CBS Colorado frames Tuesday’s primary election as potentially “pivotal,” which is the sort of word television news loves because “please keep watching through the mattress commercials” does not fit neatly in a chyron. But underneath the drumroll is a real Colorado gut-check.
The useful part of Shaun Boyd’s piece is that Republican Dick Wadhams and Democrat Mike Dino both say the quiet part out loud: both parties are fighting internal ideological wars. Democrats are wrestling with democratic socialists and Working Families Party energy. Republicans are wrestling with MAGA purity fights and candidates who can turn a winnable moment into a smoking crater.
That matters because in a lot of places, the primary is the real election. It is where turnout, ideology, and candidate quality beat slogans. It is where adults either take the keys back or let the loudest people drive into the ditch.
The Bullet Point Brief
- CBS reports that both major parties are battling insurgent factions, with democratic socialists on the left and Trump-aligned Republicans on the right. Translation: voters are tired of the status quo, and the political system is responding by handing everyone a bullhorn and a grant proposal.
- Dino says Democratic voters are being driven heavily by opposition to President Trump, with many looking for candidates who match their anger. That is not a governing philosophy. That is political road rage with a fundraising link.
- In Denver’s 1st Congressional District, Rep. Diana DeGette faces challengers including Melat Kiros, a democratic socialist backed by Bernie Sanders. Democrats love to lecture everyone about “democracy,” then act surprised when their activist wing uses primaries to drag the party somewhere normal Coloradans never asked to go.
- Wadhams says unaffiliated voters may be ready to reject total Democratic control in Colorado, but he also warns Republicans can blow the moment if they nominate candidates who make the party look unserious. He is right. Purity without victory is just performance art with yard signs.
- The article also flags the attorney general race, where Democrat Mike Dino says some Democrats could cross over if Jena Griswold becomes the nominee. That is what happens when voters start asking for competence instead of résumé glitter and cable-news applause.
My Bottom Line
Colorado does not need another breathless “most important election of our lifetime” sermon from people who thought the last fourteen were also the most important. What Colorado needs is a little less theater and a lot more competence.
Voters are not lab rats for activist fantasies, consultant grifts, or donor-class vanity projects. They want safe communities, affordable energy, schools that teach, borders that mean something, and a government that remembers it works for citizens. That should not be a revolutionary platform. It should be the entry fee.
Democrats have a real problem. Their activist wing keeps dragging them toward policies that sound great in faculty lounges and nonprofit boardrooms, then land like a cinder block in the lives of working families. They call it democracy when the left pushes harder left, then call everyone else dangerous for noticing the direction of travel.
Republicans have their own homework. Talking about the Constitution, freedom, law and order, and common sense is not enough. You have to nominate serious people who can win and govern. If winning feels too “establishment” for you, congratulations, you have built a hobby club, not a political party.
Colorado’s future will not be decided by who yells “extreme” the loudest. It will be decided by whether either party can produce serious candidates for serious times. The primary is where that test starts. The voters should grade harshly.
Source: CBS Colorado