State reference

How does government work in Colorado?

Colorado’s legislature, governor, courts, local governments and election offices, with a source for every fact.

Facts checked November 5, 2026. Anything we could not verify from a source is left out rather than guessed. Rules change, so confirm deadlines with the official election office.

100

State legislators

Legislature

4 years

Governor’s term

Governor

Counties

Local

Seats in the US House

Clerk of the House

In effect since: 1876 source

What may surprise you here

Colorado has water courts: seven water divisions, each with its own water judge. source
Colorado legislators may serve 8 consecutive years in each chamber. source

Legislature

Name: General Assembly source
Senate: seats: 35 source
Senate: term in years: 4 source
House of Representatives: seats: 65 source
House of Representatives: term in years: 2 source
Term limits: 8 years in each chamber (consecutive) source

Governor and statewide offices

Term in years: 4 source
Term limit: Two consecutive terms source
Next regular election: 2030 source
Lieutenant governor: joint ticket source
Attorney general: elected source
Attorney general’s term in years: 4 source
Secretary of state: elected source
Secretary of state’s term in years: 4 source

Courts

Highest court: Supreme Court source
Intermediate appeals court: Court of Appeals source
Main trial court: District Court source
How high-court judges reach the bench: merit selection with retention source

Local government

Called: county source
How many: 64 source
Cities and towns: Colorado has 272 municipal governments and no township governments, as of the 2022 Census of Governments. source
Schools: Colorado has 180 independent school districts, as of the 2022 Census of Governments. source

Elections

Chief election official: Secretary of State source
Who runs elections locally: County clerk and recorder source
Primary type: partially open source
Regular governor elections fall in: even source
Citizen initiatives: yes source

Who holds these offices

As of November 5, 2026. Terms of the current Congress run to January 3, 2027. Winners of the November 3, 2026 elections are not shown until results are certified and they take office.

Governor: Jared Polis Democratic, in office since January 8, 2019. source

US senators for Colorado
Senator	Party	Seat	Senator since	Current term ends
Michael F. Bennet	Democratic	Class 3	January 22, 2009	January 3, 2029
John W. Hickenlooper	Democratic	Class 2	January 3, 2021	January 3, 2027

Members of the House for Colorado
Seat	Member	Party	In the House since
District 1	Diana DeGette	Democratic	January 7, 1997
District 2	Joe Neguse	Democratic	January 3, 2019
District 3	Jeff Hurd	Republican	January 3, 2025
District 4	Lauren Boebert	Republican	January 3, 2021
District 5	Jeff Crank	Republican	January 3, 2025
District 6	Jason Crow	Democratic	January 3, 2019
District 7	Brittany Pettersen	Democratic	January 3, 2023
District 8	Gabe Evans	Republican	January 3, 2025

Boundaries for the 119th Congress, simplified from the Census Bureau cartographic boundary file. For an exact address, use the House lookup.

Who has held each Senate seat since 2001

Each band is one person in the seat. The line marks November 2026; anything to its right is the rest of a current term. Dates through 2026 come from the congress-legislators public dataset, whose current members are matched against the Senate’s own roster on every build.

Senate seat, Class 2