Republican Greg Lopez won a special election Tuesday night to fill former U.S. Rep. Ken Buck’s seat for the rest of this year, outpolling Democrat Tricia Calvarese.
Lopez was leading with 72,846 votes, or 57% of the total, in early results posted to the Colorado secretary of state’s website as of 7:37 p.m. He was followed by Calvarese, at 36%; Libertarian Hannah Goodman, at 5%; and Frank Atwood of the Approval Voting Party, at 2%.
The Associated Press called the race for Lopez at 7:32 p.m.
The special election was made necessary when Buck suddenly announced in March that he was not just retiring at the end of his term in early January — as he’d earlier said — but stepping down from his seat nine months early. Colorado Gov. Jared Polis called a special election to fill out the rest of Buck’s term and scheduled it for the same day as Colorado’s congressional primary.
Buck’s seat has sat empty since March 22 — the first congressional vacancy in Colorado in more than 40 years.
Republicans chose Lopez, a former Parker mayor, to run for the seat. He promised to do so as a placeholder only, declining to run in the primary election that was also held Tuesday.
Calvarese was running in both the special and primary elections in the 4th Congressional District, which includes much of the Eastern Plains and south suburban Denver’s Douglas County. She was leading the Democratic primary race on Tuesday night.
Related Articles
Republican Greg Lopez skips debate in Eastern Plains congressional contest
Ken Buck’s empty seat leaves Colorado’s Eastern Plains with no voice in Congress. Will it matter?
Lopez, 59, has twice run for governor of Colorado but lost in the Republican primary both times. He lives in Elizabeth. Calvarese, a 37-year-old labor advocate who helped run a campaign for a congressional candidate in Pennsylvania, is otherwise a political novice. She lives in Highlands Ranch and spent some of her youth on the Eastern Plains in Sterling, returning home late last year.
Lopez made news at the beginning of June when he decided at the last moment to skip a special election debate at the Grizzly Rose. The debate organizer, the Republican Women of Weld, said Lopez declined to participate after insisting he get the group’s endorsement ahead of the debate, a request that was rebuffed.
Stay up-to-date with Colorado Politics by signing up for our weekly newsletter, The Spot.