John Hickenlooper

Democratic primaries in Colorado on Tuesday are helping answer a question the party has increasingly faced nationally: Are voters gravitating toward a younger, more progressive generation of leaders or sticking with established veterans?

That choice is starkly reflected in the fight to represent the state's 1st Congressional District, where incumbent Rep. Diana DeGette has been in office for as long as her challenger, a 29-year-old democratic socialist named Melat Kiros, has been alive. Kiros had a small lead over DeGette with an estimated 65% of the vote counted.

In a similar faceoff, Sen. John Hickenlooper successfully fended off a primary challenge from self-fashioned “insurgent progressive" state Sen. Julie Gonzales.