DENVER, Colo. — DENVER — Colorado voters elected Secretary of State Jena Griswold as the state's next attorney general Tuesday, choosing the two-term election chief to succeed fellow Democrat Phil Weiser as Colorado's top lawyer, according to the latest projections from the Associated Press.
With 72% of precincts reporting, Griswold led Republican Michael Allen 59.9% to 40.5%.
Her victory means Democrats will maintain control of one of Colorado's most powerful statewide offices. It also signals voter support for Griswold's argument that the attorney general will continue playing an active role in challenging federal policies that affect Colorado while pursuing consumer protection, public safety and civil rights cases at home.
Griswold will take over one of Colorado's most powerful statewide offices, overseeing hundreds of attorneys and staff and serving as the state's chief legal officer.
The race offered voters a stark choice between two candidates with very different backgrounds and visions for the office.
Griswold, Colorado's secretary of state since 2019, argued her experience managing a statewide office and navigating high-profile election and legal battles prepared her to serve as attorney general.
Allen, the El Paso County district attorney, pointed to more than two decades as a prosecutor and his role handling major criminal cases, including the Club Q shooting and the Return to Nature funeral home case, where nearly 200 bodies were discovered rotting inside of a Penrose funeral home
Throughout the campaign, Griswold pledged to continue challenging federal actions she believes violate the constitution or harm Colorado residents.
In an October interview with Denver7, she pledged to continue pursuing litigation against the Trump administration when she believes federal officials violate the law.
Allen took a different approach, arguing the attorney general's office should focus its resources on public safety, crime victims and consumer protection rather than using litigation to advance political goals.
"There is a place for the attorney general's office to stand up and defend the rights of the state against the federal government," Allen told Denver7 during the campaign. "The difference between myself and current Attorney General Weiser is that I'm not going to do it because a particular person is sitting in the Oval Office."
From Estes Park to statewide office
Griswold grew up in a working-class family in Estes Park and has frequently spoken about periods when her family relied on food assistance, according to her secretary of state website.
She became the first person in her family to attend a four-year college before earning a law degree from the University of Pennsylvania Law School.
Before entering elected office, Griswold practiced international anti-corruption law, served as director of the Governor of Colorado's Washington, D.C. office and worked as a voter protection attorney, according to the secretary of state’s website.
In 2018, she was elected Colorado's 39th secretary of state and became one of the youngest secretaries of state in the nation. She won re-election in 2022.
As secretary of state, Griswold helped oversee 13 statewide elections and frequently made national headlines as debates over election security and voting rights took center stage across the country.
During the campaign, she argued that experience managing a statewide office prepared her to lead the attorney general's office.
"My qualifications come from the point that I have overseen a statewide office for nearly eight years under some of the greatest attacks to democracy," Griswold told Denver7.
Campaign focused on rights, public safety and federal policy
Griswold campaigned on protecting abortion access, defending civil rights, enforcing Colorado laws involving gun violence prevention and challenging federal policies she believes threaten Colorado residents.
She also pledged to investigate and hold federal officials accountable if they violate the law and to defend Colorado laws that limit cooperation between state and local law enforcement and federal immigration authorities.
Allen, meanwhile, focused heavily on his prosecution experience.
"We need to do a better job for people," Allen said during a previous interview with Denver7. "They count on the attorney general's office to do that work."
Scrutiny during her tenure
Griswold's time as secretary of state was not without controversy.
In 2024, election system passwords were inadvertently posted on a state website. An independent investigation later concluded the passwords had been disclosed unintentionally and identified policy failures that contributed to the release. The incident prompted criticism from Republicans and calls for Griswold's resignation.
More recently, her office faced questions after confidential voter information was mistakenly exposed and after a ballot error involving a Front Range passenger rail funding measure resulted in hundreds of thousands of voters receiving ballots that incorrectly included the question.
Griswold acknowledged mistakes but defended the state's election system and her office's response.
"My office takes the confidentiality of voters extremely seriously," she told Denver7. "We discovered the issue immediately, fixed it and were transparent about it."
She also disputed criticism that her office was responsible for the rail ballot error, arguing the state was not responsible for establishing special district boundaries and worked with counties to ensure only eligible votes would be counted.
But allegations of wrongdoing haven’t stopped there.
A former top aide accused Griswold earlier this year of managing a toxic work environment where employees were “abused, bullied and discarded” during their time on staff, according to Western Slope Now.
Griswold denied the allegations and described them as a “last-minute smear effort” intended to influence the caucus that narrowly secured her nomination for the AG office in late March.
What comes next
As Colorado's next attorney general, Griswold will take over a department of roughly 700 employees with an annual budget of about $150 million.
The office represents and defends the legal interests of Colorado, serves as legal counsel to the governor and state agencies, enforces consumer protection and antitrust laws, handles criminal appeals and complex white-collar crime cases, oversees the Statewide Grand Jury and plays a major role in environmental and natural-resource matters.
The attorney general's office also works alongside Colorado's 23 district attorneys and local, state and federal law enforcement agencies on criminal justice issues across the state.
