Four Denver City Council races will be heading to runoff races: Districts 7, 8, 9 and 10.
Runoffs are triggered if a candidate does not reach more than 50% of the vote. That race will occur on June 6 and ballots will go out May 15.
District 9 and 10 will feature two incumbents in Councilmembers Candi CdeBaca and Chris Hinds.
In District 7, Councilmember Jolon Clark decided not to run for reelection and in District 8, Councilmember Chris Herndon was term-limited. With no incumbent, both races drew many candidates.
It's important to note that results won't be certified until April 20 and that District 7, are still facing a tight competition, so things may change. According to the Clerk & Recorder's Office, there are about 2,400 votes left to be counted. We will update if anything major changes with the next batch of results.
District 7
The District 7 race was packed with five candidates vying for the seat filled by Clark.
But starting Tuesday night, Flor Alvidrez left the pack and secured her position in the runoff race. With Thursday's results, Alvidrez leads with a little more than 38% of the vote or 5,820 votes. So far, 15,144 votes have been counted.
Who her opponent will be has not been so clear. On Tuesday, Nick Campion, Adam Estroff and Guy Padgett were vying for the second seat in the runoff race. They were all separated by mere percentage points.
Now, Campion is sitting in a slightly cushioned second place with just over 19% of the vote. Estroff is sitting in third with just over 18% of the vote. Padgett is trailing with about 16%.
On Wednesday, Campion's lead over Estroff was about 54 votes. On Thursday, that widened to 95 votes.
District 8
The District 8 race also had five candidates on the ballot.
Two candidates got ahead early, though: Shontel Lewis and Brad Revare. Since Tuesday, the pair have flip flopped between first and second, but both look to be comfortably heading into the runoff.
Lewis is holding that lead with 35.63% of the vote or 4,083 votes. About 14,139 votes have been counted. Revare sits in second with 33.55% of the vote.
On Wednesday, Lewis led by just 28 votes. That has since increased to 295 votes.
Leslie Twarogowski is in a distant third place with about 13% of the vote.
District 9
Incumbent Candi CdeBaca faced two challengers in her quest for a second term in District 9: Darrell Watson and Kwon Atlas.
CdeBaca and Watson pulled away from Atlas Tuesday, both hitting the 40% marks in their race. Initially, Watson had the lead, but that changed Wednesday and continues to hold as of Thursday.
CdeBaca leads with just over 44% of the vote. Watson sits in a comfortable second with about 43% of the vote. CdeBaca previously led by only 54 votes. That was extended to 208 votes.
CdeBaca has faced a runoff before. In 2019, she defeated then-incumbent Albus Brooks to win her first-term seat.
Watson is also no stranger to council elections. In 2007, he lost to Carla Madison, and in 2011, he dropped out of the race due to a cancer diagnosis.
District 10
Incumbent Chris Hinds faced more challengers than fellow runoff-bound incumbent CdeBaca. Still, he gained a comfortable lead in the race and secured his spot in the runoff on election night. His challengers were left to battle it out for second place.
Initially, that spot was filled by Noah Kaplan, but since Wednesday, Shannon Hoffman has taken second place and extended her lead.
Hoffman secured 27.01% of the vote, while Kaplan has 25.65%. On Wednesday, only 93 votes separated Hoffman from Kaplan. Today, 230 votes separates the two.
Hinds leads with about 36% of the vote.
He will have to win another runoff if he wants to serve a second term. He defeated then-incumbent Wayne New in a 2019 runoff.
