CPR News’ 2020 Voter Guide is a combination of reporting, research and answers from a 51-paired question survey posed to candidates. In early September, a small team of reporters and editors began studying past news clips, campaign websites and candidate speeches, and contacting candidates in the Senate race and all seven House districts along with political parties to form a comprehensive, fair and thorough picture of what you’re voting on.
Who contributed to the guide
Audience Editor Jim Hill, News Director Rachel Estabrook, Public Affairs Editor Megan Verlee, public affairs reporters Andrew Kenney, Bente Birkeland and Caitlyn Kim, digital producer Alex Scoville, climate and environment reporter Sam Brasch, health reporter John Daley and business reporter Sarah Mullholland.
Several undergraduate and graduate students at the University of Denver’s Department of Media, Film & Journalism Studies led by Graduate Teaching Assistant T. Michael Boddie helped with clip research, as did freelance reporter Lexi Reich, a recent graduate of the University of Colorado Boulder.
About our candidate questionnaire
We chose the questions for the candidates based on previous news reporting and responses to CPR News surveys from thousands of voters across Colorado throughout this election year.
Jim Hill, Caitlyn Kim and Rachel Estabrook determined core voter concerns ranging from foreign policy to health care to energy production. The same questionnaire was sent to all Senate and House candidates, including all “third parties” on the ballot, with one exception: We did not contact the Approval Voting Party, as they are a single-issue party representing proportional approval voting. Additionally, we did not contact write-in candidates. Nor did we contact presidential candidates, since there is so much national coverage of that race.
Despite repeated requests from CPR News, not all candidates have responded to the questionnaire. Campaigns that did not respond are disclosed on the individual candidate comparisons for the Senate and the House races.
2020 Voter Guide Navigation
How we're covering the 2020 Election
- What's our coverage mission for the 2020 Election?
- How are we planning to cover the entire state? How do you choose which regions to focus on?
- How do we select sources for stories? What about anonymous sources?
- How do we make editorial decisions around candidate coverage and interviews?
- How do we make editorial decisions about what stories to write, or what to cover?
- When covering different parties, how do we make sure coverage is equal? What about minor parties?
- How do we fact check stories or things politicians say?
- Read through our election stories
