Colorado’s Democratic Party is poised to win control of the state Senate and regain a “trifecta” of elected power for the first time since 2014.

As of 11 p.m., Democrats held strong margins in all five of the critical Senate races. Led by a group of women candidates, the party appeared to defend its most vulnerable districts while taking two suburban swing areas from Republicans.

In Adams County, challenger Faith Winter defeated Sen. Beth Martinez Humenik by 11 percentage points with all precincts counted. Tammy Story led incumbent Sen. Tim Neville by 13 points in the western Denver metro with 69 percent of precincts reporting.

“Those are huge numbers. This is a royal blue wave in Colorado,” said Democratic strategist Steve Welchert, declaring that the advantage was insurmountable. “Colorado is going to be a blue thumb sticking out of the country a little bit.”

The Democrats also held double-digit advantages in their three defensive races. Kerry Donovan was poised to keep her Aspen area seat by a 19-point margin, while state Reps. Brittany Pettersen and Jessie Danielson were ready to become senators for Jefferson County with double-digit leads.

Altogether, the Democrats could swing from a one-seat deficit to a three-seat advantage in the state Senate. Meanwhile, they were sure to hold onto a majority in the House, where they currently have a seven-seat advantage.

The backstory

The Republicans took the Colorado Senate in 2014, giving them leverage over Gov. John Hickenlooper’s final term.

This year, the key Senate races were a perfect example of Democrats’ national hopes: that five women could hold and take suburban and swing districts, capitalizing on angst and anger about President Donald Trump. Republicans framed the races as a last stand against what they warned would be unchecked spending from a governor Jared Polis.

With little public polling, it was impossible to guess how this year’s cycle would end. But it was intensely obvious to voters in those tossup districts that they were at the center of a fight for the state’s future.

Story raised more than $500,000 as she tried to unseat Republican Neville in the western Denver metro — a nearly unheard-of sum for the $30,000-a-year job.

Three other Democrats topped $300,000 in Senate races centered in Jefferson, Adams and Eagle counties, while Republicans lagged behind in fundraising.

And independent groups from both sides poured in money under much looser campaign finance limits: State records showed at least $15 million of independent expenditures on advertising and staffing across the five key races. That’s roughly $30 for each of the half-million active voters in these districts.

Despite the heavy spending, several battleground voters told the Denver Post that they couldn’t remember the names of the local Senate candidates — but they knew they wanted to support their party.

“I got a lot of mail, and I heard a lot, and I was doing some research,” said Richard Raymond, 57, of Lakewood, who spent four hours on his ballot.

But, like several other voters, he had already forgotten the names of the Senate candidates in his district.

“Republican,” he said of his vote. “I can’t honestly remember.”

Welchert traced the Democrats’ victory to a single demographic: “Most of those seats are suburban. And suburban women made a decision,” he said. “They made a decision in Coffman-Crow, and they made a decision in these state Senate seats.”

On the scene

On Election Night, many of the key state Senate candidates gathered early in the evening at strip-mall brewpubs like C.B. & Potts in Westminster and the Old Edwards Tavern in Eagle County, or at the Jefferson County Democratic Party’s event in Lakewood.

“I think national politics can excite the base, but ultimately this race came down to unaffiliated voters, and what unaffiliated voters cared about was education, transportation, and issues like paid family leave,” said Winter, currently a state representative, as her victory became obvious.

Each of the five races brought a different dynamic. Tony Sanchez, the Republican candidate for District 22 in eastern Jefferson County, ran to the right, saying on Facebook that he supported “ICE, not sanctuary cities.” A mailer from his campaign claimed that his opponent, Pettersen, would “let addicts shoot up on your street!” (Pettersen is a supporter of supervised “harm reduction” facilities for drug use.)

In District 24, Republican incumbent Martinez Humenik ran toward the middle, emphasizing her bipartisan work to represent the district. Reached by phone Tuesday night, she offered some advice for her successor.

“Represent the district,” she said. “All of it. Everybody in the district, not just some people. Because this district is very diverse, and there are a lot of good people who live here, that expect to have representation. I voted the district, and that’s what I would hope she will do as my senator.”

If not, Martinez Humenik said, voters will likely make a change in two years.