Elisabeth Epps, Tim Hernández — two of the Colorado legislature’s most liberal lawmakers — battle to keep their jobs

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Two of the Colorado legislature’s most liberal lawmakers — Denver Democratic Reps. Elisabeth Epps and Tim Hernández — are battling in the June 25 primary to keep their jobs at the Capitol. 

Epps faces attorney and Air Force veteran Sean Camacho in the Democratic primary in House District 6, while Hernández faces former federal immigration judge Cecelia Espenoza in the Democratic primary in House District 4.

Here’s a look at where the candidates stand on the issues, and the groups spending money to influence voters in each race. 

Elisabeth Epps vs. Sean Camacho

Epps, a lawyer by training and a longtime community and criminal justice activist in Colorado, was first elected to the legislature in 2022. 

Epps declined an interview request from The Sun, but agreed to respond to questions over email. She said she’s the true progressive choice in the contest, and that the direction of statehouse policy is at stake in the June 25 primary. 

“From the state House to the White House, ‘vote blue no matter who’ has never been enough,” Epps said. “You can’t fight the far right by hovering in the middle. With the rising tide of far-right extremism, now is not the time to settle for Dems who only talk the talk.”

Epps was at the center of several controversies during her first term, resulting in a formal reprimand from House Speaker Julie McCluskie, D-Dillon, and her removal from the House Judiciary Committee.

Both of those happened after Epps left the House floor during the special legislative session on property taxes last year and joined pro-Palestinian protesters in the chamber’s gallery who were calling for a ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hamas. She proceeded to shout during a speech delivered by Republican Rep. Ron Weinberg, who is Jewish, responding to Epps’ comments about the conflict. The outburst prompted a long recess before Weinberg continued his remarks. 

Epps said Weinberg had earlier directed an expletive at her during her remarks in support of Palestinians and in opposition to the Israeli military’s response to the Oct. 7 attacks. Weinberg denies that allegation.

“Accusations of me being divisive are merely the latest in a long line of anti-Black, anti-woman rhetoric that is always deployed against progressive Black women who take bold stances,” Epps said. “It is the state-level corollary to what is being done to U.S. Rep. Cori Bush.”

Camacho and other critics say Epps has been ineffective because of how she has clashed with her colleagues. Epps said she’s “a collaborative hard-working legislator who isn’t afraid of facing the tough issues other legislators avoid.” 

Epps added that the most important pieces of legislation can’t pass on their first attempt and that she’s been doing “the courageous work to tee up future wins, particularly in the areas of public health/drug policy and gun violence prevention.” She has been the main sponsor in each of her two years in the legislature of bills (which didn’t pass) to ban the purchase, sale and transfer of so-called assault weapons and to let cities authorize centers where people could openly use illicit drugs under the supervision of workers trained in reversing overdoses. 

When asked what legislative accomplishment she’s most proud of during her first term, Epps didn’t cite a bill. She said she’s most proud of “bringing a measure of long overdue transparency to the General Assembly.” Epps and fellow Democratic Rep. Bob Marshall sued the House over alleged pervasive open meetings violations, which resulted in a settlement but frustrated colleagues in the process.

If reelected, Epps said she “will continue to advance good governance, ushering more transparency, accountability and philosophical consistency to our work at the legislature.” She wants to focus on housing, but also pass bills related to pretrial incarceration, guns, and public health and drug policy.

“As important as the work we do is how we do it,” she said. “As legislators we enact workplace laws from schools to the judiciary and everywhere in between, but we are not yet ensuring the Capitol is itself a safe, healthy workplace.” 

Epps has also faced criticism because she didn’t appear in person for House floor debate for the first 45 days of the 2024 legislative session, participating remotely instead.

Camacho is a U.S. Air Force Academy graduate who went on to serve as an intelligence officer, deploying to Iraq, Afghanistan, East Africa and Colombia. He then attended law school and now practices government contracts litigation and commercial litigation for Dentons law firm and is a lieutenant colonel in the Air Force Reserve. 

He ran unsuccessfully in District 6 in 2020 and 2022. This time around, he has the backing of a number of top Colorado Democrats, including Gov. Jared Polis, U.S. Rep. Joe Neguse, Attorney General Phil Weiser, McCluskie and Senate President Steve Fenberg. In total, Camacho has the endorsement of 22 sitting Democratic state lawmakers. He’s also endorsed by the Colorado Chamber of Commerce, Colorado Association of Realtors and Colorado Professional Fire Fighters union. 

The endorsement page on Epps’ campaign website features a host of progressive groups and unions — including the Democratic Socialists of America branch in Denver, the Colorado AFL-CIO and Cobalt, a Colorado abortion-rights group — but no fellow elected officials.

Camacho said he was driven to launch a primary challenge to Epps after hearing complaints about her. “From neighbors, to activists, to the business community, to young people — it runs the gamut — it was pretty resounding that people just want something different,” he said in a sit-down interview with The Sun.

Camacho, a self-described progressive, said he supports Epps’ bill on so-called assault weapons, but that it’s going to take political negotiation to get it passed. 

“That is a major, controversial piece of legislation,” he said, “and I think that’s a great example of progressive policy that, if you want to get that done, you need to be able to work with people and compromise and talk through the issues. That has not happened over the last two years.” 

On other topics, there is more policy daylight between the candidates.

Camacho said he would be open to legislation letting cities authorize centers where people could openly use illicit drugs under the supervision of workers trained in reversing overdoses, “but not without a recovery piece.” 

Camacho said he would not support the bill Epps introduced this year that would have repealed a requirement that Colorado’s public pension system divest from companies that economically boycott Israel. 

“I feel like it was not responsive to what the district was telling her. It was more about her personal passions,” he said, adding that with so many problems in the world, state lawmakers should focus on the ones they have control over.

“That doesn’t mean I don’t have incredible sympathy for what’s happening,” Camacho said of the Israel-Hamas war. “I’ve seen war zones. I know what that looks like. I pray for peace every day. I pray that those hostages are returned. I pray both sides put their arms down.”

Camacho said his main focus in the legislature would be affordable housing. “That is the most pressing problem for people in Capitol Hill to Congress Park,” he said. “This representative, in this district, needs to be singularly focused on that.”

State voter records show Camacho was registered as a Republican until October 2017, when he became unaffiliated. He registered as a Democrat in August 2019. Epps and her allies have attacked him for his past ties to the GOP.

Camacho said his political evolution can be explained by his upbringing.

“Growing up in Colorado Springs, most of my family was Republican,” he said. “That’s kind of what you grow up doing. I don’t think I ever really questioned it. And then once I went to law school, I really got challenged on some of the things that I thought were true.”

Camacho said he always was uncomfortable with the GOP’s positions on LGBTQ rights, which he supports, and abortion access, which he also supports.

House District 6 was the sixth most expensive in terms of state-level super PAC spending among legislative primaries as of midday Wednesday, at nearly $235,000. All of that money has gone to support Camacho and oppose Epps.

Fighting For a Stronger Colorado, an independent expenditure committee formed in February, has sent 10 mailers — four supporting Camacho and six opposing Epps — to voters in the district since mid-May at a cost of about $118,000. The group had raised $186,000 through June 5, with $105,000 of that coming from Citizens For a Great Denver, a political nonprofit that doesn’t disclose its donors. The nonprofit helped block City Councilwoman Candi CdeBaca from being reelected last year. 

Servicios Sigue Action Fund has spent nearly $117,000 on advertising and canvassing to support Camacho after receiving $40,000 each from the nonprofit Forward Denver and fellow super state-level super PAC One Main Street Colorado, as well as $37,000 from state-level super PAC A Whole Lot of People for Change. Much of the groups’ money has come from hidden donors.

House District 6 leans 67 percentage points in Democrats’ favor, according to an analysis of election results dating back to 2016 conducted by nonpartisan legislative staffers. That makes it the third-most Democratic House district in the state, so whoever wins the Democratic primary will almost certainly win in November, too.

Only the voters in House District 8, which covers downtown and northeastern Denver, and House District 10, in the heart of Boulder, have favored Democratic candidates by bigger margins since 2016.

The district is made up of one of the most densely populated parts of Colorado. It runs east to west in Denver from Broadway to Yosemite Street and includes most of the area between East Colfax Avenue and East Sixth Avenue. It also reaches south into the Lowry neighborhood.

Tim Hernández vs. Cecelia Espenoza 

The Democratic primary in House District 4 won’t be the first time Hernández and Espenoza face off. 

The pair ran against each other last year for a vacancy committee appointment to represent the district in the legislature during the 2024 lawmaking term. Hernández received 39 votes, while Espenoza received 27 votes.

But the June 25 rematch will be the first chance for the broader electorate to weigh in.

“This is one of the most progressive seats in the state legislature,” Hernández said. “What’s at stake is big corporations and wealthy people buying political power at the expense of progressive results for people in the northwest side of Denver.”

But Espenoza, a moderate Democrat who describes herself as a “pragmatic progressive,” insists that voters in her district aren’t as liberal as their current representative.

“The Democratic Socialists effectively rallied to stack the vacancy committee, which is why my opponent is in office at all,” Espenoza said. “That push is pretty strong to pull the party way far to the left, which is I don’t believe where the rest where the majority of Democrats and even in Denver are.”

If reelected, Hernández said he will continue to push for a ban on the sale of certain semi-automatic weapons, commonly referred to as assault weapons. House Bill 1292, which he sponsored alongside Epps, passed the House this year but died in a Senate committee.

He also has pledged to fight for tenant and worker rights. A union-backed bill he sponsored would have prohibited employers from disciplining workers who refuse to attend an employer-sponsored meeting that involves religious or political matters, with some exceptions. But it was vetoed by the governor, who said it would have a chilling effect on free speech.

But while Hernández is promoting himself as the candidate who will fight for what he believes in, Espenoza says her top priority is working with others — “and bringing down the temperature” at the state Capitol.

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Her second priority, she says, is bringing down the cost of housing — something that she says can only be done by increasing supply, not by increasing government regulations and costs on landlords.

“We can’t hate business,” she said. “We have to figure out how to work with them, and we need to regulate them when they’re out of bounds, but encourage investment and expansion as long as they’re being good corporate citizens.”

Both candidates have faced controversies in recent years.

Hernández, a former Denver Public Schools teacher, clashed with administrators and was placed on paid leave in 2022 after he left his classroom to support a student protest.

He also faced criticism from within his own party and from Republicans in the days after the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attacks on Israel for his decision to appear at a pro-Palestine rally at the state Capitol soon after the violence, during which he clashed with a counterprotester. That led to a rebuke from McCluskie and House Majority Leader Monica Duran, D-Wheat Ridge. Hernández eventually apologized.

In the legislature, he says he has had to “transform from a wildfire into a blowtorch,” after being a community organizer whose role was to rile people up.

“I’ve been really thankful to take a lot of guidance and mentorship from a lot of folks in the building who are all supporting me,” he said. “You know, the majority of the Colorado House Democrats are supporting me, and not a single House Democrat has endorsed my opponent, and it’s because those folks want to work with me next year.”

Hernández’s website lists endorsements from 25 House Democrats and a few state Senators, while Espenoza has the support of Senate President Steve Fenberg, D-Boulder, but no current House members.

Espenoza, meanwhile, was criticized earlier this year after an anti-trans activist held a fundraiser for her. Personally, Espenoza is a vocal supporter of LGBTQ rights. She has since distanced herself from the supporter and returned the money the woman contributed to her campaign, according to The Colorado Times Recorder.

The contest ranked fourth in state-level super PAC spending through midday Wednesday among state legislative primaries, at nearly $345,000. 

Slightly more than half of that has gone to support Hernández, much of it from PACs supported by the Colorado Education Association, the state’s largest teachers union. The PACs supporting Espenoza have received their money from other super PACs, which are mostly funded by nonprofits that don’t disclose their donors.

House District 4 is centered in the northwestern corner of Denver, from Interstate 25 in the east to Sheridan Boulevard in the west. It runs from West 52nd Avenue in the north to West Mississippi Avenue in the south. It includes the Sunnyside, Sloans Lake, Highland, Villa Park and Barnum neighborhoods.

The district leans 63 percentage points in Democrats’ favor, according to an analysis of election results dating back to 2016 conducted by nonpartisan legislative staffers as part of the 2021 redistricting process. That means whoever wins the Democratic primary will almost certainly win in November, too.

Colorado Sun staff writer Sandra Fish contributed to this report.

Type of Story: News

Based on facts, either observed and verified directly by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.