Establishment candidates leading preliminary Denver City Council results

The 13-member Denver City Council will have new faces this year, with some races appearing to head to the runoff election in June.

Driving the news: Preliminary results from Tuesday night show establishment Democrats, including multiple incumbents, leading across the races.

• The results show most voters supporting moderate Democrats over more progressive candidates.

Yes, but: Progressive organizers tell us they're counting on young voters and people of color who voted late to help them gain more votes.

The winners: Council members Stacie Gilmore (District 11), Paul Kashmann (District 6) and Jamie Torres (District 3) ran unopposed.

Zoom in: Five seats were open due to council members being term-limited or incumbents choosing not to run for reelection.

• Historically, it's hard for challengers to defeat sitting city council members — though three people did just that during the 2019 election.

Between the lines: Candidates need to get more than 50% of votes to avoid a runoff.

• As of Tuesday night, it looks like four of the 13 races could head to a runoff.

Zoom out: The two open at-large seats won't require a runoff, however, since the top vote-getters win outright.

• Serena Gonzales-Gutierrez, a state representative, and Penfield Tate led in the race, with 17.84% and 16.62%, respectively. But not far behind are Travis Leiker (16%) and Sarah Parady (15.82%).

District 1

Incumbent Amanda Sandoval is beating Ava Truckey in the northwest Denver district, leading 82.34% to 17.66%

District 2

Incumbent Kevin Flynn is fending off a challenge from Tiffany Caudill in the far southwest Denver district.

• Caudill, who had 15.16% of votes, told supporters following the 8pm results she didn't think she would win.

District 4

Diana Romero Campbell is leading Tony Pigford, holding an edge over Pigford, 56.25% to 43.75%, in this far southeast district race.

• This is an open seat after Kendra Black decided not to run for reelection.

District 5

Incumbent Amanda Sawyer is defeating Michael Hughes 64.75% to 35.25% to represent this central Denver district.

District 7

An open seat, Flor Alvidrez is leading the race to represent this west-central district.

• With 38.13% of the vote, Alvidrez leads other candidates include Adam Estroff (18.41%), Nick Campion (17.88%), Guy Padgett (17.16%), and Arthur May (8.43%).
• Jolon Clark decided not to run for reelection.

District 8

Another open seat, Brad Revare leads the six-candidate race to represent this northeast district, with 35.4% of the vote, while Shontel Lewis is in second. with 32.9%.

• Chris Herndon has served three terms.

District 9

Perhaps the most-watched race on council, incumbent Candi CdeBaca is down to challenger, Darrell Watson, 45.38% to 42.74%

• Kwon Atlas is in third, with 11.88% of the vote.

Go deeper

District 10

With 38.28% of the vote, incumbent Chris Hinds is defeating challengers Noah Kaplan (26.17%), Shannon Hoffman (22.59%), and Margie Morris (12.96%) to represent this central Denver district.

Editor’s note: Unofficial results current as of 10 pm.