Mike Johnston and Kelly Brough — the two Denver mayoral candidates who attracted the most financial support — appear headed toward a runoff in June after taking commanding leads in the Tuesday election.
Though the tally continued on into the night, the two candidates cleared the field early in the count, catapulting to the No. 1 and No. 2 spots, with only a few thousand votes separating them.
At 11:30 p.m., Johnson secured 24.7% of roughly 110,000 votes cast. Brough came in second with 22.3%. With a turnout of about 158,000 voters expected, early returns represented about 69% of the vote total.
Trailing behind the two is a cluster of candidates that includes Lisa Calderón at 15.2% and Andy Rougeot at 12.9%. Rep. Leslie Herod has so far secured 9.5%.
The next mayor of Denver faces gargantuan problems magnified by the city’s unique characteristics, notably a homelessness crisis, a housing affordability challenge and a sense that the streets are not always safe.
Whoever wins the seat could, in theory, hold on to it for the next 12 years, which makes this year’s contest a consequential election.
"The first batch of votes released at 7 p.m. are rather convincing," said Eric Sondermann, a political observer and columnist for Colorado Politics and The Denver Gazette. "Johnston and Brough lead substantially in the low to mid-20 percent range each. Combined, they are accounting for just shy of half the total vote."
Sondermann added: "It would take an unprecedented reversal in further tallies to change this course. The two of them seem almost certainly headed to a runoff battle."
A cheer went up in the crowd of several hundred people who gathered at Johnston's watch party at a Lower Downtown hotel when the first round of results posted on a screen at the front of the room showing Johnston with a narrow lead over Brough, whose supporters were gathered about a half mile away.
Cheers also erupted among Brough's supporters, competing with the loud music playing in the ReelWorks Event Center.
Brough said she "felt a lot of love" from Denver voters as the campaign picked up. Her final "Coffee with Kelly" events drew 30 to 40 people each as election day neared, her campaign said.
"When you grow up poor or disadvantaged or sometimes just different, you hear a lot more about what you can't do or who you can't be," Brough told her supporters. "What changes all of that in all our lives is when we get support from others. When people believe in us before we believe in ourselves."
Brough served as U.S. John Hickenlooper’s chief of staff when he was mayor, and she had been a legislative analyst of all 13 current members of the Denver City Council. She has been an on-call snowplow driver at Stapleton Airport, head of human resources at the City of Denver, and president and CEO of the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce.
The two were among three candidates tied in an earlier poll commissioned by the Denver Gazette, 9News and Metropolitan State University. They also dominated the fundraising race, managing to bring in well over $2.7 million in direct contributions and matching funds combined.
In his victory speech, Johnston said Denver chose "optimism and hope and change tonight."
"Denver voters said they believe in bold ideas with real, concrete plans to accomplish those bold ideas. And tonight, the work just begins," Johnston added.
Johnston also announced that his wife, Courtney, will be a contestant on Jeopardy! this month.
"We were blessed to have an incredible field of candidates in this race — not just an incredible group of people but also an incredible group of ideas," Johnston said, adding that he is "excited to make sure we can help bring their ideas for Denver to reality at the same time we try to bring our ideas to be a reality."
Johnston worked as a teacher and principal before being elected to the first of his two terms representing northeast Denver in the Colorado Senate in 2009. He ran for governor in 2018, coming in third behind Gov. Jared Polis and Cary Kennedy in the Democratic primary that year.
Johnston also served as the president and CEO of Gary Community Ventures.
After early results were posted, Calderon's campaign said the night was still young.
"We're seeing exactly what we expected," Sarah Lake, campaign manager for Calderon, said. "Our voters are late voters and we know that black and brown communities and low income communities are the ones who tend to turn in ballots late."
Lake added: "We are going to show that Denver is a truly progressive city who wants new leadership that's going to represent its people and make sure that we're leading with proven solutions to our biggest challenges."
Meanwhile, Debbie Ortega's campaign also said it wasn't ready to concede after early results came in.
Johnston had outlined ambitious plans if elected mayor, among them his proposal to end homelessness in Denver within his first term. He also wants to build tens of thousands of new homes within eight years.
Kelly Brough has similarly focused on homelessness and housing. Her plan calls for the creation of several sanctioned camping sites, possibly modeled after the Safe Outdoor Spaces Denver currently utilizes, while the city builds up its housing stock. She also plans to streamline the building permitting process, so it takes less time for builders to get approval of their designs, which, she said, would result in more homes in Denver.
Brough has led the fundraising efforts for weeks and continues to do so. Including matching funds from the city, her campaign has raised $1.4 million. Johnston is not far behind, hauling in a total of $1.3 million. Both have benefitted from a significant influx in independent expenditure support from groups that are prohibited from coordinating with the campaigns.
The outside support for Johnston stood at $2.2 million on election day, while Brough attracted $984,000 in support.
Sondermann said his main takeaway so far is this year's race is the first Denver mayoral election for an open seat in multiple decades "without a real curveball."
"The biggest fundraisers and presumptive favorites look to be comfortably ahead of all other contenders and moving toward the runoff," he told The Denver Gazette. "There might be small surprises down the ballot tonight. But there is no top-of-the-ticket surprise or upset – no Federico Pena or Wellington Webb or John Hickenlooper or even Michael Hancock."
Reporter Kyla Pearce and multimedia editor Tom Hellauer contributed to this article. Tom can be reached at tom.hellauer@gazette.com.
