With the primary election ending, who will be on Pueblo County ballots in November?
Most Pueblo County primary election ballots have already been counted a week after the primary election and while local results are still unofficial, the races on November's ballot are taking shape.
Here's what we know so far about who will be on the ballot in local races:
County Clerk and Recorder
Democratic candidate Candace Rivera handily defeated incumbent Gilbert “Bo” Ortiz, who has been in office for 16 years. Ortiz has come under scrutiny recently and faced allegations of mismanagement of elections and other departments in the office.
Rivera, who is new to politics, has decades of experience as a victim advocate and now works as a paralegal. Her Republican opponent in November, Nathan Baxter, has also never held elected office. Baxter has previously touted his experience in operations management.
The Clerk and Recorder’s department manages elections, motor vehicle registrations, liquor licenses, marriage records and other vital government records.
Primary election news: Police, secretary of state investigate signs of tampering with Pueblo County voting machine
County Treasurer
Incumbent Democrat Del Olivas also lost to a challenger: Kim Archuletta, an employee in the treasurer’s office, defeated Olivas, who has held the position for 12 years.
Archuletta’s Republican opponent in November, Michelle Gray, won her party’s nomination without any contest.
County Sheriff
The primaries for Pueblo County Sheriff were uncontested: David Lucero, a Democrat, will be running against Republican Joey Musso in the midterm elections.
Kirk Taylor, who has served as the Sheriff since 2007, was nominated for U.S. Marshall. While his appointment is still pending, he backed Lucero to be the interim chief until the November election.
Other county offices
In the county assessor race, voters will decide in November between incumbent Democrat Frank Beltran and Republican J. Angel Lewis. Neither candidate ran opposed in the primary.
The current county coroner, Republican Brian Cotter, will face Democrat Zolanye McCulley-Bachicha in the midterm election.
Incumbent Democratic Surveyor Randy Reeves did not face a primary challenger and Republicans did not nominate anyone to run against him.
County Commissioner, District 3
Roxanne “Roxy” Pignanelli defeated Michael Schuster in the Democratic primary and will run against Republican Zach Swearingen, who ran unopposed in the primary. Swearingen ran for the seat in 2018, when he was defeated by Chris Wiseman.
Wiseman declined to seek another term as a commissioner. He announced in May of last year that he was retiring from public service to spend more time with his family.
More: Full Pueblo County election results (updated through June 30)
House District 46
Democrats nominated Tisha Mauro over Jason Munoz to replace term-limited Daneya Esgar, who served as the majority leader in the state house. Republican Jonathan Ambler ran unopposed in his primary.
The district encompasses much of the southwestern corner of Pueblo County, the northeastern part of the city of Pueblo and extends eastward to Avondale in the newest redistricting map.
State Senate District 3
Neither incumbent Democrat Nick Hinrichsen, who filled the seat vacated by Leroy Garcia earlier this year, nor Republican candidate Stephen Varela faced a primary challenger.
The 3rd state senate district covers most of Pueblo County.
Pueblo health news: Pueblo health care leaders meet with Sen. John Hickenlooper to discuss improving access
Congress: Colorado's 3rd District
Republican Lauren Boebert easily defeated a challenge from Montrose State Senator Don Coram. In the Democratic primary, the Associated Press has called the race for Aspen businessman Adam Frisch.
As results were updated late last week, Frisch’s lead over Puebloan Sol Sandoval decreased to 522 votes.
Sandoval has not yet released a public statement about the election, but retweeted a screenshot of the vote breakdown from the Colorado Working Families Party that said “if you went to sleep on the CD3 primary, wake back up.”
Frisch told the Chieftain late last week that “mathematically, we like where we are and where we remain.”
“It's important that every vote gets counted. I'm sure it'll be done with integrity,” Frisch said.
Chieftain reporter Anna Lynn Winfrey can be reached by email awinfrey@gannett.com or on Twitter, @annalynnfrey.
This article originally appeared on The Pueblo Chieftain: Here's who made the November ballots after Pueblo primary elections
