Jefferson County Clerk Amanda Gonzalez was the winner in a race between two Jefferson County women who have worked to protect Colorado’s mail-in voting system in the Democratic primary for secretary of state Tuesday night.
Gonzalez was leading state Sen. Jessie Danielson, D-Wheat Ridge, by 25.8 percentage points when The Associated Press called the race at 7:25 p.m.
Gonzalez will face GOP candidate James Wiley, the former head of the state Libertarian Party who calls himself the “red flame of liberty” and who was uncontested in the Republican primary.
The winner of the general election in November will replace Secretary of State Jena Griswold, who is term-limited in that position and won the Democratic primary on Tuesday night for state attorney general.
Gonzalez, 41, was elected Jefferson County clerk and recorder in 2022. She runs elections in the county with more than 450,000 registered voters and oversees motor vehicle offices, marriage and liquor licenses, and passport applications. She’s also an attorney and adjunct law professor at the University of Denver, and from 2018 to 2021, she led Common Cause, a left-leaning nonprofit that advocates for government transparency.
“This campaign has always been about protecting our democracy and ensuring every eligible Coloradan can make their voice heard,” Gonzalez said in an emailed statement after winning the primary. “At a time when our fundamental rights are under attack, I’ll continue fighting to defend Colorado’s secure, accessible, and trusted election system from anyone who seeks to undermine it.”
She vowed not to slow down in the face of the “slate of decisions by the Supreme Court that will continue to consolidate money and power in ways that disadvantage voters.” Among the U.S. Supreme Court’s decisions Tuesday was a loosening of campaign finance restrictions.
In a previous interview with The Colorado Sun, Gonzalez touted her efforts to improve election transparency, including giving tours of ballot processing centers. She also vowed to make the state’s campaign finance website easier to use so that citizens and journalists could better see who is giving candidates money and how they are spending it.
Gonzalez has been a fierce proponent of Colorado’s mail-in ballot system, which has been attacked by President Donald Trump.
She was opposed to Gov. Jared Polis’ clemency order for former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters, who was released from prison after serving only half of her sentence for sneaking an outside election denier into the off-limits Mesa County Elections Division office so he could copy the hard drive from the county’s voting system.
Danielson, of Wheat Ridge, 48, has been a state senator since 2019 and before that served two terms in the state House. She was elected speaker pro tem during her second House term. Before serving in the legislature, Danielson worked for liberal political advocacy groups America Votes and NARAL Pro-Choice Colorado.
Danielson also has been a fierce proponent of Colorado’s mail-in ballot system, which has been attacked by President Donald Trump. As state director for America Votes, she helped pass a 2013 law that allowed statewide mail-in voting and served on a commission to put the system in place.