September 18, 2025 03:29 PM UTC

Incumbent Primary Hopes Spring Eternal

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• by: Colorado Pols

As Colorado Newsline’s Lindsey Toomer reports, Democratic CU Regent Wanda James is launching a primary challenge to unseat the “Dean of the Colorado delegation,” nearly 30-year veteran Rep. Diana DeGette of deep navy blue CO-01:

“The old politics of caution and careerism cannot meet the moment,” James’ campaign website says. “America needs leaders who see the world as it is becoming, not just as it was, and who will fight to ensure every family, not just the privileged few, can thrive in that future.”

In an email announcing her bid, James said she intends to prioritize expanding access to affordable health care, supporting small businesses, ensuring quality education and tackling the rising cost of living.

James was raised in Colorado and is a first-generation graduate of the University of Colorado Boulder. She is the first Black woman commissioned through the school’s Naval ROTC Battalion, according to her campaign website. James and her husband founded Simply Pure, said to be the first Black-owned cannabis dispensary in the country.

DeGette is Colorado’s longest serving member of Congress, having first been elected in 1996.

Wanda James has a long history in Colorado politics that stretches back to the early days of now-Gov. Jared Polis’ political career, and became wealthy after her service in the Navy as a retail cannabis entrepreneur. Elected as CU Regent in 2022, James shook up that staid institution perhaps a bit too hard in criticizing an anti-marijuana campaign sponsored by the CU Medical School, drawing a controversial censure that a number of prominent Democrats have denounced as unfair.

As far as James’ viability in a primary challenge, what we can say is that DeGette has proven one of the state’s safest incumbents, and remains unlikely to succumb to a primary challenge despite their nearly constant threat. In the end, there’s no major policy disagreement or bad vote opponents can point to get Democratic primary voters mad at DeGette–the pressure comes simply from DeGette’s time in the position and the strongly progressive lean of the district. The safety of the district in a general election also means there’s no real risk of weakening the general election candidate with a vigorous primary.

The 2026 U.S. Senate race in Colorado, however, is a different animal with different strategic considerations. Winning back the U.S. Senate is a tall order for Democrats next year, but it’s not impossible. Prospects for doing so dim, however, if a state like Colorado requires attention and resources to defend. A cut-throat primary that leaves the eventual nominee compromised is one of the few scenarios in which that could become necessary. Every dollar that would be spent in Colorado instead of, say, North Carolina, is a strategic waste. For these reasons, a primary challenge in the U.S. Senate race won’t get much interest from anyone looking at the proverbial big picture.

There are plenty of open seats to contend for next year in Colorado, and our general advice without a good reason otherwise is to focus on those races rather than fighting over what Democrats have already won.