Colorado Rep. Ed Perlmutter, a Democrat elected to the 7th District during the 2006 blue wave, announced Monday that he would not run for re-election this year. The redrawn version of Perlmutter’s seat, which includes most of populous Jefferson County in the Denver suburbs, all of the neighboring City and County of Broomfield, and rural areas to the south, would have backed Joe Biden 56-42, per data from Dave’s Redistricting App.
While Democrats start the contest favored to keep this constituency blue, this area was far more competitive turf when Perlmutter first got involved in politics. He first won elected office in 1994 when his victory for a state Senate seat, which came despite that year’s historic GOP landslide, made him the first Democrat to represent his northern Jefferson County district in three decades.
Perlmutter was termed-out in 2002, and most observers anticipated that he’d run for the newly-created 7th Congressional District, a suburban Denver constituency that had supported Al Gore by a tiny 50-49 spread two years before. Perlmutter decided to sit out the race, though, and Republican Bob Beauprez ended up taking it by a 121-vote margin.
Perlmutter got another chance in 2006, however, when Beauprez left to wage what would turn into a disastrous bid for governor. Perlmutter won the Democratic nod 53-38 by defeating former state Rep. Peggy Lamm, the sister-in-law of ex-Gov. Dick Lamm, and it initially looked like he’d be in for a tough general election fight in a district that had backed John Kerry by a close 51-48 spread.
Republican Rick O'Donnell, who was the former state higher education commissioner, raised a comparable amount of money, though Democratic outside groups enjoyed a big spending advantage over their GOP counterparts. Ultimately, the strong political climate, as well as the area’s continuing slide to the left, helped propel Perlmutter to a lopsided 55-42 win.
The new congressman had no trouble in 2008 as Barack Obama was carrying his seat 59-40, but he faced a serious challenge two years later as things soured for his party nationally. National Republicans were enthusiastic about Aurora City Council member Ryan Frazier, who would have been Colorado’s first Black member of Congress, though Team Blue once again held the financial advantage here.
The contest earned national attention weeks before Election Day when Perlmutter lightly slapped away Frazier’s hand after the Republican pointed it in his face, an action the incumbent immediately apologized for. Despite the ugly year, though, Perlmutter turned in a 53-42 victory, a showing that proved that the area’s recent swing to the left was for real.
Perlmutter, who never again faced any serious opposition for re-election, announced in 2017 that he was giving up his seat to run for governor, and he initially looked like a major contender. It was therefor a big surprise that when he announced months later that he was dropping out, explaining that he doubted he still had the "fire in the belly" to run a strong race now that his colleague and the eventual winner, wealthy Rep. Jared Polis, was competing against him.
Perlmutter originally said he was sticking with his plans to leave the House, but he declared a month later that he’d changed his mind and would run for a seventh term. Every Democrat who had been running in what was an open seat race ended up dropping out, and Perlmutter easily won again in 2018 or 2020.