January 06, 2025 12:03 PM UTC

Jeffco Clerk Amanda Gonzalez Leads Off Secretary of State Race

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• by: Colorado Pols

As Quentin Young at Colorado Newsline reports, Jefferson County Clerk Amanda Gonzalez is first off the line in what’s expected to be a lively primary for the Democratic nomination to succeed term-limited Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold in 2026:

“I want to give myself time to talk to as many people as I can,” Gonzalez said during an interview Sunday. “I’m excited for this. I’ve been working on voting rights for a very long time … This is something that I’m really passionate about, especially coming into another Trump administration. I know how important it is that we protect the right to vote. And so I’m excited to do it and be transparent about it.”

Gonzalez, a 40-year-old Arvada resident, is an attorney who before being elected clerk was the executive director of the Colorado office of Common Cause, a nonprofit that works to defend democracy and voter rights. A native of southern California, Gonzalez has lived in Colorado since 2008.

She is the first Latina to serve as the Jefferson clerk, and her campaign says that if she is elected secretary of state she would be the first Latina in Colorado history elected to that office.

Gonzalez’s experience as a voting rights activist at Common Cause before being elected Jeffco clerk suits the job of Colorado’s chief elections official very well. With that said, this primary is expected to feature a number of well-known and popular Democratic contenders, including but not necessarily limited to:

[O]utgoing state Senate President Steve Fenberg, state Sens. Jeff Bridges and Jessie Danielson, and former Jefferson County Clerk George Stern, according to The Colorado Sun and Colorado Politics.

On the Republican side, we haven’t heard if 2022 loser and former GOP Jeffco Clerk Pam Anderson is interested in running again, but the struggles she faced running as a “legit” SoS candidate alongside unserious election deniers on the same ticket in the last election could dissuade her. Unlike Democrats with a deep bench of qualified public servants ready to do the job, Republicans don’t have very many prospects for this race who are untainted by Donald Trump’s refusal to accept the results of elections he doesn’t win. While Anderson’s 2022 primary opponent Tina Peters won’t be a factor in 2026 from her prison cell, it’s even harder to imagine a Republican Secretary of State nominee next year who doesn’t repeat Trump’s election denials.

This should give whoever of these qualified candidates wins the Democratic primary the edge in November of 2026.