 6 – Attorney Steven Woodrow won a vacancy appointment in East Denver at the beginning of the session. While the runners-up in the vacancy decided to run in the primary, Woodrow won and will take on the Republican candidate in November.
District 22 – Colin Larson won the seat in 2018 after more conservative Justin Everett vacated the seat to run for State Treasurer. Everette then decided to challenge Larson from the right to try to take back his old seat. However, Larson was able to win by over 10 points.
District 38 – Republican Richard Champion was appointed to this seat to fill a vacancy left by Susan Beckman. On Tuesday, Army veteran David Ortiz won over Candice Ferguson in the Democratic primary and will take on Champion in a competitive race that House Democrats will be targeting to flip.
District 40 – This was by far the closest election in the whole primary. Small business owner Naquetta Ricks won the seat by a very narrow margin over University of Colorado Professor John Ronquillo. Ricks will take on Republican Richard Bassett in the November election to see who will succeed Janet Buckner in the Southern Aurora district.
District 47 – Democrat Bri Buentello won this conservative district in 2018 and this race will be a top target for House Republicans to flip. In the Republican primary, Stephanie Luck won over Ron Parker and will take on Buentello in the competitive Pueblo/South East Colorado district.