The Colorado Legislature Will Be Majority Women Next Year…Again

When Colorado’s 2025 legislative session begins in January, there will be more women lawmakers in office than the state has ever seen before.

After the November election, 52 out of the 100 elected state legislators are women. Though it’s a historically high number for Colorado, it’s not the first time the state legislature has been majority women. That milestone came in January 2023 – but it was very short-lived.

That year, the legislative session kicked off with 51 women lawmakers, spurring a flurry of press releases and media coverage celebrating Colorado for being one of the few states where women outnumber men in the Statehouse. But three weeks later, Kyle Brown was chosen to replace resigning Representative Tracey Bernett, quietly ending the Capitol’s female dominance.

This time around, it’s expected to last a bit longer. Three legislators are set to resign in January, but only one, Senator Janet Buckner, is a woman. Even if all three vacancies are filled by men, women will still be up 51 to 49.

“This says a lot about the place we call home,” House Speaker Julie McCluskie says. “Coloradans trust women to lead and represent our values. … A record-breaking number of women in the legislature shows an important shift and uplifts the lived experiences of Colorado women. We deeply understand the issues facing families and are determined to make our state more affordable for working people.”

Colorado is one of just four states to elect more women than men to the state legislature, according to the Center for American Women and Politics. Nevada was the first state to achieve the feat in 2018, followed by Arizona in 2023 and New Mexico this year. Five states have been majority women or evenly split in the House only, and four in the Senate (Colorado has still not made the latter list).

Women gained three seats in the Colorado Legislature this election; two in the House and one in the Senate. Once the elected candidates are sworn in come January, there will be 38 women and 27 men in the House. The Senate will have fourteen women and 21 men.

“Legislators should be representative of our state’s population, and it’s a positive step in the right direction that females have achieved that milestone at this time,” says Beth Hendrix, executive director of the League of Women Voters of Colorado. “But we have a way to go in terms of equal representation in race and disability, and the League will continue to advocate for a truly representative legislature.”

Regarding race and disability, the Statehouse’s progress is more mixed. Colorado’s first legislator to use a wheelchair will leave office next session. But voters just elected the state’s first Iranian-American lawmaker, Yara Zokaie, who is forming a Joint MENASA and Muslim Caucus with Representative Iman Jodeh, the state’s first Muslim and Palestinian-American lawmaker.

And while women are well represented in the legislature, female candidates have struggled to secure other Colorado offices.

Colorado is one of only five states that has never had a woman governor or a woman U.S. senator, according to the Pew Research Center, joining Idaho, Indiana, Pennsylvania and Virginia. A woman has also never been mayor of Denver, the state’s capital city.

“We have laid the groundwork for a long time. We are getting closer and closer to breaking that highest glass ceiling,” says Heather Lurie, leader of the Electing Women Denver Political Action Committee. “I’m not sure why it has taken a little bit longer in Colorado, but I think that Colorado is open for it and ready for it.”

Electing Women Denver raises money for pro-abortion women running for U.S. senator, governor, vice president and president. Lurie says she’s confident that women’s progress in the state legislature will translate to higher offices. She says seeing women in politics inspires other women to run for office, attributing the success of Colorado’s female politicians to women lifting each other up.

Colorado was the first state to elect women to its state legislature, electing three women to the House at once in 1894 during the first statewide election that allowed women to vote in Colorado.

In addition to now having the majority, women have held all three top leadership positions in the Colorado House since 2022: Speaker McCluskie, Majority Leader Monica Duran and Assistant Majority Leader Jennifer Bacon. Next session, women will also serve as House minority leader (Rose Pugliese), Senate president pro tempore (Dafna Michaelson Jenet) and Senate assistant majority leader (Lisa Cutter).

“Colorado has a tradition of women supporting women,” Lurie says. “There’s been a steady drumbeat of women trailblazers in Colorado. [The current success of women candidates] is the result of a lot of work over a lot of years by great women leaders.”

McCluskie wants that tradition to continue.

“I hope our leadership serves as a model for more female leaders to break glass ceilings in Colorado politics,” McCluskie says.