Denver Post Politics

2026 Colorado Voter Guide Updated Oct. 28 at 3:25 p.m. The Denver Post voter guide rounds up our explainers, stories, candidate Q&As and endorsements for the 2026 election. The guide will be updated with new stories up to Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 3. On every Colorado ballot → 14 statewide measures, grouped by issue, and 5 statewide races Ballot measures: Taxes and funding  ·  Immigration and crime  ·  Elections and government  ·  Transgender youth  ·  Energy and the outdoors Races: U.S.

Tuesday’s state legislative races pose an existential question for Colorado Republicans: Can the GOP keep a toe or two inside the legislative arena, or will voters boot the party into the political peanut gallery? The question will play out across dozens of legislative races for House and Senate seats, with special attention on a handful of the most competitive districts. As Republicans face a potential blue wave, legislative contests have drawn more than $21 million in outside spending, with th

Election observers from the U.S. Department of Justice will not be allowed to enter Adams County polling centers next week after declining to cooperate with restrictions enacted by Secretary of State Jena Griswold, her office announced Thursday. Under those restrictions, DOJ observers would be required to only speak with a voter center’s presiding election official, quietly observe and take notes from an area designated by that official and refrain from taking photos or recording video and

By FATIMA HUSSEIN WASHINGTON (AP) — Chronically ill people on Medicaid won’t be bound by new work requirement rules that the latest Trump administration guidance requires in order to qualify for “medically frail” exemptions, a federal judge ruled Thursday. U.S. District Judge Richard Stearns in Boston gave a partial victory to a coalition of 25 states and the District of Columbia, which sued the Trump administration in June over the new Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services guidance l

By TIM SULLIVAN and NICHOLAS RICCARDI MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — When Donald Trump was running for president two years ago, Americans’ television screens were filled with images of migrant chaos. There were tent camps on both sides of the border, caravans of people trudging through Central America and concerns about newcomers overwhelming social services. That turmoil faded as President Joe Biden tightened immigration enforcement after Trump clamped down even more. Now any chaos is on American streets,

By MARY CLARE JALONICK WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate is unlikely to act before the end of the year on a House-passed bill that would make daylight saving time permanent, defying President Donald Trump and dashing the hopes of Americans who don’t like having to change their clocks twice a year. As daylight saving time ends early Sunday and much of the country turns the clocks back an hour, several senators are holding up legislation that would eliminate the longtime U.S. practice. Supporters argue

Coloradans face a slew of tax questions on their ballot this year — some with obvious interconnections, and others not so clear. Depending on which ones pass, they could reshape the state’s tax code significantly. For more than three decades, Colorado fiscal policy has been governed by the voter-approved Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, or TABOR. The constitutional amendment requires a vote of the people to raise taxes, caps how much money Colorado government can keep and spend without vot

Courtroom fights, false claims and mountains of spending have dominated the high-stakes battle over the ballot measure that would increase income taxes on higher-earning Coloradans while cutting them for everyone else. Opponents of Amendment 87 — mostly made up of conservative advocacy groups — have outraised the liberal groups that put forward the proposal and have poured millions of dollars into attack ads. A conservative activist last month filed a lawsuit seeking to strike the me

By BEN FINLEY and KONSTANTIN TOROPIN WASHINGTON (AP) — The cost of the Iran war to American taxpayers has grown to $47.1 billion, according to a new estimate the Pentagon has provided to Congress. The fallout from the conflict has become a key issue in the midterm elections and could increase as President Donald Trump leaves open the possibility of renewed hostilities. The figure from U.S. Central Command, which oversees operations in the Middle East, is as of Oct. 16 and offers the most up-to-d

The University of Denver on Wednesday announced the launch of the John and Sandy Miller National Academy for Free Expression and Pluralism, a national institution the school described as a nonpartisan renewal of the “principles of free expression and pluralism that have long supported a flourishing democratic society.” Mary Kate Cary, a former speechwriter for President George H.W. Bush, will be the academy’s executive director, according to a DU news release. “A pluralistic so

By RYAN J. FOLEY Groups that provide legal services to immigrants filed a lawsuit Wednesday seeking to stop the Trump administration’s new policy of hiding the locations of tens of thousands of detainees with final deportation orders. The policy, adopted suddenly last month to expedite deportations, interferes with immigration lawyers’ rights by making it difficult, and sometimes impossible, to locate their clients, according to the lawsuit filed in federal court in Boston. It asks a judge to is

By STEVE PEOPLES and AARON KESSLER NEW YORK (AP) — Republicans have spent an estimated $183 million on television ads focused on transgender-related attacks against Democrats in the final phase of this year’s midterm elections, betting that struggling GOP candidates can leverage the divisive cultural issue to overcome voters’ concerns about President Donald Trump’s leadership and the state of the economy. The massive investment through Oct. 25 produced about 217,000 TV spots nationwide and excee

Lawyers and real estate professionals have a clear favorite among the people hoping to fill the vacant at-large seat on Denver City Council. Monica Martinez, executive director of nonprofit The Fax Partnership and a former advisor to John Hickenlooper, has raked in more donations from individuals in the two sectors than any other candidate competing for the seat. As of Oct. 15, Martinez had raised $12,000 from individuals that identified themselves as lawyers, and $10,500 from individuals workin

The former head of the Colorado Department of Human Services, whose resignation was announced earlier this month, remains on paid leave through early December after she reached a settlement with the governor’s office to avoid litigation. Gov. Jared Polis announced on Oct. 6 that Michelle Barnes had resigned as executive director of the state’s second-largest agency, which she had led since the governor took office in 2019, and which has faced considerable scrutiny in recent years ami

By LINDSAY WHITEHURST WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court declined to intervene Tuesday in a dispute over a Biden-era immigration regulation that allowed immigration judges to pause some deportation proceedings. The high court turned down a request from Democratic-led cities who say the rule was used to help crime victims and neglected juveniles and should be revived. Texas and the Trump administration agreed to a court order blocking the regulation after the state sued. Texas alleged that the p

A shadowy new group is sending misleading mailers to voters in a closely contested Colorado congressional district as part of a nationwide effort to boost third-party candidates and attack their Republican opponents. The group, called Our Heritage Matters, was registered just after a federal reporting deadline earlier this month, meaning it will not have to disclose any donors until after the Nov. 3 election. Since Oct. 20, it has spent more than $1.2 million to influence 10 races across the cou

Minority opposition on the Aurora City Council blocked a vote late Monday night on a proposed data center moratorium, prompting cries of “shame” from residents attending a raucous meeting. Mayor Mike Coffman immediately said he would “be bringing back the same motion with the same resolution at the next regular meeting of the City Council.” The council next meets on Nov. 9. The reconsideration motion on a data center moratorium, an earlier version of which the council nar

By ERIKA KINETZ The U.S. government isn’t doing enough to fight the surge in cyberscams, and partnerships with the private sector remain fragmented and voluntary, an investigation into the global scam industry led by the Joint Economic Committee of the U.S. Congress has found. The government doesn’t even have a unified accounting of how much money has been seized from overseas scam compounds, nor how much has been returned to victims, according to the report, released Tuesday by ranking Democrat

By RYAN J. FOLEY IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — For nearly a year, immigration authorities have detained and sought to deport a mentally ill man whose mother, lawyers and public records say was born in the United States and not Jamaica as he claims, a review by The Associated Press found. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has no authority to detain U.S. citizens, but has long done so, usually for hours or days, when officers mistake identities or can’t immediately verify citizenship. Immigration lawye

Melat Kiros is already planning her victory celebration on election night. After defeating longtime incumbent U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette in the June Democratic primary, the 29-year-old democratic socialist has mostly focused her campaign on helping other candidates and supporting or opposing certain statewide ballot initiatives. In a district that has voted heavily in favor of Democrats for decades, that’s no surprise. Shimon Blau is running for Congress to represent Denver in the 1st Congressional