Phil Weiser’s win over Victor Marx is historic
Democratic Attorney General Phil Weiser’s win over Republican ministry leader Victor Marx on Tuesday in Colorado’s gubernatorial race is likely to be one of the largest in state history.
Weiser was beating Marx by more than 27 percentage points Wednesday morning. Weiser had 60.9% of the vote to Marx’s 33.6%.
Votes are still being counted — and will be for many days. But if the margin holds, it would be the fifth-biggest victory in a Colorado gubernatorial race in the state’s 150-year history.
At the very least, Weiser will have won by the biggest margin of a Colorado gubernatorial candidate since 2002, when Republican Gov. Bill Owens won reelection over Democrat Rollie Heath by 29 percentage points. That was the third-largest margin of victory in a Colorado gubernatorial race.
In 2022, current Gov. Jared Polis, a Democrat, beat University of Colorado Regent Heidi Ganahl, a Republican, by 19.3 percentage points. Polis’ margin of victory was 11th on the list.
Weiser’s margin of victory over Marx is unlikely to fall below Polis’ 2022 margin, which at the time was considered astonishing.
See the chart below for the previous record margins of victory for Colorado gubernatorial candidates:
Colorado governor’s races, 1876–2022
The 12 biggest landslides in Colorado governor’s races
Dick Lamm’s 34-point reelection in 1982 is the largest margin in state history. Bill Owens’ 29-point win in 2002 is the biggest for a Republican.
Democratic winnerRepublican winner
010 pts20 pts30 pts
Richard LammD65.7%
John FuhrR31.7%
+34.0
Lee KnousD66.3%
David A. HamilR33.7%
+32.7
Bill OwensR62.6%
Rollie HeathD33.7%
+29.0
Charles S. ThomasD62.9%
Henry R. WolcottR34.2%
+28.7
Roy RomerD61.9%
John AndrewsR35.4%
+26.5
Billy AdamsD61.9%
William L. BoatrightR37.1%
+24.7
Oliver H. ShoupR59.5%
James M. CollinsD37.1%
+22.4
Billy AdamsD60.4%
Robert F. RockwellR38.1%
+22.3
Billy AdamsD59.8%
Oliver H. ShoupR38.1%
+21.7
Richard LammD58.7%
Ted StricklandR38.5%
+20.2
Jared PolisD58.5%
Heidi GanahlR39.2%
+19.3
Ed C. JohnsonD58.1%
Nate C. WarrenR39.9%
+18.2
