In a battle of first-time candidates competing for a coveted House seat Leadville’s Chris Floyd edged past Summit’s Consuelo Redhorse for the Democratic nomination in today’s Summit County primary.
Floyd beat Redhorse by just 80 votes, or 51% of the vote. About 12% of the county (3,912 residents) cast a primary ballot for Democrats.
Preliminary reporting shows the race for a seat held by Speaker of the House Julie McCluskie, of Summit, is even closer across the rest of District 13, where Floyd leads Redhorse by 37 votes out of roughly 12,000 counted. All six counties districtwide were at least partially reported by 11 p.m.
Allegations of “dark money” and its influence clouded this race between Floyd, a former Lake County judge, and Redhorse, the sitting president for Summit County School board. Third-party committees with no affiliation to Floyd’s campaign flooded local media with ads saying she would stand up to Trump, giving this local race heated national overtones.
Summit Dems split from the rest of the state in the gubernatorial primary, picking U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet over state attorney general Phil Weiser. Weiser easily led the statewide race.
In the Republican gubernatorial primary Summit and state voters narrowly preferred Barb Kirkmeyer over Victor Marx.
This story will be updated with additional primaries and final results.