House District 26 results: Meghan Lukens takes early lead over Nathan Butler
Chris Dillmann/Vail Daily archive
Results in Tuesday’s election show Democrat incumbent Meghan Lukens leading Republican Nathan Butlerin the race to represent Colorado’s House District 26.
As of 9 p.m., Lukens is leading by a large margin, earning nearly 61% of the votes so far. The Associated Press estimates that around 70% of the votes for the race have been counted so far. Nearly 38,000 ballots across all four counties in the district have been counted.
Lukens spent Tuesday night with friends, families and supporters at the Routt County Democrats Election Night party. Just after 9 p.m., she said she was feeling good about the results.
“Based on our numbers and our projections, we feel confident that I have won my bid for reelection for House District 26,” she said. “I grew up in House District 26, and I’m honored to work hard on behalf of the many people in Eagle, Routt, Moffat, Rio Blanco counties that live here and represent all of our community at the state Capitol.”
The race was projected to be one of the most competitive in the state, giving only a 2.7% advantage to the Democratic candidate.
Lukens, a Steamboat Springs social studies teacher, was first elected to the seat in 2022, winning by 7% over Republican candidate Savannah Wolfson. She was the first representative elected to House District 26 after 2021 redistricting brought the historically red-swinging counties of Rio Blanco and Moffat into the district with the predominantly blue counties of Routt and Eagle. Rio Blanco and Moffat counties were previously represented in House District 57.
Issues such as clean energy transition, abortion access, economic development, and gun regulations dominated the campaign to represent Colorado’s House District 26.
Butler ran a leaner campaign than the Democratic incumbent, bringing in just over $18,000 in donations and spending around $12,600 as of the final filing deadline before Election Day. Lukens brought in around $183,000 and spent $176,000.
She also received support from several independent expenditure committees including Colorado Way Forward, Coloradans for Housing Affordability, and Voces Unidas. Mailers from Colorado Way Forward, the biggest spender, became a point of contention late in the campaign with Butler and Lukens disagreeing over their messages.
Similar to her first campaign, Lukens sought reelection on a platform centered on “the three E’s”: economy, education, and the environment.
If elected to a second term, Lukens said she will work to address affordability concerns and workforce shortages, increase affordable housing and access to child care, protect the environment, and support public education.
Butler, who considers himself a Constitutional Libertarian, was encouraged to run for the House seat over the expedited closure of the Craig power plant. On the campaign trail, Butler expressed concerns that the community was provided with inadequate resources and support to transition away from coal for the timeframe given.
Economic development, “tackling illegal and unvetted immigration,” health care, altering abortion access laws, gun rights and safety, redefining bipartisanship, and election integrity were among the issues topping Butler’s campaign platform.
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