Latino voters help deliver historic wins and a mandate for action

A national blue wave swept Democrats into control of the U.S. House and Senate. Colorado elected a new governor and Democratic supermajorities in both legislative chambers. On the Western Slope, voters expanded representation, broke the Republican hold on the Garfield County Board of Commissioners and approved all three school funding measures endorsed by Voces Unidas.

Latino voters helped make these victories possible. The 2026 Colorado Latino Exit Poll found that Latino support for Democrats ranged from 64% to 67% across the federal and state races surveyed statewide. Voters backed Democratic candidates for Congress, governor, attorney general, secretary of state and the state legislature by roughly two to one.

Voces Unidas Action Fund helped elect 10 of its 11 endorsed candidates. Voters also sided with the organization on 10 of Colorado’s 14 statewide ballot measures, rejecting every constitutional amendment it opposed and approving all three measures it supported.

“My reading of this election is that Latino voters helped deliver a mandate for action on affordability, better wages and protections for immigrant families,” said Alex Sánchez, president and CEO of Voces Unidas. “The new governor, the new legislature and the new leadership in Congress now have to turn that mandate into results.”

Ten of our endorsed candidates won

John Hickenlooper won a second term in the U.S. Senate with 67% Latino support and will return to a chamber with a new Democratic majority.

Joe Neguse in CD-2 and Brittany Pettersen in CD-7 won reelection, joining a new House majority with a mandate to confront the administration’s abuses and deliver relief for working families. Statewide, 67% of Latino voters supported Democratic House candidates.

Manny Rutinel flipped CD-8 with Latino voters helping make the difference. Latino support for the Democrat rose from 56% in 2024 to 67% in 2026, an 11-percentage-point increase. (Our endorsement of Rutinel was an exception since CD-8 does not represent any part of Western Colorado, but we understood the importance of this race to all of us.)

Dwayne Romero came close in CD-3, but Jeff Hurd appears to have pulled off a reelection as Colorado’s only Republican in Congress. Hurd has refused to meet with Voces Unidas and his constituents since he has been in office. He voted for reckless ICE enforcement and Medicaid cuts, with disastrous consequences for Latino families. We will see if he will change his priorities or risk the same fate as other Republicans in future elections.

State leaders

Phil Weiser won the governor’s race with 65% Latino support and will take office alongside Democratic legislative supermajorities, giving state leaders the power to act on longstanding demands for affordable housing, better wages and protections for immigrant families.

Jena Griswold won the attorney general’s race with 66% Latino support and will lead an office responsible for defending civil rights, protecting consumers and challenging unlawful federal actions.

Amanda Gonzalez also received 66% Latino support in her successful bid for secretary of state, putting a defender of accessible voting in charge of Colorado’s elections. She becomes the first Latina to be elected to this role.

Legislature

Elizabeth Velasco, the first Mexican-born Latina elected to the legislature from the Western Slope, won a third term in HD57. She won decisively in all three counties she represents: Garfield, Eagle and Pitkin.

Consuelo Redhorse won HD13 and will join Velasco in the state House as the first Navajo woman ever elected to that chamber.

Voces Unidas supported Redhorse in two school board races before backing her legislative campaign. Her victory follows years of organizing in Summit and surrounding communities, investment in local leadership and advocacy during the 2021 redistricting process to keep rural Latino communities together.

Statewide, Latino voters backed Democratic state Senate candidates at 64% and Democratic state House candidates at 65%.

Local

Jonathan Godes won a seat on the Garfield County Board of Commissioners after repeated efforts to elect new leadership. His victory creates an opening to challenge harmful county policies and begin pushing for changes Latino families have long demanded.

Voces Unidas has invested in county races because commissioners make decisions important to Latino communities, including expanding affordable housing, creating guardrails for data centers, protecting privacy from government surveillance and determining how public dollars and land are used for jails and ICE holding facilities. Godes will have an opportunity to advance those priorities and push the Republican-controlled board to be more accountable to the whole county.

Voters side with Voces Unidas on 10 of 14 statewide ballot measures

The defeat of Amendment 81 was one of the most important victories for Latino families. It would have written mandatory reporting to ICE into Colorado’s constitution.

Voces Unidas opposed the measure because it would encourage racial profiling, expose more families to separation and deepen fear of local law enforcement in communities already experiencing aggressive immigration enforcement.

“Coloradans rejected an attempt to write fear and racial profiling into our constitution,” Sánchez said. “This victory belongs to everyone who organized, spoke out and refused to let immigrant families become political targets.”

Voters also defeated Amendment 82, rejecting an effort to give the natural gas industry special constitutional protections that would make future consumer and environmental safeguards harder to enact.

Amendment 87 passed, creating a graduated income tax structure that asks the wealthiest to pay more while lowering rates for lower- and middle-income Coloradans and providing resources for education, health care and early childhood programs. Voters rejected Proposition 136, the competing income tax rate cap.

Other victories included the defeat of Amendments 83, 84, 85 and 86, along with the passage of Proposition NN for education funding and Proposition 137 for conservation, watershed protection and wildfire mitigation.

Four harmful measures passed despite Voces Unidas’ opposition. Propositions 132 and 133 expand punitive sentencing policies. Propositions 134 and 135 target transgender young people through restrictions on sports participation and medical care.

Those four measures are statutory propositions, not constitutional amendments. The new governor and legislature can repeal or change them. Voces Unidas will demand that state leaders use that authority to undo the harm.

All three school funding measures endorsed by Voces Unidas pass

Voters approved Summit School District 4A, Eagle County School District 5B and Roaring Fork School District 5C with Voces Unidas’ support.

The organization endorsed these mill levy overrides because each district included ballot language committing new funding to addressing chronic achievement gaps between Latino and White students. Latino families should not be asked to pay more without a commitment to eliminate the gaps their children have faced for years.

Voces Unidas expects all three districts to dedicate resources to eliminating Latino achievement gaps, accelerate learning for students who are behind and report their progress publicly. Those commitments must guide district budgets and classroom instruction.

An unprecedented investment in voter outreach

Voces Unidas reached more than 300,000 voters during our 2026 election program. The organization made 484,977 phone calls, sent 469,531 text messages and delivered 114,588 mailers. Our paid ads generated more than 6.6 million impressions.

Years of investment in rural communities helped build the relationships and political infrastructure needed to support candidates, explain ballot measures and help voters participate.

Voces Unidas also documented how Latino voters shaped this election through Colorado’s only exit poll focused exclusively on Latino voters, conducted as part of its nonpartisan research initiative, Colorado Latino Agenda.

The exit poll found that 51% of Latino voters named the cost of living among their top priorities for state leaders, while 45% identified improving wages and income. The Trump administration’s immigration chaos and reckless enforcement weighed heavily on Latino voters in this election. Seventy-three percent of Colorado Latino voters said immigration policy and enforcement influenced how they voted.

Those findings reinforce years of research documenting what Latino families need from elected leaders. They also explain why winning candidates should treat these results as a demand for action.

The poll found another persistent failure: 61% of Latino voters statewide said no candidate, party, campaign or organization contacted them during the election. Campaigns and organizations must invest more in reaching Latino voters and maintain that engagement between elections.

The mandate is to deliver

The leaders elected this week should know what Latino families expect. Lower the cost of living. Raise wages. Make housing affordable. Lower health care costs. Protect immigrant families.

“I hope our newly elected leaders do not mistake our support for unconditional loyalty and risk the same fate as those who have failed our communities before,” Sánchez said.

Voces Unidas will press the new governor and legislature to deliver on those priorities, demand accountability from Congress and track whether school districts use their new resources to eliminate achievement gaps.

These victories belong to the people who organized, volunteered and voted. Their role continues in school board meetings, county commission chambers and the state Capitol.

The election may be over, but the work to turn these wins into better conditions for rural Latino families continues.

Voces Unidas is a nonprofit organization that depend on community support. Consider making a donation to support our work.