Two first-time Republican candidates vie to challenge Neguse in Colorado’s 2nd Congressional District

Two Republican candidates are vying for the opportunity to unseat a Democratic congressman from Colorado’s deep-blue 2nd Congressional District — but first, they must win the primary election on June 30.

The two Republican candidates are Fort Collins hairstylist Christina Blunt and Estes Park massage therapist Kelley Anne Dennison, both running in their first election.

The winner of the Republican primary will face off against incumbent Rep. Joe Neguse in November, who is running unopposed. Neguse, a Boulder Democrat, was elected to replace Jared Polis in 2018 after Polis was elected governor of Colorado.

Colorado’s deeply blue 2nd Congressional District covers much of the north-central part of the state, encompassing Boulder, Larimer, Jackson, Jefferson, Clear Creek, Gilpin, Eagle, Grand, Summit, Routt and Weld counties. The district is made up of roughly 728,000 residents, according data released in the 2024 American Community Survey.

The mission to flip the district into a red one won’t be an easy task. Neguse’s seat has been held by a Democrat for more than 50 years. The Cook Partisan Voter Index identified the district’s past two presidential elections results as being 20% more Democratic than the national average, making it the 56th most Democratic district nationwide.

Both Republican candidates said they’re banking on longstanding frustrations with the Democratic party to earn the support of unaffiliated voters in the district, particularly in areas like affordability and government spending.

“People vote Democrat over and over and over. I think they expect change. They hear about affordability, and nothing ever changes,” Dennison said. “I think people are sick and tired of being sick and tired. I think people are hurting in the wallet and desire fiscally responsible leadership. That is what I hear over and over and over again, left, right, center.”

Colorado’s 2nd Congressional District has roughly 519,000 active voters, more than half of whom are unaffiliated. Around 31% are registered Democrat and 15% are registered Republican as of May 2026.

“I have Democratic friends; they’re not happy with a lot of things that are going on, and some of them are going to hang on to the blue, and some are letting it go, because they’ve just gone too far,” Blunt said.

Who are the candidates?

The following candidate introductions are listed in the order they appear on the official ballot for the Republican party primary election.

Kelley Anne Dennison

Dennison, a 27-year-old business owner and massage therapist residing in Estes Park, got her start in politics working as a staffer for Republican Adam DeRito’s campaign for Colorado’s 8th Congressional District primary against incumbent Gabe Evans. DeRito, a Fort Carson-based Army Reserve captain who has been locked in a legal battle with the U.S. Air Force Academy over misconduct allegations he claims were politically motivated, did not make it onto the June ballot.

In addition to the support she received from other GOP committee members, Dennison credits DeRito with inspiring her to run to be the Republican candidate for Colorado’s 2nd Congressional District. 

“This might sound weird, but he gave me permission I didn’t know I needed,” Dennison said. “He said, ‘Young people deserve a voice. They deserve a seat at the table.’ That was the beginning of it.”

Dennison said her background as a woman business owner and landscape artist has strengthened her resolve to run for public office. Her youth, she added, gives her a wider range of relatability to unaffiliated voters and makes her the “tactical nuke option” for the Republican Party.

“I think young women specifically are told to ‘sit down, shut up, wait your turn,’ and so that’s the fire Adam lit in my soul,” Dennison said. “I don’t have to do that. I pay taxes here, I work here, I live here. … I can be free to use my voice and stand up for what I believe in.”

Christina Blunt

Blunt (Ducommun), a hairstylist and business owner living in Fort Collins, describes herself as a lifelong Republican standing on “Christ and the Bible, the Constitution and bullets.”

Blunt told the Steamboat Pilot & Today that, after noticing no one had registered as a Republican candidate for Colorado’s 2nd Congressional District race, her passion for her home state compelled her to throw her name in the hat.

“I really hate the word ‘politics,’ because we’re really talking about the legislations of our country, and we’re a self-governed country. We’re supposed to be participating in that governance,” Blunt said. “The minimum participation is voting, maximum would be being a candidate … so I’m going to be max involved.”

The congressional race is Blunt’s first experience running for public office. Prior to announcing her candidacy, Blunt had been a petition carrier for Protect Kids Colorado, an advocacy coalition focused on parental rights. The coalition most recently supported ballot initiatives aimed at preventing transgender children from participating in school sports and receiving gender-affirming surgeries.

Much of Blunt’s campaign is centered around citizen-driven initiatives, according to her website, where supporters are encouraged to contact Blunt on the issues they care about. 

“Citizens should be writing our bills, not bureaucrats,” Blunt said. “No American citizen is going to write a bill that doesn’t have the money to back it up, because most Americans are used to balancing their checkbook.”

Immigration, affordability and federal spending

Dennison and Blunt propose differing approaches to some of the state’s most contested issues, including solutions to affordability and immigration.

If elected into office, Blunt said she plans to prioritize legislation that strengthens immigration enforcement and proposes greater transparency over how foreign aid is spent, for which she said there’s currently no accountability or quality control. Blunt has also expressed support for codifying the Elon Musk-backed Department of Government Efficiency, a temporary initiative aimed at enacting mass federal government layoffs and scaling back various departments.

“They’re coming here, they’re sucking up all our resources and we don’t have any resources for our people,” Blunt said about immigrants who are in the country illegally. “Where’s all the money we’re sending from the federal government going to? … I will be so serious about installing guardrails on the legislation.”

Blunt compared the public’s response to the U.S. government’s immigration policies to that of other countries, stating that while their deportation laws can sometimes mirror or even rival those executed by the Trump administration, reactions differ. Citing her brother-in-law’s experience with deportation after overstaying his visa in Europe, she recalled how “nobody cried, it didn’t make the front-page, nobody cared,” which Blunt says is a more reasonable reaction to the one often seen in western media.

“It’s a normal part of business and a functioning government … to only have people in the country who should be there,” Blunt said. “Why is it a big deal that we want to uphold our constitution like other countries do?”

Blunt also proposes additional policy changes on her campaign website, one of which would compensate women who carry their unwanted pregnancies to term and put up their baby for adoption. Another proposes moving to a 100% tariff-based revenue and revoking the IRS.

Dennison’s proposed approach to 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.

The top issues highlighted by Dennison’s campaign include economic affordability, environmental stewardship, pro-family policies, education reform and Second Amendment rights. In regard to affordability, Dennison criticized representatives in Washington for being “too busy playing politics” to accomplish real solutions.

The number one issue Dennison said she’d want to tackle if elected, however, is expanding federal funding for trade and vocational education. 

“For decades, federal policy, funding priorities, along with cultural messages, have heavily incentivized four-year college paths,” she said. “Trade schools and apprenticeship programs have often received less support.”

Having received federal funding from the Biden Administration to attend a trade school herself, Dennison said she would like to see stronger federal investment in things like apprenticeship opportunities and workforce development that help students enter high-demand fields without taking on significant student debt.

“(Trade school) enabled me to have freedom and to be a business owner, so that means a lot to me,” she said. “Personally, I don’t know anybody that has $20,000 lying around to go to a trade school.”

“I deeply, deeply love this state, and I’m never going to leave it, and so I really firmly believe that I should fight for her,” Dennison said.

Ballots for Colorado’s June 30 will be mailed out on Monday, June 8. The ballot includes party elections for multiple local, state and federal offices. The winner of the GOP primary for Colorado’s 2nd Congressional District will advance to the November general election.