Four-term Democrat faces off against Republican newcomer

Democratic Rep. Joe Neguse and Republican Kelley Anne Dennison will go head to head on Nov. 3

In November, four-term Democrat incumbent Rep. Joe Neguse and Estes Park Republican challenger Kelley Anne Dennison will face off to represent Colorado’s deeply blue 2nd Congressional District in Washington, D.C.

The district covers much of north-central Colorado, encompassing Boulder, Larimer, Jackson, Jefferson, Clear Creek, Gilpin, Eagle, Grand, Summit, Routt and Weld counties. The district is home to roughly 728,000 residents, according to the 2024 American Community Survey.

Neguse’s seat — which has no term limits — has been held by a Democrat for more than 50 years. The district’s last two presidential elections have leaned 20% more Democratic than the national average, according to the Cook Partisan Voter Index, making it the 56th most left-leaning district nationwide. Over half of the district’s voters are registered as unaffiliated.

In June, Dennison said she was banking on longstanding frustrations with the Democratic Party’s handling of economic issues to earn the support of unaffiliated voters in the district. Neguse said he’s proud to run on his record of results, which he believes have improved life for Coloradans regardless of political affiliation.

Neguse has raised more than $2.7 million and spent $1.64 million as of June 30. Finance data for Dennison’s campaign is not yet available as of the most recent filing date.

“I’m running against someone who has the enormous advantages that come with incumbency: money, name recognition and an established political operation,” Dennison said in an October email. “I’m not trying to outspend Joe Neguse. I can’t. I have to outwork him. That means being on the ground, showing up in communities that don’t always get attention, talking to unaffiliated voters and giving people a reason to vote for me beyond the letter next to my name.”

The following candidate introductions are listed in the order they appear on the official ballot for November’s midterm election.

Neguse, a Boulder Democrat, is running for his fifth term in the U.S. House of Representatives. He was elected to the seat in 2018, replacing then-newly elected Gov. Jared Polis.

“My view is that we are at an inflection point as a country,” Neguse said. “Given the way in which the rule of law has been undermined at the national level, given the various obstacles and issues as a community and as a state that we must grapple with in the months and years ahead, I felt that it was important for me to step forward and pursue service in the U.S. House and continue to make the case to the people of Colorado that there’s a better path forward where we can together build a brighter future for everybody.”

In 2025, the Center for Effective Lawmaking ranked Neguse as the most effective lawmaker of the Colorado House delegation and the second-most effective House Democrat, having authored the second-highest number of laws of any House member during the 118th Congress, according to data from GovTrack.

Dennison, a 27-year-old business owner and massage therapist residing in Estes Park, won the Republican primary for Colorado’s 2nd Congressional District with 58% of the vote.

This is Dennison’s first time running for public office. She got her start in politics working as a staffer for Republican Adam DeRito’s 2026 campaign for Colorado’s 8th Congressional District primary against incumbent Gabe Evans. DeRito did not make it onto the June ballot.

In addition to her background in business and landscaping, Dennison said her youth gives her a wider range of relatability to unaffiliated voters and makes her the “tactical nuke option” for the Republican Party.

“I think there are a lot of Coloradans who are politically homeless right now, and I want them to know there is room for them in this campaign,” Dennison said.

Protecting Colorado’s lands — and wallets

Both Neguse and Dennison said their campaign priorities have been largely shaped by the issues they’ve seen in their own communities, with differing approaches in how to handle those challenges.

“A vital part of this job is ensuring that I’m in the community listening directly to folks in Yampa and Gypsum and Granby, in every corner of the district,” Neguse said, highlighting the 100 town halls he has hosted during his time in Congress. “When you do that kind of responsive engagement, I find that you have a far more refined set of clear priorities that you can pursue.”

For Neguse, that has led to work protecting Colorado’s watersheds and the Colorado River, expanding wildfire resiliency and mitigation work, and taking steps at the federal level to protect the state’s forests and public lands.

In 2025, Neguse helped lead a bipartisan effort to block a proposal that would have sold over 3 million acres of federal public lands across the West, including in Colorado.

“I will work vigorously to ensure that our public lands are protected and that our land management agencies … are restored, as they’ve been the subject of extensive and dramatic and draconian cuts by the Trump administration,” Neguse said.

Dennison also highlighted the importance of forest management and wildfire prevention in her campaign, stating she would treat the issue as a high priority if elected.

“We should be actively managing our forests before they burn rather than spending enormous amounts of money dealing with the aftermath,” Dennison said.

Neguse’s legislative efforts have also targeted the issue of affordability in Colorado’s mountain communities — more specifically, driving down the cost of healthcare and housing. Neguse said he favors universal healthcare coverage, having co-sponsored legislation to expand Medicare and lower the cost of prescription drugs.

Economic affordability has also taken a front seat in Dennison’s campaign, in addition to education reform, reliable American energy, Second Amendment rights and parents’ rights to make decisions about their children’s “education, healthcare and values.” The first-time candidate has criticized representatives in Washington for being “too busy playing politics” to accomplish real solutions for Colorado’s affordability challenges.

If elected, Dennison said she would take a different approach to housing, starting with addressing the impacts of institutional investors buying up starter homes and federal policies that make it more expensive to build.

“A lot of [unaffiliated voters] aren’t interested in partisan talking points,” Dennison said. “They’re worried about whether they can afford a house, whether their kids will be able to stay in Colorado, what their electric bill is going to look like, whether our forests are being managed responsibly and whether Washington is actually functioning.”

Immigration, term limits and corruption in Washington

As the son of refugees, Neguse has been at the forefront of immigration advocacy and reform policies — efforts that have ramped up since the start of Trump’s second term. More recently, Neguse and Colorado’s Democratic congressional delegation called on the administration to expedite a backlog of renewal applications for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals affecting Colorado recipients in June.

Neguse’s immigration efforts have also targeted congressional oversight of ICE detention facilities, becoming the lead plaintiff in a 2025 federal lawsuit against the Trump administration after the Department of Homeland Security tried to block members of Congress from conducting unannounced inspections of ICE detention facilities — like the one he attempted at an ICE office in Glenwood Springs in March.

“There’s so much fear right now in our communities, and in my view, that has been by design,” Neguse said. “Unfortunately, the Trump administration has created a real sense of fear — fear for our immigrant communities, fear for families that are struggling to make ends meet because of the draconian cuts to Medicaid and SNAP — and fear is contagious, but I also believe firmly that hope is contagious too.”

Dennison’s proposed immigration policy focuses on strengthening both border security and lawful paths to citizenship. The goal is to further disincentivize illegal entry into the country by making it “more worthwhile” to follow the legal process, she said in June.

Another top concern for Neguse has been “ending the pervasive corruption in Washington, D.C.” Proposed in late 2025, Neguse authored a U.S. Constitutional amendment that would overturn the Supreme Court’s Citizens United v. FEC ruling, effectively giving Congress and state legislatures the authority to regulate and place neutral caps on political fundraising and spending. Neguse said the resolution now has over 100 co-sponsors.

Dennison, stating on her website that “Washington has a career politician problem,” said she would commit to co-sponsoring and voting for a constitutional amendment limiting how long any individual can serve in Congress.

“When politicians know their time in office is limited, they are more likely to focus on results for their constituents rather than on accumulating power and protecting their own seats,” Dennison said on her campaign website.

Election Day is Nov. 3. The final day to submit a voter registration application and still receive a ballot in the mail is Oct. 26. Voters can check their registration status at GoVoteColorado.gov.