CIVPAC warns that Democrats risk grasping defeat from the jaws of victory if safe-seat primaries push the party away from the governing center. AI Generated image.
Grasping Defeat from the Jaws of Victory
CIVPAC endorses Senator John Hickenlooper in the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate in Colorado.
This should not be a difficult choice for Democratic primary voters.
Colorado is one of the states where Democrats should be building a durable governing majority. The party has real strength in the state. It holds major offices. It has a plausible claim to competence, pragmatism, and broad appeal. But that advantage can be weakened if Democratic primary voters confuse ideological intensity with general-election strength or governing seriousness.
Senator Hickenlooper is not a perfect CIVPAC candidate. No candidate is. But he is a serious, experienced, pragmatic Democrat with a record as mayor, governor, and senator. He represents the kind of center-left, institutionally serious politics that can help Democrats govern effectively and appeal beyond the most ideological members of their coalition.
State Senator Julie Gonzales is a serious public official, and CIVPAC does not dismiss her merely because she is challenging an incumbent. Primaries should allow competition. Parties need new voices and should not treat incumbency as an entitlement.
But not every primary challenge is an improvement. Gonzales’s campaign appears to be part of the same broader movement-left impulse now visible in other Democratic primaries: dissatisfaction with mainstream Democratic leadership, impatience with coalition politics, and a belief that the party’s problem is insufficient ideological confrontation.
CIVPAC believes that is the wrong lesson.
The Democratic Party has an unusual opportunity. President Trump and his allies have damaged the Republican Party’s claim to institutional seriousness, constitutional restraint, and responsible governance. Democrats should be using that opportunity to strengthen their claim to the center: practical government, stable institutions, economic realism, personal freedom, and respect for democratic norms.
Instead, in too many places, Democrats seem tempted to grasp defeat from the jaws of victory.
That does not mean Democrats should nominate only centrists. In some jurisdictions what would guarantee losing. It does mean they should avoid replacing serious, experienced, broadly acceptable candidates with challengers whose main appeal is ideological escalation. A party that wants to govern cannot be built solely around activist impatience.
Hickenlooper offers Colorado Democrats the stronger general-election and governing case. He is experienced. He is pragmatic. He has demonstrated an ability to win statewide. He understands executive government as well as legislative politics. He is better positioned to represent Colorado as a whole and to help Democrats maintain a broad national coalition.
This race is not merely about one Senate seat. It is also a test of whether Democratic primary voters understand the political moment. If Democrats want to be the responsible alternative to Trumpism, they should nominate candidates who reinforce that claim.
CIVPAC therefore endorses John Hickenlooper in the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate in Colorado.
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