U.S. Senate 2026

The U.S. Senate is one of two chambers in the federal legislative branch. Senators are able to propose and vote on legislation, and bills must pass both the House and the Senate to have a chance of becoming law.

Senators have a few specific responsibilities House members don’t, most notably the power of “advice and consent” to confirm Presidential nominees for positions including Supreme Court Justices and federal court judges, along with secretaries and top-level officials in key federal departments. Senators confirm treaties, plus the Senate is the chamber that holds official trials which could result in the removal of an official from office, in case the House passes Articles of Impeachment.

Every state in the Union gets two Senators, and they are elected to six-year terms with no term limits. The candidate with the most votes wins the seat, and it is not required to reach 50% to win.

John Hickenlooper, Democratic

U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper

John Hickenlooper, the incumbent U.S. Senator from Colorado, is the Democratic Party’s nominee for a second term in the Senate after defeating challenger Julie Gonzales in the June 30 primary by about 53% – 47%.

Hickenlooper was born in Pennsylvania, and earned a master’s degree in geology from Wesleyan University before beginning work as a petroleum geologist in Colorado. After being laid off, he and partners opened the Wynkoop Brewery in downtown Denver in 1988. Hickenlooper ran for and won the race for Mayor of Denver in 2003, and won another term in 2007.

However, former Colorado Governor Bill Ritter decided not to run for another term in 2010, and Hickenlooper entered the Governor’s race and won – earning about 51% of the vote and defeating long-time Republican Tom Tancredo who ran with the American Constitution Party and got about 36%. Hickenlooper was re-elected Governor in 2014, defeating Republican Bob Beauprez by about 49% – 45%, and Governors are term-limited in Colorado so he had to step down in 2018. Hickenlooper signed roughly 3,100 bills into law over the course of eight years, and only vetoed 23 along with a partial veto in the 2011 budget.

He ran unsuccessfully for President of the United States during 2019 and 2020, and decided to enter the Senate race in early 2020. Hickenlooper defeated former Colorado Speaker of the House Andrew Romanoff in the Democratic Senate primary, by about 59%-41%. He then went on to win the 2020 general election, defeating the Republican then-incumbent Cory Gardner by about 54% – 44%.

Hickenlooper is currently a member of the following committees: Commerce, Science & Transportation; Energy & Natural Resources; Health, Education, Labor & Pensions; and Small Business & Entrepreneurship. This list includes a number of subcommittee memberships, and he’s a ranking member of the Consumer Protection, Technology, & Data Privacy and the Employment & Workplace Safety subcommittees.

During his first term in the Senate, Hickenlooper was part of a Democratic “trifecta” from 2021-23 with Democrats holding the Presidency and voting majorities in the Senate and House. During this time, Hickenlooper sponsored bills that became law or part of laws under President Biden, including increasing access to capital for businesses owned by women or racial/ethnic minorities, and relief for small businesses negatively impacted by the COVID pandemic. Here’s a link to a short press release about some of Hickenlooper’s successes during the trifecta years: https://www.hickenlooper.senate.gov/issues-backup/small-business/

Since the start of 2023, Republicans have held either branches of Congress or the Presidency, and split control or minority status can make it challenging for legislators to pass bills. Here are a few bills Hickenlooper sponsored that were signed into law, although they were included in other larger bills before being signed:

S 4242 from the 118th Congress: extended the authorization of the Reclamation States Emergency Drought Relief Act until 2028
S 5404 from the 118th Congress: supported the organization of a Summit of the Americas every four years, to strengthen ties and promote cooperation between the United States and countries in the Western Hemisphere, as well as civil society, business, diaspora, women, and youth leaders.
S 2247 from the 118th Congress: provided cost-shared funding to implement the endangered and threatened fish recovery programs for the Upper Colorado and San Juan River Basins.

What Is He Doing in 2026?

It’s not that easy to get local media coverage on Senate actions unless they’re controversial or major. Curious readers might gain some insight from his press release page (linked here), in part because chances are decent that the releases didn’t get that much traction in the state and local press. Here are a few snippets with links for perspective:

August 14: Calls for investigation into how the Trump administration targeted Colorado with items including cutting or withholding funding to the state
August 13: Introduces a bill with his colleagues to prevent the administration from hiding the true cost of the war in Iran
June 29: joined Senate colleagues to introduce the Protect Our Polls Act, which would protect American elections from interference or intimidation by armed uniformed military or federal law enforcement.
June 28: conducted a congressional oversight visit at the GEO ICE detention facility in Aurora, Colorado.
June 25: criticized President Trump’s vanity projects on the Senate floor (video included)
June 24: reintroduced the Right To Vote Act with Sen. Ossoff and others
June 24: joined the Democratic Senate caucus to fight a proposed U.S. Postal Service rule to implement a Trump executive order that would have required states to supply USPS with voting data to create a federal mail-in ballot voting list.

Part of the discourse in the 2026 primary included that Hickenlooper voted to confirm a high number of Trump appointees compared with other Dems. It’s true that he voted for 10 nominees in 2025, but readers might find this list from Ballotpedia interesting since it shows that no Democrats voted for zero, fairly few only voted for one, and 21 Dems voted for 5 or more: https://ballotpedia.org/How_senators_voted_on_Trump_Cabinet_nominees,_2025

Follow The Money: As of Oct. 9, the Hickenlooper campaign had reported $10,285,376.31 in contributions, according to the FEC.

Campaign website: https://hickenlooper.com/

Senate office webpage: https://www.hickenlooper.senate.gov/

Mark Baisley, Republican

State Sen. Mark Baisley

Current Colorado state Senator Mark Baisley became the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate from Colorado by winning an uncontested Republican Party primary election on June 30. He started the election cycle as a GOP candidate for Governor of Colorado, but switched to the Senate race in early January.

Baisley was born in Hastings, Minnesota. He earned a Bachelor of Science in Computer Information Systems and Business Administration from Columbia College, and per Ballotpedia went on to work as the president of Slipglass, Inc. and Enspherics, a senior engineer with Raytheon, and a senior systems engineer with Martin Marietta. Baisley served on the Columbia College Board of Trustees and as the vice chair and finance chairman of the Colorado Republican Party.

He first ran for the state House of Representatives for House District 39 in 2018, defeating Democratic nominee Kamala Vanderkolk by about 63% – 35%. He won a second term in the House in 2020, defeating Democratic candidate Ian Chapman by about 63% – 34%. At the time, District 39 included much of rural Douglas and Teller counties. In 2022, Baisley ran for the state Senate in District 4, defeating Democratic candidate Jeff Ravage by about 61% – 39%. Senate District 4 includes mostly rural areas and small towns in Chaffee, Douglas, Teller, Fremont, Jefferson, Lake, and Park counties.

While as a state legislator, he served as a member of the following committees: Senate Business, Labor & Technology, Education, and State, Veterans and Military Affairs; House Appropriations, Education, and Health and Health Services; along with the Joint (House and Senate) Technology Committee.

For a brief sample of some of Baisley’s policy positions:

Firearms: Baisley is a staunch supporter of the Second Amendment. He sent out a recent press release praising the federal Department of Justice for challenging Colorado’s 2013 ammunition magazine capacity limit law. He was a Senate sponsor of House Bill 26-1021, which did not pass but would have repealed a long list of Colorado gun laws. He also sponsored House Bill 25-1055, which again didn’t pass but would have rolled back certain regulation on firearms dealers.
Economics: Baisley’s website says he will work toward cutting federal taxes, relaxing regulations, and to “restore American energy dominance.”
Healthcare: Baisley opposes “government control driving up costs and limiting choices,” and instead supports more competition in the marketplace, price transparency, and Health Savings Accounts.
Law Enforcement: A recent Baisley press release said he supports policies that “strengthen law enforcement support and hold offenders accountable…This includes properly equipping and training law enforcement partners.”
Immigration: Baisley was a prime sponsor of Senate Bill 25-047, which didn’t pass but would have re-enacted Senate Bill 06-090 from 2006, and would have rolled back current laws limiting local law enforcement from cooperating with federal immigration authorities.

Republicans were in the minority for all of Baisley’s tenure in the House and Senate, which makes it tougher to get bills signed into law, especially if there is any partisan element to the bills. Still, he was one of the prime sponsors of five bills signed into law in 2026, nine bills in 2025, nine in 2024, 12 in 2023, four in 2022, 12 in 2021, six in 2020, and three in 2019. (All bills can have up to four prime sponsors.)

Follow The Money: As of Oct. 9, the Baisley campaign had received $138,147.47 in contributions, per the FEC.

Campaign website: https://baisleyforsenate.com/

Robert Chew, Colorado Forward Party

Robert Chew is running with the Colorado Forward Party for U.S. Senate, but his campaign literature often says he is “Independent” even though his website says he “has joined the Forward Party.” Forward has the smallest number of registered voters in Boulder County, with 43 registered in mid-July out of a county total of about 240,000 active voters.

Per his website, Chew graduated from Case Western Reserve University with a degree in chemical engineering. He joined the U.S. Navy while in college, and spent five years as a division officer on a nuclear attack submarine. After leaving the Navy, he took a job in “government services,” and became an intelligence officer in the Navy Reserves. He founded a business to provide engineering and technical services to pharmaceutical and medical device businesses. He has lived in Boulder, Colorado, since 2017.

He calls himself a former “McCain Republican,” after the late former Senator John McCain, but said he became disillusioned with “Donald Trump’s Republican Party” and now believes the two-party system is broken. But per the Colorado Sun, Chew was a registered Republican until August 2025. Unlike some minor party candidates who don’t have a lot of money, Chew said in mid-2026 that he might spend $2 million on his campaign.

For a brief sampling of his policy positions:

Entitlements: Whether anyone calls Social Security an “entitlement” or an “earned benefit,” Chew believes there is a need to “reform” both Social Security and Medicare to avoid insolvency. With Social Security, he would increase retirement ages, increase payroll taxes, and eliminate tax loopholes for the wealthy (among other points).
National Debt and Deficit: Chew’s website mentions debt and deficit often. To tackle these problems, he supports cutting “waste and fraud,” mentioned Social Security and Medicare reform again, and supports tax reform to bring in revenue from the wealthy.
International Conflict: He said it’s important to have a strong America so we don’t get pushed around. His website said he supports assisting Ukraine, countering China as it flexes its influence, and being “honest about the threat the Iranian regime poses to American security.”
Affordable Housing: He mentioned a supply-demand imbalance that helps make high housing prices a reality, but also says our national debt helps lead to higher interest rates; tariffs and crackdowns on immigration contribute to cost inflation; and “overbearing environmental regulations and permit processes” also increase costs.

Follow the Money: As of Oct. 9, the Chew campaign had reported $1,270,007 in contributions, per the FEC.

Campaign website: https://bobchew2026.com/
Forward Party webpage: https://www.coloradoforwardparty.com/2026_fwdcandidate_chew

Adam Withrow, Unity Party

Adam Withrow, the Unity Party candidate for U.S. Senate, does not appear to have served in elected office. He did run for the U.S. House as a Unity member in Congressional District 3 in 2024, finishing fourth with about 0.7% of the vote.

Per Withrow’s website, he’s worked “as a ranch hand, a CNA (I believe that stands for Certified Nursing Assistant), a cook, a contractor, and a Detention Officer.”
For a brief sampling of his policy positions:

Energy: Supports limiting the expansion of drilling for natural resources to preserve supplies “for the long run.” Supports new clean energy development, and would make the Solar Tax Credit permanent.
Campaign Finance: Supports limits on campaign spending and on taking in money. Wants to eliminate campaign contributions from those who are not natural citizens – basically corporations.
Military: Wants Congress to re-assert its authority to declare war, and remove that authority from the executive branch. Opposes what he calls “military adventurism.” He calls himself “anti-war – every war.”
Healthcare: Supports “ultimately” abolishing private health insurance. Supports a public, not-for-profit option for healthcare coverage.

Campaign website: https://www.senatorwithrow.com/

Christopher Baum, Approval Voting Party

Per Ballotpedia: “Chris Baum was born in Washington, D.C. He served in the U.S. Navy from 1967 to 1987. Baum earned a bachelor’s degree from Brown University in 1967 and a graduate degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 1979. His career experience includes working as an information systems administrator, a supply officer in the U.S. Navy, a small business owner, and a computer consultant. Baum has been affiliated with the Calvary Church of Broomfield.”

Blake Huber, Libertarian

Per his webpage with the Libertarian Party, “Huber has run on the Approval Voting Party ticket for Vice President of the United States in
2016, Colorado Secretary of State in 2018, and for President of the United States in 2020 and 2024.

Huber spent more than 30 years in management, overseeing large apartment communities, a small business, a motel, and teams of network engineers.”

Key Issues

Better voting methods to find real middle ground.
Rational immigration reform that makes it easier for good people to contribute.
Regulation reform that reduces unnecessary burdens on small businesses.

Huber has a webpage with the Libertarian Party: https://lpcolorado.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/26/2026/03/Huber-US-Senate.pdf

Richard’s Take

Vote Hickenlooper. Like him or not, what’s really at stake in this election is a potential Democratic majority in the U.S. Senate. If readers care about nothing else, a Dem majority could mean it will be difficult for President Trump to get a new Supreme Court Justice confirmed for lifetime tenure during the final two years of his term if a Justice dies or resigns. In addition, it could be more difficult to get certain other Trump-nominated federal judges confirmed. Also, a Democratic Senate majority and/or the ability to filibuster might block certain bad Republican bills from passing even if Dems don’t take back the House. I’m trying to write concisely, but this paragraph is huge stuff!

I’ve said several times in the past that I might prefer a candidate who’s a little farther to the left than Hickenlooper, and I’ll say it again this year. But “left” isn’t everything to me. A large part of Hickenlooper’s life experience has been in industry and business, and this means it’s been fairly natural to have this experience influence his votes and positions. Like it or not, it’s going to be tough to have money for the social programs and education folks farther to the left desire if there isn’t a strong business climate to pay for them.

He’s also served as the Governor and as Senator for a politically diverse state, where many areas are not as progressive as Denver or Boulder. This means he’s really had no choice but to at least listen to people with a gigantic variety of life experiences, and I sometimes hate admitting this – but people I broadly disagree with often have legitimate points on specific issues that ought to be part of high-quality comprehensive solutions. In short, don’t ask ME what it’s like to be a cattle rancher, ask a cattle rancher.

I believe it’s worth mentioning to Colorado newcomers that Hickenlooper has done a lot for Denver and the state, both in and out of politics. He can take a certain amount of credit for making LoDo (Denver’s Lower Downtown) a less-seedy and more pleasant area to frequent, by opening the Wynkoop, through his work with other folks in the business district, and as Mayor of Denver. I was there occasionally in the seedy days and couldn’t wait to get out. I worked at the Capitol after the Great Recession, and Hickenlooper was very devoted to rebuilding the state’s economy, enjoying pretty good success. He was a big part of attracting the Democratic National Convention to Denver for Obama’s first nomination acceptance in 2008 and yes, I was there for several DNC events and it was a tremendous time.

Hick joined a bunch of us in late 2025 outside of NOAA who were protesting pending cuts at NCAR.

And I remember some highlights of his time as Governor that might’ve faded from the collective memory by now. I was in a room with him as the LGBTQ community celebrated the passage of a civil unions bill, which he signed into law. He signed a bill allowing in-state tuition for undocumented college students. I was there when he signed gun safety bills into law not long after the horrific shootings at the Aurora Theater and Sandy Hook. It was the morning after the state director of the Department of Corrections was murdered at his home, and Hickenlooper was ashen-faced. At the time (mostly 2012-13), these were pretty progressive pieces of legislation, and there is political risk in bold action. Democrats actually lost the state Senate majority over the gun bills.

Hickenlooper has indeed voted for a larger number of Trump appointees than most Senators. His primary opponent Julie Gonzales made this a part of her campaign, and I don’t blame her. But after Gonzales entered the race, he appeared to start being more vocal about opposing Trump nominees and policies. I don’t think another common Gonzales criticism, that he’s a “do-nothing” Senator, was actually fair. Again, I’ll invite people to spend a little time on his website’s press release page, because I’ll guarantee quite a bit of it will be news to people who don’t really follow closely. If her critique is really mostly about getting bills passed, most Democratic state legislators like Gonzales have been able to pass gigantic numbers of bills because statehouse Dems have had a trifecta with occasional supermajorities. Our federal delegation, including Hickenlooper, has not enjoyed the same luxury since 2023.

I don’t know if a fairly close race with Gonzales pushed his heart to the left, because he is who he is, but I do think she and her campaign influenced his most recent actions. I expect folks on the political farther left will still be disappointed with him time to time, but this Senate seat has the potential to represent a tremendous amount of power if Dems take back the majority or even get close. It’s a risk with no upside to cast a protest vote or not vote in this race.

I don’t expect a lot of Boulder readers to vote for Baisley, but I do have some concern about Robert Chew. He’s from Boulder, and I’ve seen posts and ads touting him as “independent,” which might be appealing to those who don’t like the two-party system. The problem is, he was a Republican until August 2025, and while his policy positions aren’t exactly MAGA, they are conservative.

I’m not about to make a judgement on Chew as a person, but I must comment on the impacts of a vote. I think centrists or leftists would be shooting themselves in the foot by voting for a long-time Republican just because he’s calling himself independent today. He mentions the phrase “John McCain Republican” on his website to perhaps show he’s not MAGA, but voters should try to remember that McCain was quite conservative even if he cast one cool vote to help save Obamacare. If conservative would-be Baisley voters want to vote for Chew, go for it – I actually like Chew’s platform more than Baisley’s and it’s fairly logical for Republicans to vote for an ex-Republican.

But centrists or leftists might lose a gigantic amount politically by turning up their noses at Hickenlooper for not being leftist enough, especially if one seat costs Democrats majority control in the Senate. I don’t know yet if 2026 will be a close race, but it hasn’t been that long since Republican Cory Gardner beat Democrat Mark Udall in a Senate race, so please don’t screw around with this one because anything’s possible.