July 17, 2026 12:20 PM UTC

Sorry Mark Baisley, That "Big Mo" Is Not For You

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• by: Colorado Pols

After the final vote tally in the Democratic U.S. Senate primary race between incumbent winner John Hickenlooper and his underdog opponent state Sen. Julie Gonzales showed the race was somewhat narrower than generally forecast, with Hickenlooper winning by about five percent of the vote, a few local pundits self-flagellated in affected regret for not having “taken the race more seriously.” The truth is that Gonzales never raised enough money to compete and never really campaigned outside Denver, meaning to whatever extent there was an unexpected opportunity in this race, Gonzales failed all by herself to capitalize on it.

The anti-incumbent sentiment that drove turnout in the Democratic primary elections in Colorado was primarily about Donald Trump, with incumbent Democrats taking damage due to a perceived lack of vigor in combating Trump’s second-term excesses. And while that sentiment took its toll on Democrats in primaries, Republican hopes that it might extend to the general election, when every candidate with an (R) after their name is expected to face voters’ wrath in a referendum on Trump, lie somewhere between absurd and delusional.

So naturally, here we go:

The only reason we haven’t yet had the opportunity to dive anew into state Sen. Mark Baisley’s nutty record anchoring the far-right fringe in the Colorado General Assembly since he won the Republican U.S. Senate nomination is that other even more conspicuously crazy Republican nominees like Victor Marx have occupied our attention. Baisley is certainly no better equipped to rally Republican voters at the top of the ticket than Marx is, even allowing for the possibility that Baisley’s campaign is not an outright grifting operation. Readers will recall that Baisley dropped out of the crowded field running for governor back in January to instead take on the even less likely campaign to unseat incumbent Sen. Hickenlooper. We’ve heard speculation that if Julie Gonzales had won the Democratic primary, Baisley’s campaign would have seen a big shot of investment from Republicans willing to take a gamble.

But that didn’t happen, and the idea that Colorado voters turning out in November to punish Republicans for their loyalty to Trump would elevate one of the Colorado legislature’s most embarrassing Republican whackos out of spite is…well, you just have to laugh.

We suppose Baisley has to tell his donors something.