From backing a major bond package to embracing a flavored tobacco ban, Denver voters made a series of definitive statements about their priorities and assessments of local leadership Tuesday night.
They threw support behind Mayor Mike Johnston’s “Vibrant Denver” plan. They supported a slate of union-backed school board candidates. They joined much of the rest of the state in directing tens of millions of dollars more per year toward free school lunches, and they overwhelmingly stood behind a City Council-approved ordinance to ban the sale of flavored tobacco.
Oh, and they agreed to rename the city’s Department of Excise and Licenses.
The 2025 off-year election featured lower turnout, with the 1.36 million returned ballots as of late Tuesday amounting to just shy of 30% of registered voters, though that was still inching up. And it was mostly a local affair, with the state’s capital city dominating headlines — while other local races and measures promised to make their own impact.
Here are five takeaways from Tuesday night’s election results in metro Denver.
Bond win gives Johnston affirmation at key time
A year ago, Denver voters narrowly rejected their new mayor’s proposal to significantly expand city funding for affordable housing. But on Tuesday night, Johnston appeared to have successfully wiped the taste of that defeat from the city’s mouth.
Voters overwhelmingly approved the Johnston-backed, five-pronged “Vibrant Denver” bond package. All five ballot measures were comfortably ahead after polls closed at 7 p.m., and as of three hours later, only one was below 62% support. That was the transportation-and-mobility-focused Ballot Issue 2A, which clocked in at 60.5%.
After recent financial struggles and municipal layoffs, Johnston took the win as a stamp of approval for his agenda and his administration. It comes at a pivotal time: Not only does it follow on the heels of last year’s stumble, it arrives at just past the midway point of his term — the first of what the mayor hopes will be a multi-term tenure.
“Our belief has always been people want us to move with the urgency the city deserves, and that’s what we’ve done,” he said in an interview from the campaign’s watch party in Capitol Hill.
The $950 million bond package will pay for roughly 60 capital projects in Denver over the next six years.
Yes to slaughterhouses, no to flavored tobacco?
The bond package wasn’t the only statement from Denver voters Tuesday. Referendum 310, which asked whether to retain the council’s flavored tobacco ban, moonwalked to victory: As of 10 p.m., it had an eye-popping nearly 45-point cushion over the repeal-the-ban campaign.
The pro-ban faction was helped along by $5 million from billionaire Michael Bloomberg. Bloomberg was the single-largest donor for a Denver municipal race in history, a city spokesperson told Denverite.
But so comfortable was the margin of victory that it’s unclear if Bloomberg’s largesse was even necessary.
The referendum’s opponents had warned that the ban would harm locally owned small businesses. That’s similar to an argument against a ballot measure from last year, which sought to ban slaughterhouses in the city. Voters sided with business last year. Not so much this time around.
There are, of course, key differences: The slaughterhouse ban would’ve essentially applied to the one such facility operating in the city, the defenders of which put employees front and center in their campaign.
Shops that sell tobacco products, even of the vaporous kind, appeared less able to marshal local support. That may come down to the general unpopularity of the product. Nationwide Gallup polling from last year showed that 91% of respondents thought vaping products were very or somewhat harmful.
DPS’s union-backed candidates regain ground
In four Denver Public Schools board races, the teachers union-backed candidates comfortably led challengers, some of whom were backed by school reform-minded groups. Only one race was close, and the union-backed candidate in that race, DJ Torres, saw his lead grow to 3.3 percentage points by the 10 p.m. ballot drop.
The likely wins would be a reinvigoration for the Denver Classroom Teachers Association, which lost ground two years against candidates backed by a charter school-aligned group.
“Our candidates ran authentic campaigns, remained committed to their values, and it’s encouraging to see that their authentic selves are resonating with voters,” Rob Gould, the union’s president, said after early results were released Tuesday.
It’s also a loss for those reformers, who had hoped to build upon their 2024 gains and fully flip the board. Johnston had also weighed in on their side and endorsed their slates of candidates. Instead, they find themselves farther back.
The victory for the union-backed faction comes at a pivotal time for the school district. Falling enrollment and financial struggles remain challenges for the new board to tackle.
Denver’s at-large council elections set for change
In another strong statement, Denver voters appeared set to change how they elect their two at-large City Council members. Referred Question 2G, which will required the winners of those seats to be elected in separates elections, was steaming toward victory, with more than 56% of voters behind it.
Voters’ support for 2G, which was backed in part by a dark-money group, may change the dynamics of the at-large elections in the 2027 cycle. Currently, the at-large seats are filled in one race, with the top two vote-getters earning the seats as voters each cast up to two votes.
Supporters of the proposal argued that the at-large members should be elected just like the rest of the council’s members, who represent geographic districts. But opponents argued it would require candidates to choose one at-large seat or another, allowing for gamesmanship.
Others wondered if the proposal was an effort to unseat the two council members who now occupy those seats — and who are among the most progressive members of the city’s governing board.
Aurora progressives find new life
To the east, Aurora voters embraced progressive City Council candidates while seemingly directing two conservative incumbents toward the exit.
That could include Danielle Jurinsky, a prominent conservative who spoke at a Donald Trump rally last year and was a prominent voice in the Venezuelan gang controversy last year. As of Tuesday night, Jurinsky was in third place in the city’s at-large race, from which two candidates will join the council. The two candidates leading in that contest, Rob Andrews and Alli Jackson, are decidedly to Jurinsky’s left.
Another conservative incumbent, Steve Sundberg, was also trailing to progressive opponent Amy Wiles by nearly 7 points.
Should the results hold, the progressive gains would reverse Aurora council losses for that faction in recent years.
The city has found itself repeatedly in the national spotlight of late: Allegations of a gang takeover in parts of the city became a national political talking point — and local debacle — last year, and the city was subsequently the site of some of the earliest immigration raids of President Trump’s return to office this year.
Elsewhere on the municipal front, Littleton’s quest to blunt denser multifamily housing developments seemed destined for victory Tuesday night. The city joins a growing list of municipalities where pro-density housing reforms embraced by local leaders were then rejected by residents.
Staff writer Elliott Wenzler contributed to this story.
Stay up-to-date with Colorado Politics by signing up for our weekly newsletter, The Spot.