Here are Newsline’s top 10 stories of 2025

Coloradans repeatedly took to the streets outside the state Capitol to march and protest in opposition to President Donald Trump’s administration in 2025, while Democratic legislative majorities inside the building took a series of steps aimed at shoring up civil rights and protections targeted in federal rollbacks.

An estimated more than 30,000 people turned out for a March 21 anti-Trump rally in Denver’s Civic Center Park, where U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, joined by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, denounced the administration as a “government of the billionaires, by the billionaires, for the billionaires.” It was the best-attended rally ever held by Sanders, a two-time presidential candidate, until another record-breaking crowd in Los Angeles in April.

Seven months later, Civic Center Park and the Capitol grounds were again swarmed by an estimated crowd numbering in the tens of thousands, during the largest of more than 50 No Kings protests held in Colorado on Oct. 18.

In the meantime, lawmakers at the Capitol had passed long list of bills to contain the federal fallout, including protections for transgender people and gender-affirming care, a landmark state voting rights law, and much more.

Below is a selection of Colorado Newsline’s most-read and most-shared news stories of 2025.

Capacity crowds turn out in Colorado for Sanders, Ocasio-Cortez

Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez drew large crowds at stops in Greeley and Denver, where they made the case that a fight against a billionaire “oligarchy” should be the focal point of the party’s resistance to the second Trump administration.

“In the hundreds of rallies that I have done, we have never, ever had a rally as large as this,” Sanders said during a rally in Civic Center Park. “And Denver, your presence here today is not just significant for Colorado. You are sending a profound message all over the world. The whole world is watching, and they want to know if the people of America are going to stand up to Trumpism, oligarchy and authoritarianism.”

Colorado Senate committee advances bill to ban guns that accept detachable magazines

A law passed by the Colorado Legislature this year banned the sale of semiautomatic firearms that can take detachable magazines. Sponsors framed Senate Bill 25-3 as an effort to enforce the intent of Colorado’s existing large-capacity magazine law from 2013, which limits magazines to 15 rounds of ammunition. Gunmen in two recent Colorado shootings — in 2021 at a Boulder King Soopers and in 2023 at a nightclub in Colorado Springs — used magazines banned under that law.

Colorado House approves pair of bills for transgender health care and protections

With transgender rights on shaky ground at the federal level under the Trump administration, Colorado lawmakers this year approved two bills to strengthen protections for transgender people and gender-affirming care. House Bill 25-1309 codified into state law existing state public health rules about gender-affirming health care coverage, while House Bill 25-1312 added protections for transgender people in schools and courts.

Gov. Polis signs voting rights bill, shielding Colorado from federal backsliding

In May, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis signed the Colorado Voting Rights Act, establishing various protections contained in the federal Voting Rights Act at the state level. 

Senate Bill 25-1, the first bill of the 2025 legislative session, prohibits election practices that limit the participation of people of color and other protected groups. It also includes protections for LGBTQ+ voters, expands multilingual ballot access, and requires accommodations for people with disabilities at residential facilities. The state attorney general can enforce voting rights under the Colorado measure, so the state does not need to rely on federal courts to enforce voting protections.

​Trump signs formal pardon for Tina Peters, lawyer claims it applies to state charges

This month, President Donald Trump said that he had signed a formal presidential pardon for Tina Peters, the former Mesa County clerk convicted of her role in a breach of her office’s secure elections systems, part of an attempt to uncover evidence of widespread fraud in the 2020 election.

Trump does not have the power to pardon Peters, who was convicted on state charges. But her lawyer, Peter Ticktin, lobbied Trump for the pardon after developing an unsupported theory that the presidential pardon power does in fact apply at the state level, expressing hope that the U.S. Supreme Court’s conservative majority will rewrite the centuries-old legal principle of dual sovereignty in criminal proceedings.

In shift, Sen. Bennet supports Colorado constitutional amendment for emergency redistricting

Earlier this month, U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet, a Democrat who is running for Colorado governor in 2026, announced he would support a constitutional amendment to allow the state to redraw its congressional districts to offset partisan gerrymandering in other states.

Attorney General Phil Weiser, a Democrat who is also running for governor in 2026, was the first statewide elected official in Colorado to support the idea of redrawing the state’s congressional districts mid-cycle. Redistricting efforts by Democrats come in response to Trump’s successful pressure on Republican-led states, including Texas, Missouri, North Carolina and Ohio, to redraw their congressional lines so the party can pick up more seats in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Protest against Trump brings about 8,000 people to Colorado Capitol

In April, about 8,000 people rallied and marched at the Colorado Capitol in Denver for one of the many volunteer-organized Hands Off! protests against the Trump administration. Addressing the crowd, Weiser told the crowd that the Trump administration “didn’t get the memo that immigrants make America great,” which is why he joined a lawsuit challenging Trump’s “unimaginable step of thinking a Sharpie could overrule the Constitution” when he issued an executive order to end birthright citizenship.

“In America, when we stand together, when we stand on our principles, we will always prevail,” Weiser said. “We cannot be silenced.”

U.S. Rep. Gabe Evans misrepresented family’s immigration history

Colorado Rep. Gabe Evans, a Fort Lupton Republican, has leaned heavily on the story of his Mexican-American grandfather, who he said immigrated the “right way” and “legal way,” to defend the extreme mass-deportation policies being pursued by the Trump administration.

But Evans mischaracterized the story of how his Depression-era ancestors achieved the American dream, and misstated key dates and details in his grandfather’s biography, according to documents obtained by Newsline. Those records show that his grandfather, Cuauhtemoc Chavez was squarely on the wrong side of the “strong immigration policies” Evans now invokes his name to champion.

Tens of thousands of Coloradans rally and march against Trump at No Kings protests

The largest anti-Trump protest of the year took place in October, when thousands of people gathered in opposition to Trump’s administration at a No Kings rally and march in Denver, one of more than 50 No Kings protests held across Colorado amid rising tensions over the country’s direction in his second term. On the state Capitol steps, the crowd heard from a lineup of speakers including former state Rep. Joe Salazar, who said in a fiery speech that Trump’s agenda “threatens to tear the fabric of this country apart.”

“There is no king in America, and we will not be silenced by authoritarians,” Salazar said to cheers.

Michael Bennet upends race with Colorado governor bid

Flanked by many of the state’s most prominent elected Democrats, Bennet announced his run for governor in an event in Denver’s City Park in April. His decision upended a race that had been expected to be a wide-open contest between multiple up-and-coming Colorado Democrats.

“Everything we care about now is at stake in our country,” Bennet said in a short announcement speech. “Business as usual is simply not enough, and that’s why I’m running for governor of Colorado.”