Ten candidates will appear on the November special election ballot as Denverites choose their next at-large City Council member following Sarah Parady’s resignation in early August, according to the clerk and recorder’s office.
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Candidates had two weeks to gather 300 signatures to land on the ballot. Since the Aug. 20 deadline, the clerk’s office has been working to verify those signatures and determine whether each of the 19 initial candidates had sufficient signatures. As of Friday, the field was set.
The confirmed candidates are: Jake Browne, Cynthia Diaz, Raymon Anthony Doane, Gabriel Konkle, Monica Martinez, Melissa Mejia, Alfredo Reyes, Julissa Soto, Whitney Traylor and Jeff Walker.
Five candidates who initially filed to run didn’t ultimately submit any signatures. The clerk’s office found that three who filed petitions didn’t have sufficient signatures. One candidate withdrew.
Unlike the city’s 11 other council members, those in the two at-large seats represent the entire city as opposed to a geographic district. This election will be unusual because the winner will serve only about six months before the seat is up for reelection in April.
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And the two elections’ outcomes will be determined in different ways. That’s because in 2025, voters approved a change to at-large elections. In the past, all the candidates for the at-large seats have appeared under one question, with voters choosing two. The winners have been the top two vote-getters, even if they received only a slim plurality of the votes cast.
Under the 2025 change, the seats in the regular election next year will be split into two separate positions, “At-large A” and “At-large B.” For a candidate to win either seat, they must receive more than 50% of the vote in that race, or else a runoff election will take place.
But the Nov. 3 special election will use the old plurality system, meaning that whoever gets the most votes wins.
Here’s what we know so far about the candidates:
- Jake Browne was a marijuana critic for The Denver Post and has also written for Westword.
- Cynthia Diaz is the owner of Tonantzin Casa de Café on Santa Fe Drive.
- Monica Martinez is the executive director of the Fax Partnership, a nonprofit group based on East Colfax Avenue.
- Melissa Mejía, a former policy council aide for Councilwoman Jamie Torres, also previously worked as the head of state and local policy for the Community Economic Defense Project. She is supported by progressive politicians like Colorado State Sen. Julie Gonzales and state Rep. Javier Mabrey.
- Alfredo Reyes is the former executive director of the Latino Cultural Arts Center and has also served on the Denver Citizen Oversight Board, the Commission on Cultural Affairs and the Mayor’s River Sisters Advisory Committee. He has the support of former at-large Councilwoman Debbie Ortega.
- Julissa Soto is a public health advocate and the founder of Julissa Soto Latino Health Equity Consulting.
- Jeff Walker is an infrastructure and housing advocate who has served on the Regional Transportation District’s elected board. He also unsuccessfully ran for an at-large seat in 2023, finishing eighth among 10 candidates.
Traylor, Doane and Konkle did not appear to have campaign websites posted.
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