Republican El Paso County Commissioner Darryl Glenn will challenge incumbent Democrat Sen. Michael Bennet this November. Glenn won a five-way primary race with nearly 40 percent of the vote in order to take on the sitting senator.
Former Colorado State University athletic director Jack Graham came in second to Glenn, followed by Robert Blaha, Jon Keyser and Ryan Frazier.
Glenn was a relative unknown statewide, but overwhelmingly won a spot on the primary ballot after giving a rousing speech at the Republican Party's state assembly, coming away at the time with an easy victory and 70 percent of the vote.
One supporter called Glenn a true patriot, a person with strong Christian morals and values.
Colorado State University political science professor Kyle Saunders noted that Glenn was able to "secure a couple of endorsements, and had some outside support." Most notable among those giving their approval was former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz. The former presidential candidate campaigned for Glenn in Colorado ahead of the primary vote.
Glenn billed himself as the true conservative in the race and ran as a Christian constitutional conservative. Despite the decisive primary victory, Saunders said Glenn would have a tough race in the fall against Bennet, a well-funded opponent who already has millions of dollars in his coffers compared to Glenn, who has raised little money so far. There's also his ideology.
"Glenn is going to have to move more to the middle of the electorate, and that's doing to be a relatively difficult thing for him to do," Saunders said. "He's taken some stances that are going to be difficult for him to sell to the rest of the state."
It's unclear how much Glenn would pivot to the center. Some of his top priorities are securing the national border, protecting second amendment rights, not funding any federal programs that aren't constitutional, eliminating common core testing, and ending legal abortion.
