Incumbent Mike Coffman declared victory in the race for Aurora mayor Tuesday night after securing a decisive lead over challenger Juan Marcano in early returns.
Marcano, though, was not prepared to concede.
Coffman had received 29,418 votes, or 54.66% of the total, to Marcano’s 20,607 votes, or 38.29%, as of the latest results posted at about 10 p.m. Tuesday.
The third candidate in the nonpartisan race, Jeff Sanford, who ran a limited campaign, had received 3,798 votes, or 7.06%.
As of 9:40 p.m., Marcano said he had not spoken to Coffman and that he was not conceding the race until more votes were counted.
Marcano noted that the votes that typically come in on the Monday and Tuesday of an election skew more progressive. He said until it was clear how many votes were still outstanding and what the city’s election turnout was, it was premature to call the race.
At Coffman’s election watch party after the 9 p.m. results were posted, Aurora City Councilwoman Danielle Jurinsky announced they were calling the race for Coffman. Conservative candidates running for council and the campaign against Proposition HH gathered at JJ’s Place in Aurora on Tuesday night.
Jurinsky’s announcement was met with chants of “Vote Juan out.”
“Four years ago, I won by less than 1%, over 70,000 votes cast, we won by about 250 votes,” Coffman said in a victory speech. “And it is a remarkable race to win by, I think we’re at 18 points right now.”
A Republican and former U.S. congressman, Coffman was elected to his first term leading the left-leaning city in 2019. In 2021, the City Council majority also flipped to conservative leadership. While Coffman and others running for local seats hope to see that trend continue, Marcano, a Democrat, and other progressive candidates were pushing to change that.
The election’s outcome, and the resulting balance of power, likely will affect Aurora’s approach to a growing homelessness problem and responses to concerns over policing and public safety. The suburban city also is contending with rising housing costs and neighborhoods’ efforts to stem gentrification as redevelopment prices lower-income families out of areas that used to be affordable.
Coffman, 68, said during the campaign that Aurora voters are interested in decreasing crime rates and reducing homelessness, and he hopes to continue some of the work he started to address those issues in the last four years. He’s often taken a tough-on-crime approach, and he spearheaded the city’s homeless camping ban.
On Tuesday night, he said the race came down to those issues.
“It was about a tough-on-crime approach that those people who supported me believe everyone in the city, regardless of where they live, has a right to live without a fear of being a victim of a crime,” he said. “And I think they want results on homelessness and encampments. And we’re going to move forward on being more aggressive about abatements but also being more aggressive about treatments.”
The third issue is affordable housing, he said, and the city is committed to increasing its affordable housing inventory by 2% year over year.
Though Marcano doesn’t disagree about the issues facing the city, he has advocated for different solutions. The 37-year-old has said he would address the root causes of rising crime and homelessness, including providing more resources to communities that have been neglected.
In 2019, Coffman narrowly defeated Omar Montgomery — but he couldn’t declare victory until nine days after Election Day following vote tallies and ballot-curing.
Some of the City Council races that year also finished as close as the mayor’s race, including in Marcano’s race for Ward IV, which he won by 230 votes. The night of Election Day, Marcano thought he had lost his seat. But as more votes were counted the following days, he realized he’d won.
As of the 8:30 p.m. results Tuesday, it appeared the City Council would be further increasing its conservative majority, with Republican-backed candidates also leading in the races for Ward IV, Ward V, Ward VI and one of the at-large seats.
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