# Colorado Governor 2026 ## Snapshot An open seat in a state that has moved steadily left for two decades, and a Republican nomination that took nine days to call. [[Jared Polis]] is term-limited. Attorney General **[[Phil Weiser]]** won the Democratic primary comfortably. Republicans nominated **[[Victor Marx]]**, a first-time candidate and founder of a Colorado Springs–based ministry, by **half a percentage point** over the state senator the party establishment preferred — after a primary in which both of his rivals said publicly that they would not support him if he won. Colorado has elected exactly one Republican governor since 1975: Bill Owens, who served from 1999 to 2007. That is the structural fact the race runs into. ## Primary (June 30, 2026): RESOLVED Colorado holds a single late-June primary for both parties. ### Republican primary — called July 9, nine days later | Candidate | Share | Votes | |---|---|---| | **Victor Marx** | **39.9%** | 208,455 | | Barbara Kirkmeyer (state senator) | 39.4% | 205,990 | | Scott Bottoms (state representative) | 20.8% | 108,529 | Kirkmeyer led immediately after election night and lost the lead as county clerks counted outstanding ballots. At one point the gap sat inside automatic-recount range. The Associated Press called it shortly after 4 p.m. on **July 9**; Kirkmeyer conceded and described it as the closest Republican gubernatorial primary in Colorado history. Marx had already taken nearly 40 percent at the April state assembly and out-raised both rivals combined, reporting about $2.5 million. Marx's endorsers include [[Michael Flynn]] and Representative [[Lauren Boebert]]. He named Marine veteran George Markert as his running mate in late July. ### Democratic primary | Candidate | Share | Votes | |---|---|---| | **Phil Weiser** (Attorney General) | **56.9%** | 505,444 | | Michael Bennet (U.S. Senator) | 43.1% | 383,131 | Weiser, attorney general since 2019 and formerly dean of the University of Colorado Law School, beat a sitting U.S. senator for the nomination. His running mate is Jefferson County commissioner Lesley Dahlkemper. ## The nomination fight was about Marx's biography The June 3 Republican primary debate, held at the University of Denver and hosted by 9News journalists Kyle Clark and Marshall Zelinger, turned almost entirely into a demand that Marx document his own life story. Clark asked him to substantiate claims that his ministry had rescued more than 45,000 women and children across more than 130 missions, that he had stopped human smugglers at the southern border, that he had called in a U.S. military airstrike as a civilian, and that he was the first American into Gaza during the war — and asked, directly, whether Marx was an extraordinary person or a liar. Marx answered that the proof was in the people he had helped and in documentation his team keeps, that this would never satisfy some people, and that he could not help having had an extraordinary life. He gave no figure. His rivals went further. Kirkmeyer said Marx told "tall tales" she did not believe and that his talk of homicidal and suicidal tendencies made her uneasy about being in rooms with him. Bottoms called him a fraud and said Marx had lied to him personally. Both said they would not support him as the nominee. Marx called them mean and said he was telling the truth. The 45,000 figure was later removed from his campaign website. Marx has since declined to give a number, saying it would put people in danger. Former governor Bill Owens has said he did not endorse Marx, contradicting a claim from the campaign. Several Republicans declined to sign Marx's loyalty pledge. ## General election (November 3, 2026) **[[Phil Weiser]] (D) vs. [[Victor Marx]] (R).** Weiser is strongly favored; on his nomination he called Marx's selection a threat to the state's values and future. Greg Lopez, a former Republican officeholder who ran in the primary field's orbit, has sought a place on the ballot as an unaffiliated candidate. Statewide polling has been thin. A Magellan Strategies survey in early August gave Weiser a double-digit lead, per the Colorado Times Recorder. In mid-October the Marx campaign's lieutenant-governor nominee promoted a poll showing Marx ahead by a point — a survey conducted only inside Colorado's 4th Congressional District, the most Republican district in the state, and commissioned by a renewable-energy PAC working against [[Lauren Boebert]]. Treat that number as a district poll, not a statewide one. > [!warning] Unresolved > No independent statewide general-election poll of this race has been confirmed to two sources. The August figure above rests on one outlet's account of a single pollster; the October figure is a single-district survey. Read both as directional. **Marx's platform**, as presented: deregulating housing, childcare and energy; protecting the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights; capping property taxes; writing gun rights into the state constitution; opposing [[Flock Safety]] surveillance cameras; cooperating with federal immigration enforcement and opposing sanctuary policies; and strong opposition to abortion. Critics including Republicans note the platform is short on specifics. ## Key dates - 2025-10-01 — Marx announces - 2026-04 — state assembly: Marx takes nearly 40 percent - 2026-06-03 — Republican primary debate at the University of Denver - 2026-06-30 — primaries - 2026-07-09 — Associated Press calls the Republican primary for Marx - 2026-07 (late) — Marx names George Markert as running mate - 2026-11-03 — general election ## Why this race matters beyond Colorado 1. **A party gatekeeping failure with a half-point margin.** The establishment candidate, the legislative candidate and the donor-preferred candidate were all the same person — Kirkmeyer — and she lost to a first-time candidate whose own rivals called him a fraud. Compare [[MN-Gov-2026]], where the convention endorsee and the Trump endorsee both lost to the establishment pick. Colorado is the mirror image. 2. **Testimony as credential.** Marx's campaign treats a personal narrative of violence survived and souls rescued as the qualification itself, which makes documentation requests look like persecution rather than vetting. That structure recurs across the [[Christian Nationalism]] candidate pipeline and is worth tracking as a type. 3. **The safe-seat ceiling.** Even in a cycle where Republicans are defending unexpectedly competitive ground elsewhere, Colorado shows the floor: a state where the party's nominee is not a serious threat, and the nomination therefore goes to whoever can win a low-turnout June primary. ## Connections - [[Phil Weiser]]: Democratic nominee, sitting attorney general - [[Victor Marx]]: Republican nominee - [[Jared Polis]]: term-limited incumbent - [[Lauren Boebert]] · [[Michael Flynn]]: Marx endorsers - [[CO-Sen-2026]]: same-ballot Colorado Senate race - [[MN-Gov-2026]] · [[OH-Gov-2026]]: other open-seat governor race files - [[2026 Governor Races Hub]] · [[2026 Midterms Hub]] · [[US Governors Hub]] ## Sources - [Wikipedia — 2026 Colorado gubernatorial election](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_Colorado_gubernatorial_election) - [Colorado Newsline — Victor Marx wins Republican nomination for Colorado governor](https://coloradonewsline.com/2026/07/09/victor-marx-wins-colorado-governor/) - [NBC News — Ministry founder Victor Marx wins Republican primary for Colorado governor](https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2026-election/ministry-founder-victor-marx-wins-republican-primary-colorado-governor-rcna352780) - [The Hill — Victor Marx wins GOP nomination for Colorado governor](https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/5962272-victor-marx-winner-gop-colorado-governor-race-primary/) - [Colorado Public Radio — GOP primary debate goes off the rails](https://www.cpr.org/2026/06/03/colorado-gop-debate/) - [Colorado Times Recorder — Marx campaign touts poll showing a tie with Weiser](https://coloradotimesrecorder.com/2026/10/marx-campaign-touts-poll-showing-a-tie-with-weiser-omits-that-its-only-in-cos-reddest-district/82496/)