With just over 15 months to go for the 2026 general election, and 11 months from the primary, races are starting to shape up for the General Assembly.

The hottest so far: Senate District 3 in Pueblo, where incumbent Senate Majority Whip Nick Hinrichsen, a Democrat, announced in June he is not running for reelection.

Since his announcement, three Democrats have declared their intention to seek the seat.

• Attorney Aaron Gutierrez, a former public defender, announced he was running on June 30.

• United Steelworkers Local 3267 President Charles Perko announced on June 27.

• Taylor Voss, director of philanthropy at Sangre de Cristo Community Care, announced Tuesday he’s seeking the SD3 seat.

One Republican, Dana Charles, a healthcare manager, has also filed for the SD 3 race.

Democrats have represented the district in the Senate since the 2014 election, when Democratic Rep. Leroy Garcia defeated Republican George Rivera, who won the seat in 2013 through a recall election.

As Pueblo continues to lean right, a Democrat winning the seat again could be tough.

At the presidential and local government level, Pueblo voters are increasingly voting Republican.

In 2016, Donald Trump won the presidential race in the county by the slimmest of margins, 0.5%. In 2020, Pueblo voters gave Joe Biden the edge by just 1.7 percentage points. But in 2024, Trump won again, by more than 4 percentage points.

In addition, both the Pueblo City Council and the board of county commissioners are majority Republican.

In 2023, voters elected Republicans to the city council with a 5-2 majority, marking the first time in history, according to Michelle Gray, who chairs the county GOP. She also noted that Republican turnout in the 2024 general election in Pueblo County was an unheard-of 91.8%.

SD 3 could once again be the deciding factor on whether Democrats can gain a 24th seat in the Senate, and a two-thirds Democratic majority that could override gubernatorial vetoes without any Republican votes. State senators did vote to override a veto in the 2025 session, on a bill concerning social media. The vote, however, was bipartisan, with 29 senators voting in favor of the override. The bill’s House sponsors chose not to challenge the veto, an acknowledgment of pressure from the governor’s office

Who else is running?

Five Democratic Senators are term-limited: Sens. Lisa Cutter, Jessie Danielson, Julie Gonzales, Majority Leader Robert Rodriguez and Faith Winter.

In Senate District 4, Sen. Mark Baisley, R-Roxborough Park, is running for governor instead of running for re-election. No other candidates have filed for the seat.

State Rep. Sheila Lieder, D-Littleton, has filed to run for Senate District 20, currently represented by Cutter. So far, she’s the only declared candidate.

In Senate District 22, House Majority Leader Monica Duran, D-Wheat Ridge, has filed for the Senate seat held by Danielson.

Rep. Shannon Bird, D-Westminster, had initially filed to run for Winter’s Senate District 25 seat, but she’s now running for Congressional District 8. Rep. William Lindstedt, D-Broomfield, is a candidate, as is Democratic candidate Thomas Klenow, the IT manager for the University of Colorado law school.

No Republicans have filed for the seat in either SD 22 or SD 25.

Rodriguez’s Denver Senate District 32 seat has only drawn one candidate so far: state Rep. Emily Sirota, D-Denver.

In Senate District 34, four Democrats have already filed to succeed Gonzales.

• Andrés Carrera is former political director for Denver Mayor Mike Johnston.

• Graciela Garcia Irlando is the former executive director of the Colorado Democratic Latino Caucus.

• Michael Guzman is a member of the RTD board of directors and a shift supervisor at Starbucks.

• Olivia Miller is the director of product development for Zayo Group, a telecommunications company.

Among the other notable races: Sen. Janice Marchman, D-Loveland, is facing a rematch with her 2022 Republican opponent, former Sen. Rob Woodward of Berthoud.

Sen. Katie Wallace, D-Longmont, who was chosen in March by a vacancy committee to replace Sen. Sonja Jaquez Lewis, has a Democratic challenger for the SD 17 seat. Martha Wilson is a licensed professional counselor who was also a candidate for the vacancy.