{"id":75576,"date":"2026-06-30T20:57:04","date_gmt":"2026-07-01T01:57:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/30\/progressive-momentum-hits-speed-bump-as-veteran-democrat-fends-off-challenger-in-colorado\/"},"modified":"2026-06-30T20:57:04","modified_gmt":"2026-07-01T01:57:04","slug":"progressive-momentum-hits-speed-bump-as-veteran-democrat-fends-off-challenger-in-colorado","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/30\/progressive-momentum-hits-speed-bump-as-veteran-democrat-fends-off-challenger-in-colorado\/","title":{"rendered":"Progressive momentum hits speed bump as veteran Democrat fends off challenger in Colorado"},"content":{"rendered":"

A moderate Democrat<\/a> mounting his last campaign staved off a progressive challenger in Colorado, marking a small speed bump in the rapid far-left evolution of the Democratic Party.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sen. John Hickenlooper, D-Colo., a longtime fixture in Colorado politics, overcame a challenge from state Sen. Julie Gonzales, his progressive challenger, who has argued that Democrats need to be more aggressive in their pushback against President Donald Trump.<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n

Hickenlooper, who is vying for a second term in the upper chamber, said this would be his final campaign for the Senate. Gonzales hoped to speed up his exit with a campaign that went after the lawmaker\u2019s moderate position and votes in favor of some of Trump\u2019s nominees.\u00a0<\/p>\n

DEMOCRATS TORN BETWEEN PROGRESSIVE FIRE AND CENTRIST CAUTION AS NOVEMBER ELECTIONS LOOM<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

“John Hickenlooper has been in office for over 20 years,” Gonzales said in her campaign launch ad.<\/u><\/a> “I know that we\u2019re not fooled by his so-called \u2018commonsense approach,\u2019 cause there is no sense in voting for Donald Trump\u2019s nominees.”<\/p>\n

Still, Gonzales\u2019 defeat Tuesday night was a stumble for the progressive wave that has<\/a> swept the Democratic Party during this midterm election cycle, which has seen new blood hungry for change challenging the old guard and party leadership in Washington, D.C.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Hickenlooper, 74, who served two terms each as Denver\u2019s mayor and Colorado\u2019s governor before launching a failed bid for president, has been a stalwart fixture in the Centennial State, while Gonzales, 43, positioned herself as part of the new wave.\u00a0<\/p>\n

THE PLOT TO STOP MAMDANI: DEMOCRATS SCRAMBLE TO BLOCK FAR-LEFT TAKEOVER IN NEW YORK<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Their battle for the Democratic nomination came just a week after a trio of progressive candidates backed by New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani<\/a> clinched their Democratic nominations. Notably, Mamdani-backed Darializa Avila Chevalier, a community organizer and socialist, toppled five-term incumbent Rep. Adriano Espaillat, D-N.Y.<\/p>\n

And the battle between Hickenlooper and Gonzales was not the only intraparty fist fight between a moderate incumbent and progressive in Colorado.\u00a0<\/p>\n

‘IT’S A MESS’: GOP TURNS ON HOUSE CONSERVATIVES AS VOTER ID BLOCKADE STALLS TRUMP’S AGENDA<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Melat Kiros, a socialist, is squaring off against longtime Rep. Diana DeGette in Colorado’s 1st Congressional District. Kiros also sported the endorsement of one of Hickenlooper\u2019s colleagues: Sen. Bernie Sanders,<\/a> I-Vt.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Hickenlooper will now face state Sen. Mark Baisley in November. Baisley, who ran unopposed in the Colorado GOP primary, initially launched a campaign for governor in the race to replace term-limited Gov. Jared Polis but dropped out of the contest to run for the Senate.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Fox News Digital did not immediately receive comment from the Hickenlooper and Gonzales campaigns.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A moderate Democrat mounting his last campaign staved off a progressive challenger in Colorado, marking a small speed bump in the rapid far-left evolution of the Democratic Party.\u00a0 Sen. John Hickenlooper, D-Colo., a longtime fixture in Colorado politics, overcame a challenge from state Sen. Julie Gonzales, his progressive challenger, who has argued that Democrats need … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-75576","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75576","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75576"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75576\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75576"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}