Hickenlooper Projected Winner: U.S. Senate Results In Colorado

COLORADO — Democrat John Hickenlooper is the projected winner in the U.S. Senate race against Republican Sen. Cory Gardner in Colorado, according to The Associated Press and ABC News.

Colorado is one of several states that have pivotal U.S. Senate races — if Democrats can flip those seats, they can take control of the Senate.

Colorado has a six-year history of successful mail-in voting, and between 70 and 80 percent of Coloradans' ballots will be counted by Tuesday night, the Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold said.

Polls closed at 7 p.m. in Colorado, and statewide results will be posted as they come in:

John Hickenlooper: 1,202,953

Cory Gardner: 980,538

>> President Donald Trump vs. former Vice President Joe Biden— view race results here.

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"More Coloradans have voted in this election than any other election in our state's history ... clearly people are saying it's time to turn the page," Hickenlooper said in his acceptance speech.

"Together we can change Washington ... thank you so much," he said.

President Donald Trump's campaign team and former Vice President Joe Biden's team have worked closely with the Gardner and Hickenlooper campaigns, respectively.

In his concession speech, Gardner expressed gratitude for his time in office.

"My thanks to the people of Colorado for being able to serve you over the past 6 years — 10 years including the House of Representatives," Gardner said.

Hickenlooper's reputation as a "purple" Democrat is what helped him get elected as governor, according to many political analysts. The former brewpub owner was elected as mayor of Denver in 2003 and eliminated the city's $70 million budget deficit. He was then re-elected as mayor again in 2007.

In his Patch profile, Hickenlooper said he believes the most pressing issue facing Colorado is health care as the COVID-19 pandemic continues.

"We need to expand access to care and lower costs by cutting down the price of prescription drugs, ending the practice of surprise medical bills, and investing in expanding mental health and substance misuse recovery services while strengthening community health centers," the former governor said.

Gardner said he believes the biggest issue Coloradans face is the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

"We're experiencing an economic crisis as a result of the coronavirus. Keeping people safe and getting Americans back to work must be our #1 priority," Gardner wrote in his Patch profile.

"Prior to COVID-19, Colorado's economy saw record job growth, wage increases, its lowest unemployment rate in history, and an outdoor recreation economy that employed 229,000 workers and added $11 billion to the economy annually. Working together, we can return to that economic climate and ensure that every Coloradan is safe and healthy."

Gardner's campaign came down hard on Hickenlooper for decisions he made during his state primary campaign. Earlier in June, Hickenlooper failed to appear at a hearing on a complaint that he violated the state's gift ban. He only testified after the Colorado Independent Ethics Commission held him in contempt for defying the orders to appear at the hearing. The commission then found he had violated Colorado's ethics law by accepting free travel while he was governor.

But despite the controversies Hickenlooper has faced, Gardner and Trump had an uphill battle in Colorado. Over the past decade, Colorado's demographic has changed — many progressive millennials moved into the state, and it shifted to the left.

Colorado women were leaning "overwhelmingly" blue ahead of Election Day, according to a poll conducted by the nonpartisan American Politics Research Lab at the University of Colorado Boulder. The women's vote tipped the state toward leads for Biden, Hickenlooper and Democratic congressional picks, the poll showed.

Anand Sokhey, the research lab's director, said her team's research indicated "a pretty consistent Democratic lead across all of these races."

"But the gender gaps are enormous," the director said.

The women's vote didn't tip the scales too heavily, however — Colorado appears to be neither a bright blue state nor a bright red state, but rather "some shade of purple," researchers said.

Only a third of female voters in Colorado support Trump, according to the research lab.

"You have seen a growing division for a while in which female voters are responding negatively to Trump's leadership and rhetoric, and that is spilling down to some of the other races," Sokhey said.

"It appears the female vote could play a very important part in this election."

The research lab's survey of 800 Coloradans was conducted Oct. 5-9, and had a margin of error of plus or minus 4.55 percentage points. While there have been more recent polls, the CU Boulder poll is the highest-rated recent survey on the FiveThirtyEight website.

Around 71 percent of respondents said they are worried about violence on or after Election Day in other parts of the country.

"We have seen an uptick in rhetoric and hyper-partisanship and that has people concerned," Sokhey said.

That "rhetoric" could also influence unaffiliated voters in the general election, according to Magellan Strategies. After the 2018 midterm elections, the research firm found that more than half of unaffiliated voters disapproved of the job Trump is doing.

The Republican firm called Trump's approval rating among all unaffiliated voters in Colorado "toxic."

"There is no question that Donald Trump had a negative impact on Republican candidates, with 34% of unaffiliated voters saying they were less likely to vote for a Republican candidate because of his influence," the firm said in a statement.

"In the past 20 years never has one political party been so overwhelmingly rejected at every level of representative government by the electorate."

In the poll conducted by the CU Boulder research team, a series of questions asked voters about their confidence in the electoral process. Two thirds of those surveyed said they had confidence in the mail-in voting system, and most agreed that the coming elections will be "conducted fairly and accurately."

Yet only 57 percent agreed that if their preferred candidate did not win, they would view the winner as legitimate.

Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold said that one of her top concerns for the Nov. 3 election is "foreign interference."

"Foreign adversaries are conducting influence operations to try to undermine Americans' confidence in the electoral process, and states must act," Griswold said.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security agency issued warnings in September about foreign actors that spread misinformation on fake websites, alter existing legitimate websites, send fraudulent emails and release articles in fake online journals.

Griswold's office launched social media campaigns and a new website to combat misinformation. Her office also created the Rapid Response Election Security Cyber Unit to help combat emerging cyber threats.

"Colorado is considered the safest state in which to cast a ballot, and we continually innovate to maintain our leading cyber preparedness," Griswold said.