Colorado Election Update
Posted by Lynn Heider on November 6, 2024

The 2024 election results in Colorado bring a slate of legislative victories to advance credit unions’ legislative priorities and help us to continue to deepen our relationships with key legislators across the state. Colorado’s legislative election has yielded many credit union champion victories in both the State House and Senate.
Democratic Majorities Maintained in Colorado Legislature
First, let’s begin with the big picture in Colorado: The Democrats have retained their majorities in both the Colorado House of Representatives and the Senate. The final results are still not determined in a few very close seats, but the Democrats are likely to hold their super majority in the State House and will hold a majority in the State Senate.
We joined credit union champions to watch the returns come in Tuesday night.
Champions for Credit Unions come over to the State Senate from the House
Of the 35 State Senate seats, only 18 were up for election this year, as Senators serve 4-year terms in Colorado. Several key legislators have successfully won their election with credit union support—both incumbents and newly elected officials—who are poised to make an impact in the coming session, and we anticipate supporting credit union priority legislation.
Some of these legislative victories came as no surprise to us but were no less exciting. For example, the election of Senator-elect Judy Amabile – one of our biggest champions in the legislature – was called very early as she won by a hefty margin. Her victory along with the victory of three other credit union supporters – who were all State Representatives that supported credit unions when they served in the House and decided to run for the upper chamber – will help us to increase our support in the State Senate in the 2025 legislative session. Those three Senator-elects are Cathy Kipp, Lindsey Daugherty, and Mike Weissman.
There were multiple Senate races that were going to be very close this year and as of the last election update last night, some are still too-close-to-call. Two legislators that voted with banks in 2024 have won their races, Senator-elect Marc Catlin won on the Western Slope and Senator-elect Cleave Simpson. And in Brighton, Senator-elect Scott Bright has won his seat, but while credit unions advocates had great conversations with him ahead of the elections, we will need to continue to work with him and many other legislators to educate and advocate for credit union issues.
A Wealth of Credit Union Supporters in the House
While a few races in the House remain too-close-to-call, the majority will remain for another two years. All 65 House members run for office every two years, so there are too many elections to discuss all of them, but many credit union champions emerged from election night victorious. Some of our biggest incumbent champions that won reelection include credit union supported Reps. William Lindstedt, Chad Clifford, Javier Mabrey, Tisha Mauro, Sheila Lieder, and Andrew Boesenecker, just to name a few. Additionally, House leadership, and credit union supporters, Speaker of the House Julie McCluskie and House Majority Leader Monica Duran both won re-election. Some new faces also won their elections, and credit unions have already begun developing great relationships with them, and look forward to continuing to deepen our relationship with credit union supported Representative-elects Michael Carter, Sean Camacho, Yara Zokaie, and Lindsey Gilchrist. Finally, a few races remain too-close-to-call, as of this writing – keep an eye out for final results in HDs 16, 18, 19, 43, 50, and 59.
Congressional Outcomes
At the federal level credit unions had an extraordinarily successful night. Credit union supported members of the Colorado delegation Congresswoman Diana DeGette (CO-1), Congressman Joe Neguse (CO-2), Congressman Jason Crow (CO-6), and Congresswoman Brittany Pettersen (CO-7) were all re-elected. After joining us at MAXX and gaining ACUPAC support, new freshman member of the delegation Congressman-elect Jeff Crank was elected to his new seat – and Congressman-elect Jeff Hurd (CO-3) is leading in his seat, although it is still too-close-to-call as of writing. The race between Congresswoman Yadira Caraveo (CO-8) and State Representative Gabe Evans also remains too-close-to-call, although Caraveo currently has a slight lead.
More to Come
So far, the 2024 election has been incredibly successful for credit unions in Colorado. With so many new and returning champions for credit unions, we are well-positioned to continue building relationships and advocating for credit union priorities both at the state and federal level. Your GoWest team will continue to keep you posted as additional results continue to come in over the next few days at the national and federal level.
Posted in Advocacy on the Move, Colorado Advocacy.