Phil Weiser has won Colorado's Democratic primary for governor, a stunning upset that topples longtime Senator Michael Bennet and propels the state attorney general into the fall general election as the heavy favorite to succeed Jared Polis.
Weiser entered the race as the underdog against Bennet, who carried 17 years of Senate experience and the backing of establishment Democrats. But the 60-year-old attorney general's relentless focus on anti-Trump messaging and criticism of Bennet as a Washington insider who compromised with Republican presidents proved decisive with primary voters hungry for a fighter rather than a consensus-builder.
The primary clash centered almost entirely on who would stand toughest against Donald Trump. Both candidates hammered similar themes on housing, affordability and the environment. But where they diverged sharply was in their records and rhetoric on confronting the Trump administration.
Weiser, in his second term as attorney general, has filed or joined at least 50 lawsuits against the Trump administration. He hammered Bennet for voting to confirm several of Trump's Cabinet nominees during the president's second term and for missing Senate votes as a senator. "Congress is not doing its job," Weiser said at a debate this month, claiming that "Congress should be a check on a lawless, bullying administration. It hasn't been."
Bennet struck back by accusing Weiser of being absent during Trump's first term, noting that more than 20 Democratic attorneys general filed suit over the administration's family separation policy at the southern border. "It's not about the lawsuits he brought. It's the lawsuits he didn't bring," Bennet said during a debate.
Despite spending heavily on television ads, Bennet's campaign and allied groups were outspent on the airwaves by the pro-Weiser operation since January 1, according to ad tracking data. Both candidates leaned hard into their anti-Trump message in paid media, but Weiser's grass-roots challenge narrative appears to have resonated more strongly with primary voters.
Before his election as attorney general in 2018, Weiser served as dean of the University of Colorado Law School. Bennet, appointed to the Senate in 2009 to complete Ken Salazar's term after Salazar joined the Obama Cabinet, was last reelected in 2022 and will remain a senator until 2029.
Colorado has not elected a Republican governor in more than two decades, making the Democratic primary winner the front-runner for November. The GOP side features Marine veteran Victor Marx, state Senator Barb Kirkmeyer and state Representative Scott Bottoms.
Author Sarah Mitchell: "Weiser's win demonstrates that antiestablishment fire still burns in Democratic primaries, even when both candidates share almost identical policy platforms."
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