Phil Weiser

Colorado, once a reliable Republican state, has leaned decidedly Democratic in recent cycles, and 2026 looks similar. Gov. Phil Weiser and Sen. John Hickenlooper are favored for easy wins over underfunded Republican opponents Victor Marx and Mark Baisley, with some GOP figures, including former Rep. Ken Buck, crossing over to back Weiser. The closest races are in the U.S. House: Democrat Manny Rutinel is seen as favored over Republican incumbent Gabe Evans in District 8, while Republican incumbent Jeff Crank is expected to hold District 5 against well-funded Democrat Jessica Killin despite backlash over the Space Command relocation. Analysts attribute the overall Democratic advantage to anti-Trump sentiment and weak Republican statewide recruitment.

More than two dozen states and cities, including Colorado, have sued the Trump administration over the EPA's repeal of a Biden-era rule limiting greenhouse gas emissions from coal- and gas-fired power plants. The coalition, led by New York and including Colorado, Arizona, California, Illinois, and others, along with Denver, Chicago, New York City, and Washington, D.C., is petitioning the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia to strike down the repeal, arguing the EPA unlawfully abandoned the limits without properly weighing alternatives or the health and climate costs of increased pollution.

New York Attorney General Letitia James and Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser both criticized the move, framing it as prioritizing industry profits over public health. The EPA, which does not comment on pending litigation, has said the repeal will save industry over $300 billion and give utilities more flexibility on plant operations. The coalition also plans to sue separately over EPA's failure to regulate emissions from many gas-fired plants, as the agency pursues a related rule that could bar future administrations from regulating power plant greenhouse gases.

Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser has filed a federal lawsuit seeking to block a new ICE detention facility planned for Hudson, about 30 miles northeast of Denver. The facility would occupy the former Hudson Correctional Facility, closed for 12 years, under a contract between the Department of Homeland Security, ICE, and private prison operator GEO Group—the same company that runs the Aurora ICE facility. Plans call for renovating the site into a 1,200-bed private immigration detention center, which would nearly double Hudson's population.

The lawsuit alleges DHS and ICE failed to meet statutory obligations to assess environmental impacts, inform the public, and ensure detention sites are appropriate for civil immigration custody. Weiser's office is asking the court to halt further activity until an environmental review and legal compliance documentation are completed. DHS dismissed the suit as a political effort to obstruct immigration enforcement rather than a genuine environmental concern. The case follows a separate lawsuit filed in July by advocacy groups against the town of Hudson over the same project.

New York City, Chicago, San Francisco, Seattle, Santa Clara County, King County and 22 states and the District of Columbia — including Illinois, California, Colorado, Washington and others, plus Pennsylvania's governor — have sued in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York over a Department of Homeland Security rule change to the "public charge" standard set to take effect Friday, Sept. 18. The rule lets immigration officials deny green cards or visas to applicants deemed likely to use any means-tested public benefit, including SNAP, Medicaid, housing vouchers or school lunch programs, reversing a narrower 2022 rule limited to cash assistance. It applies to family- and employment-based visa applicants; refugees, asylum recipients, TPS holders and certain trafficking or domestic violence victims are exempt. A similar policy from Trump's first term was blocked by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in 2020.

Plaintiffs, led by New York Attorney General Letitia James and joined by Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul, Washington Attorney General Nick Brown and Illinois Deputy Attorney General Cara Hendrickson, call the rule unlawful, "arbitrary and capricious," and lacking clear standards for how benefit use counts against applicants. They warn it could push eligible immigrant and mixed-status families, including U.S. citizen children, away from benefits out of fear, straining local health, housing and school systems and costing states billions. New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and Colorado AG Phil Weiser led public criticism. DHS and USCIS defend the rule as protecting taxpayers from subsidizing dependent immigrants and dismiss the suits as politically motivated.