2016 Colorado State Board of Regents at-large election

The 2016 Colorado State Board of Regents at-large election took place on November 8, 2016, to elect the next CU Regent. Incumbent Republican CU Regent Steve Bosley was term-limited and could not seek re-election. Republican candidate Heidi Ganahl narrowly won the general election by 2.2%, defeating Democratic candidate and former Majority Leader of the Colorado House of Representatives Alice Madden. With this win, Republicans maintained their majority in the CU Regents, which lasted until 2020.

This was the last election for this at-large seat. It would later be abolished in 2022, reducing the at-large seats down to one. As of 2024, Ganahl is the most recent Republican to win a statewide in Colorado.

Background
The State Board of Regents' nine voting members are chosen in biennial partisan elections and serve staggered six-year terms. One regent is elected to represent each of Colorado's congressional districts and two at the time were elected by the state at-large.

Analysis
Heidi Ganahl won the election by a 2.2% margin. This is the most recent Republican win in a statewide election in Colorado. Ganahl was competitive in the suburbs of the heavily populous North Central Colorado Urban Area, which contains the state capital Denver plus its surrounding suburbs Aurora, Thornton, Lakewood, and Broomfield; in addition to other major cities Boulder and Fort Collins, home to the University of Colorado and Colorado State University respectively. Ganahl won Jefferson and Larimer Counties, and kept Adams and Arapahoe Counties close as well as the city of Broomfield. Ganahl ran up the margins in suburban Douglas and El Paso Counties, getting 66.5% of the vote in Douglas and 64.3% of the vote in El Paso.

Alice Madden won a long row of counties along the Rocky Mountains from Routt in the north to La Plata in the south, which contains a number of liberal leaning ski resort towns like Telluride, Aspen, and Steamboat Springs, however she was not able to preform that well in them. Despite Madden underperforming other Democrats in 2016, she was able to do well in southern Colorado, where there is a higher Hispanic population. Most notably, she was able to win Conejos, Huerfano, and Pueblo Counties, and did very well in Las Animas and Saguache Counties.