NEW: The private prison giant Geo Group has signed a $528.6 million contract with the Trump administration to reopen a shuttered prison in Hudson, Colorado, and turn it into a 1,188-bed immigration detention center, @sethklamann.bsky.social reports

Breaking: ICE and private prison giant Geo Group have signed a five-year contract to open a new, nearly 1,200-bed immigrant detention center in Hudson, Colorado, north of Denver. www.denverpost.com/2026/07/13/c...

Sudden, major news tonight: Senator Lindsay Graham has passed away. www.nbcnews.com/politics/pol...

I am in hell

It's done. Marx vs. Weiser in November.

Breaking: Victor Marx has won the GOP gubernatorial primary, per the AP.

New: In Cheesman Park: The Game, you can fight zombies and learn Denver history. The guy behind it said it’s a “love letter” to the park. How many nights can you last before you’re zombie chow? www.denverpost.com/2026/07/09/c... via @denverpost.com

Personal News Post: After 4 years as a legislative reporter, I’m psyched to say I’m transitioning into an enterprise reporting role at The Denver Post. I’ll still be covering immigration and politics, among other issues, and I’m excited & grateful to contribute to this kickass newsroom in a new way.

Small note from last week: US Sen. Bernie Sanders endorsed three primary candidates in Colorado. All three of won: Kiros in CD1, Irlando for a Denver state senate seat, and Cervantes for a Thornton state house seat.

With Victor Marx very, very close to becoming the GOP nominee for Colorado’s next governor, re-upping my profile of him from last month:

Guards at an Aurora detention center told a Ugandan priest’s lawyers that he was about to be released. But inside, ICE agents pressured him to sign a document and get on a commercial flight to Uganda. If he didn’t, they told him, he would leave in chains. www.denverpost.com/2026/07/08/c...

Folks, all of the “if only our best athletes played soccer” takes are either bait or the street-corner ravings of non-ball-knowers. You simply must ignore, go on with your life and look ahead to the women’s World Cup in 12 months.

Shocker of a collapse today based on how we’d played in the last month, but this is how the U.S. has looked for most of the last two years. Uncertain, disjointed, error-prone. Qatar, we looked like a team on the come up. Really don’t get that feeling here. The bench is really thin.

Disaster. Three absolute shocker goals, the last wasting a great start to the second half.

This is what we looked like up until May. Which is to say, pretty bad and disjointed.

This photo was taken by Cheney Orr, who is actually starting at The Colorado Sun mid month! Very excited to have him on board. coloradosun.bluelena.io/lt.php?x=4lZ...

All of Colorado's federal judges have now held that the government is improperly detaining noncitizens without bond hearings -- as Chief Judge Dan Domenico, the lone Trump appointee, now conforms his analysis with the 10th Circuit's binding decision from last week:

Re: Colorado GOP governor primary: Nothing fundamentally has changed since Thursday, no race call yet. With 98% reporting, Marx is up 1,950 votes on Kirkmeyer (39.8%-39.5%). The deadline to cure ballots is Wednesday, and it looks like we may not get a call from the AP until then.

Really damning reporting:

What a fucking game.

What a fucking game.

Wow, it’s like Brazil ‘14 all over again.

On the one hand, I hate England. On the other, I hate Mexico.

Who else?

Hell yeah Norway, get their asses.

Holy shit

The god of the game.

Re: all the Gonzales/Hick what-ifs: Can’t overstate how beneficial it was for Kiros that DeGette participated in assembly. Kiros flexed organizing muscle + got a ton of free media with that win. In contrast, Hick backed out, which likely robbed Gonzales of a springboard.

Kiros walloping DeGette and Gonzales getting within real striking distance of Hick despite a number of disadvantages is really wild.

I bet you didn't realize that Colorado's Julie Gonzales got within six points of unseating a very well known and three-time elected-statewide incumbent Senator

Portugal will not inherit the kingdom of heaven.

Preparing to slowly lose my mind as national politics-knowers continue to refer to Weiser and Rutinel as progressives.

A first World Cup knockout goal for Ronaldo, exciting stuff. Can’t wait to see what he does with the rest of his career.

Folks have argued, reasonably, that DeGette and Bennet lost in large part because they ran bad campaigns. And they did run bad campaigns. But Hick coming close-ish to losing against someone who *also didn’t run a particularly great campaign* proves a counterweight + posits something else afoot.

U.S. Sen. Hickenlooper’s lead over state Sen. Julie Gonzales is down to 6.4 points, despite Hick outspending Gonzales nearly 10 to 1. By quick tally, that appears to be the second-closest margin of Hick’s career (behind his 2014 gubernatorial re-elect, when he won by a little less than 3.5 points).

Marx up about ~2,200 votes this morning; his lead has steadily grown since early last night. The biggest batch of remaining ballots appears to be in Arapahoe County — shade under 30,000 left there as of last night. Kirkmeyer has won that county comfortably, but may not be enough left to catch Marx.

The once-sleepy primary race to represent Colorado’s 1st Congressional District turned into one of the most-watched elections in the country this summer as first-time candidate and democratic socialist Melat Kiros unseated longtime U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette.

Gov. Jared Polis fires clemency board members who spoke out about Tina Peters decision

BALL DON’T LIE

NEW: Federal immigration officials have detained more than 10,000 people in the last 5 days, a major surge that has stemmed from a push at ICE to increase arrests. The WH has wanted more arrests. The expectation inside ICE is 2K arrests a day. www.nytimes.com/2026/07/01/u...

That’s really harsh. Shit.

THEY ALL COUNT THE SAME

Hickenlooper’s lead now down to 7.2 points, per AP. Kiros’ lead has grown to 13 points, a full shellacking.

Marx is now in the lead, per the AP. He’s up more than 1,600 votes on Kirkmeyer with 90% reporting.

Elsewhere, state Sen. Julie Gonzales is now within 10 points of Sen. Hickenlooper. Hick has already won, but getting within 10 is a strong showing for a candidate with little fundraising or name ID outside of Denver. Likely to get closer, too, as Denver posts more this evening.

Sen. Barb Kirkmeyer’s lead over Victor Marx has been shrinking all day & is down to 638 votes. El Paso County hasn’t posted in a minute, Denver expects more results between 5 / 6 tonight. Boulder, Larimer and Arapahoe with fair number of ballots to count, but late vote has been breaking toward Marx.

INBOX: DeGette concedes, congratulates Kiros and says “frankly, this is not the way I would have wanted to end my career in politics.”

In hindsight, maybe the most important polls of the 2026 Colorado primary had little to do with any campaign. As @coltrain.bsky.social reported, April and September polls showed growing dissatisfaction among Colorado voters with the state’s marquee Democratic leaders (Bennet, Polis, Hick).

[Harry Kane losing to DR Congo] Ey-o what’s all this then

Five takeaways in Colorado primaries as DSA candidate ousts congresswoman, Democrats reject senator, big money falters: www.denverpost.com/2026/07/01/c... by @coltrain.bsky.social and @sethklamann.bsky.social