Colorado’s pro-Israel, Jewish attorney general wins Democratic primary for governor

JTA — Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser, a strong supporter of Israel, defeated Sen. Michael Bennet in the state’s Democratic primary for governor on Tuesday, getting some 55 percent of the vote.

Weiser is the son of a woman born at Buchenwald two days after the concentration camp’s liberation in 1945, and will now be the Democratic Party candidate for governor of the Rocky Mountain state.

In the governor’s race, Bennet initially had the momentum as a three-term senator and the former superintendent of the Denver Public Schools. But voters ultimately chose Weiser, the two-term attorney general and former clerk for the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

“They counted us out, and they underestimated all of you. Together we pushed forward. We did the hard work and we proved the establishment wrong,” Weiser said in his victory speech.

Weiser has been outspoken about his support for Israel and against the rise of antisemitism.

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He condemned the June 2025 firebombing attack in Boulder, in which one person was killed and seven others suffered burns during a demonstration to release Israeli hostages from Gaza. Noting a rise in antisemitic attacks, Weiser said at the time, “These attacks are fueled by hatred, demonization, and, in this case, a dangerous and abhorrent belief that politically motivated violence is justified.”

Weiser’s primary win came as voters in Denver chose a democratic socialist who declined to condemn the Boulder firebombing as antisemitic as their congressional candidate, adding to a surge of wins for anti-Israel candidates in multiple states.

Weiser, whose children attended a Jewish day school and is a longtime member of a Denver synagogue, has emphasized his support for Israel’s existence and has said he identifies as a Zionist.

“It is not hard to explain that being a Zionist means you believe that Israel has a right to exist,” he said in May 2024 during JewishColorado’s Celebrate Israel event. “It does not mean that you necessarily support all of the actions or policies of the current government. It does not mean that Israel has not made mistakes in the war against Hamas. And, most importantly, it does not mean that Jews don’t care about the deaths of Palestinians during this war.”

Weiser is seeking to replace current Democratic Gov. Jared Polis, who is also Jewish. Polis drew backlash after recently commuting the nine-year prison sentence of former county clerk Tina Peters, who was convicted of tampering with election equipment in the 2020 election and claimed the election was rigged against President Donald Trump. Peters was released on June 1 after serving four and a half years of her sentence.

Weiser has been outspoken about opposing Polis’ decision to commute Peters’ sentence. He has also brought a slew of cases against the Trump administration, cementing himself as a public adversary to the president who is deeply unpopular among Democratic voters.

The race for Weiser’s Republican opponent was still too close to call as of publication. In the three-way runoff, State Sen. Bab Kirkmeyer had a narrow lead over Pastor Victor Marx. State Rep. Scott Bottoms, who said during a GOP debate that he would give a podcaster friend of his a job in his administration “assuming it’s not around Jewish people,” trails in third place.

Marx, who runs a Christian ministry, has been a vocal supporter of Israel. He visited the country following the Oct. 7 Hamas attack and said he brought “1,200 lions and lambs” — stuffed animals — as “trauma toys” for children.

Trump did not endorse any of the three candidates in the race. But Marx received support from Lauren Boebert, the far-right Colorado congresswoman, and said he was proud to “stand alongside battle-tested Conservative leaders” like her.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.