John Carroll

The death of a 64-year-old Democratic Congressman from Denver in 1943 set the stage for a series of events that launched the political career of John Carroll, who ran in some of the most competitive U.S. Senate races in Colorado history.

The story starts with Lawrence Lewis, a Harvard-educated Missourian who came to Denver to practice law in 1909 and nearly ousted freshman Republican Congressman William Eaton in 1930 – he lost 50%-48%. Lewis ran again in 1932 and beat Eaton 54%-44%, and easily won a ’34 rematch with Eaton (56%-32%). He made the first district safe for the Democrats, winning three of the next four races with more than 60% of the vote.

If U.S. Rep. Mark Udall (D-Eldorado Springs) is successful in his challenge of U.S. Sen. Wayne Allard (R-Loveland), Allard would be just the sixth incumbent U.S. Senator from Colorado to lose a re-election race.

Since direct elections began in Colorado in 1912, there are only five instances of incumbent U.S. Senators losing to challengers. The first time was in 1918 when Lawrence Phipps (R) unseated U.S. Sen. John Shafroth (D). More than four relatively uneventful decades passed until Peter Dominick (R) defeated John Carroll (D) in 1962. In 1972, Floyd Haskell (D) narrowly defeated Gordon Allott (R) only to be unseated six years later by William Armstrong (R). Most recently, then-U.S. Rep. Wayne Allard (R) defeated incumbent U.S. Sen. Tom Strickland (D) in 1996.

For Bernie Sanders, persistence has paid off. With every statewide run since 1972, he was able to increase his percentage of the vote, until ultimately winning a seat in the House in 1990 and later a U.S. Senate seat in 2006.