June 17, 2025 08:16 AM UTC

New Governor, AG Polls Show Name ID Is One Helluva Drug

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• by: Colorado Pols

Two new polls released this week in the 2026 Democratic primary races for governor and attorney general from Global Strategy Group each show exactly what we would expect: the candidates with the highest name recognition among likely primary voters with strong leads in their respective races. The Denver Post’s Nick Coltrain reports on the gubernatorial race:

More than 50% of likely Democratic primary voters in Colorado support U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet’s bid to succeed Gov. Jared Polis, according to a poll released Monday.

The poll confirms Bennet as a clear front-runner in the Democratic primary for governor, with 53% of likely voters in that contest supporting his candidacy. His support both cracks the critical majority threshold and is double the number of undecided voters, 25%, for next summer’s primary election…

“While voters like both Senator Bennet and A.G. Weiser, this is not a close race at the moment,” Andrew Baumann, a partner at Global Strategy Group, said in a statement. “Bennet has stronger standing and converts more of his name ID into votes, which is why he is above 50% and leads by a better than 2-to-1 margin.”

And Ernest Luning reports for the Colorado Springs Gazette’s political blog:

Conducted by Democratic firm Global Strategy Group, the survey of likely Democratic primary voters shows that Griswold has nearly three times the support of all of her primary rivals combined, though just over four in 10 respondents said they were undecided…

Griswold polled at 42% support, followed by Dougherty at 8%, Seligman at 4%, Duran at 2% and Doshi at 1%, with 42% undecided. When pressed by the pollster to make a selection, Griswold carried the undecided voters by about the same margin, with the others trailing in single digits.

It’s not a surprise that in these earliest polls of primary fields just now coming together for these 2026 races, the candidates performing best have the highest name recognition. Sen. Michael Bennet over 50% in this poll is significant, but all of these numbers are subject to change with a year of campaigning between now and the primary election. Previous polls have shown that Secretary of State Jena Griswold is very popular with base Democrats after her years of sparring with the Trump administration, and that has clearly helped her standing in the early phase of the attorney general’s race.

Although these numbers are encouraging for these two campaigns, we wouldn’t call either the gubernatorial or AG primaries settled. Both candidates face capable opponents and will have to earn their pole positions the old-fashioned way: money and a campaign organization up to the task of winning a statewide race. But for now, one of the most reliable predictors of political success has again been validated.

If you want to win, voters have to know your name.