A pro-union bill that has pitted Gov. Jared Polis against every Democratic lawmaker and Colorado’s major labor groups is set to return to the Capitol this year.
But this time, the focus will begin to turn toward two men hoping to occupy the governor’s office next.
Scores of lawmakers and union members heralded the return of the Worker Protection Act in the state Capitol on Thursday, six days before the legislature was set to settle in for its 2026 session. Like its predecessor bill that Polis vetoed last year, the measure would eliminate a unique provision of Colorado law that requires newly unionized workers to pass a second election — on top of the first contest that establishes the union — before they can negotiate union dues with their employer.
The second election comes with a higher threshold to pass — 75% — than the first, which requires a simple majority. Supporters argue that the second election serves only as an impediment to contract negotiations and union organizing.
“You hear politician after politician after politician saying, ‘Affordability, affordabilty, affordabilty …’ ” Rep. Javier Mabrey told supporters Thursday. The lawmaker is set to sponsor the bill with fellow Denver Rep. Jennifer Bacon and Wheat Ridge Sen. Jessie Danielson, both also Democrats. “Well, we are here with an actual, real solution to increase worker power and to increase wages.”
They will be appealing to Polis as much as the two leading candidates vying for the Democratic nomination in blue-leaning Colorado — U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet and Attorney General Phil Weiser.
The 2026 version of the bill is largely unchanged from the measure that passed last year, when every Democratic lawmaker voted to advance it. Finding sufficient votes to pass the bill was not an obstacle in 2025 and likely won’t be the main obstacle again this time around. The roadblock comes in the form of Polis.
The governor has said he wants a negotiated settlement between labor and business groups, which support the second election. The provision was written into state law in the 1940s and is unique in the United States. Business groups — such as the Colorado Chamber of Commerce — have defended it as a negotiated settlement with unions. The second election, they argued last year, provides workers another opportunity to decide whether to discuss collecting dues.
Indeed, Colorado officials have touted the law to companies when it’s pitched them on moving to the state: In its 2020 propsal to Palantir Technologies, for instance, the Office of Economic Development and International Trade touted the second election as a “hybrid ‘right to work’ ” law that “gives more flexibility and protection to workers, while mitigating onerous regulatory burden for companies.”
The chamber did not immediately return a message seeking comment Thursday.
Negotiations around the bill — which included the chamber — dragged on for the entirety of the 2025 session. They collapsed in late spring, after Polis offered to sign the bill if union groups supported his policy goals of cutting restaurant wages, establishing more charter schools and privatizing the state’s workers-compensation insurer. When lawmakers refused and passed the bill unchanged, the governor vetoed it.
Polis’ office did not return a message seeking comment Thursday. Mabrey told reporters that Polis has “not explicitly” threatened to veto the 2026 bill, and that lawmakers hadn’t had formal conversations about the policy with his office in recent months. Mabrey said supporters would “ramp up the pressure” this year and seek to tie union membership with affordability concerns, a top-of-mind policy goal for Democrats across America.
“I don’t know if that’s enough to get him to change his veto,” Mabrey said, “but maybe if we fail this year, we can get it done next year.”
Negotiations will likely begin again. But this session will be Polis’ last, and union groups — who have shelved plans to launch a pro-worker ballot campaign — are now starting to eye the governor’s would-be replacements.
Neither Bennet nor Weiser have said that they support eliminating the second election. Bennet told CityCast late last year that he, like Polis, wanted labor and business to work it out. In May, Weiser told the Colorado Sun that he wanted to change state labor law through “rigorous engagement (and) working together.”
Spokespeople for Weiser and Bennet did not immediately return requests for comment Thursday.
With Polis an established — and lame duck — opponent, lawmakers and labor groups are now looking to increase pressure on Weiser and Bennet. Shad Murib, the chair of the state Democratic Party who spoke Thursday, said the bill would keep coming back until it was signed into law, a pledge reiterated by Dennis Dougherty, the executive director of the Colorado AFL-CIO.
“Let us come together now,” Denver Democratic Sen. Julie Gonzales told supporters Thursday, “to ensure that any elected official or any candidate who seeks to curry your vote and your favor supports the Worker Protection Act.”
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