2022 Colorado Senate election
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, [Colorado Colorado Republican Party|Republican Party|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.
Results
† - Incumbent not seeking re-electionItalics - Incumbent redistricted to different district
Bold - gain
Closest races
Seats where the margin of victory was under 10%:- gain
- '
- gain
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