The 2022 Colorado Senate elections took place on November 8, 2022, along with elections in the State House of Representatives, with the primary elections held on June 28, 2022. Voters in 17 out of the 35 districts of the Colorado Senate elected their representative for a four-year term. It coincided with other Colorado elections of the same year and the biennial United States elections.
Democrats gained two seats increasing their majority to 23 out of 35 seats, with one seat shy of an outright supermajority. Despite winning a majority of the votes cast, the Republican Party only won 6 of the 17 seats up for election.
Background In the previous state Senate election (2020), the Democrats increased their majority to five seats. In August 2022, Republican Sen. Kevin Priola announced he was changing his party affiliation to Democratic. Therefore, for Democrats to lose their absolute majority in the Senate in this election, Republicans and other parties needed to gain at least four more seats.
This was the first election with the districts drawn based on the 2020 census. Due to this, some districts did not have incumbents, as they chose to run in other districts that were not up for election in 2022.
Incumbents not seeking re-election One Democratic and four Republican incumbents were term-limited and prohibited from seeking a consecutive third term. Under the laws for the state Senate, for terms to be considered non-consecutive, there needs to be a gap of at least four years between them.
Democrats District 5: Kerry Donovan was term-limited. District 11: Pete Lee retired. District 16: Tammy Story retired to run for state representative from District 25. District 22: Brittany Pettersen retired to run for U. S. representative from Colorado's 7th congressional district.
Republicans District 1: Jerry Sonnenberg was term-limited. District 6: Don Coram retired to run for U. S. representative from Colorado's 3rd congressional district. District 7: Ray Scott was term-limited. District 13: John Cooke was term-limited. District 30: Chris Holbert was term-limited, then resigned on May 31, 2022.
Predictions SourceRankingAs of Sabato's Crystal Ball May 19, 2022
Results
DistrictIncumbent PartyElected Party 1 Jerry Sonnenberg† Rep Byron Pelton Rep 3 Nick Hinrichsen Dem Nick Hinrichsen Dem 4 Jim SmallwoodRep Mark BaisleyRep 7 Ray Scott† Rep Janice Rich Rep 8 Bob RankinRep Dylan Roberts Dem 9 Paul Lundeen Rep Paul Lundeen Rep 11 Pete Lee† Dem Tony Exum Dem Dennis Hisey Rep 15 Rob Woodward Rep Janice Marchman Dem 20 Rachael ZenzingerDem Lisa A. Cutter Dem 22 Jessie Danielson Dem Jessie Danielson DemBrittany Pettersen† 24 No incumbent Kyle Mullica Dem 25 Faith Winter Dem Faith Winter Dem 27 Chris KolkerDem Tom Sullivan Dem 30Kevin Van Winkle Rep Kevin Van Winkle Rep 32 Robert Rodriguez Dem Robert Rodriguez Dem 34 Julie Gonzales Dem Julie Gonzales Dem 35 Cleave SimpsonRep Rod Pelton Rep † - Incumbent not seeking re-election
Italics - Incumbent redistricted to different district
Bold - gain
Closest races Seats where the margin of victory was under 10%: gain
gain
Detailed results District 1 • District 3 • District 4 • District 5 • District 6 • District 7 • District 9 • District 11 • District 13 • District 15 • District 16 • District 20 • District 22 • District 24 • District 30 • District 32 • District 34__NOTOC__
District 1
District 3
District 4
District 7
District 8
District 9
District 11
District 15
District 20
District 22
District 24
District 25
District 27
District 30
District 32
District 34
District 35
Footnotes
References