2026 November Ballot Measure Guide

Props 134 & 135, backed by the anti-LGBTQ+ Christian nationalist organization Protect Kids Colorado, would use the power of the state to single out transgender children and restrict their participation in everyday life.

Trans people’s humanity, dignity, and equal place in our communities are not up for debate. Denver DSA rejects the idea that their freedom and ability to live ordinary lives should be treated as a political problem for everyone else to solve.

Trans people are an incredibly small minority with little political power, and trans children have no political power at all. Yet some of the wealthiest and most powerful people in the country are spending hundreds of millions to turn their lives into a major political issue. As socialists, we ask the questions at the heart of any class and power analysis: Who is weaponizing fear and bigotry against people with the least political power? And to what end?

Billionaires, fascist politicians, oil companies, and the Christian Nationalist right all love funding one thing: anti-trans campaigns like Props 134 & 135. In the last presidential election, more money was spent on anti-trans attack ads than ads on immigration or the economy. In September 2026, Elon Musk’s America PAC launched a multi-million-dollar anti-trans advertising campaign, all in an effort to drive right-wing voters to the polls and direct the fear and anger of working-class people away from the billionaires and corporations that actually hold power over their lives.

The fact that Props 134 & 135 are part of a manufactured wedge issue does not make the harm they cause transgender people any less real. Anti-trans hatred is one of the most well-funded political causes in the country, and it is killing kids. A large peer-reviewed study found that suicide attempts among trans and nonbinary youth ages 13 to 17 increased by as much as 72% in the second year after states passed anti-trans laws. Trans kids already face extraordinarily high levels of bullying, discrimination, and mental health distress. More than half of trans kids already live in states where laws restrict their rights, further stigmatizing and isolating them. Props 134 & 135 would add Colorado to that list.

Follow the @VoteNo134135 campaign on Instagram and turn out for local canvassing and phone banking efforts.

Without raising taxes, Proposition NN would raise the TABOR revenue cap by the amount currently being spent on K-12 education ($4.6 billion). This would allow the state to retain any additional revenue that is collected above the current cap but below the new Prop. NN cap and use the increased revenue for K-12 education and programs that support education (such as childcare and preschool funding). This proposal would increase education funding by an estimated $520 million next year, and significantly more in future years if the Colorado economy continues to expand. This additional funding is crucial for Colorado’s underfunded education system, which is estimated to be facing a shortfall of $3.5 billion, or about $4,000 per pupil. However, the lifted cap will eventually be met, and Colorado will be back in a structural deficit.

Prop 132 is backed by the conservative dark money organization Advance Colorado. It takes one of Colorado’s most serious public health crises (overdose deaths) and offers the same failed carceral “solution”: more felonies, harsher prison sentences, and precious state dollars funneled away from what actually works. We actually know what works to prevent overdose: accessible, low-barrier addiction services including counseling, medications, long-term treatment, recovery housing, evidence-based drug education, and harm reduction interventions like making naloxone and drug checking tools widely available. Yet Prop 132 offers none of this. If passed, it would be one of the most extreme drug laws in the nation, rolling back 30 years of work to reverse mass incarceration and unwind the harmful effects of the War on Drugs. It would make possession of any amount of fentanyl a felony, including first-time cases. It would treat an 18-year-old sharing a single pill at a party like a high-level trafficker selling hundreds of thousands of pills: with a mandatory 8-to-32-year prison sentence, even for a first offense, when no money changed hands, or when the person didn’t know fentanyl was present. Judges would have no discretion to offer a lesser sentence.

Despite paying lip service to treatment (mandating it for first-time possession cases of very small amounts), it provides $0 in new funding for treatment. An expert analysis projects that Prop 132 would significantly increase overdose deaths in Colorado, resulting in 1,718 additional overdose deaths over five years (a 41.3% increase).

The private prison company CoreCivic directly funds Advance Colorado and stands to profit greatly if Prop 132 passes. The measure would send 900 additional people to prison each year and cost taxpayers at least $433 million in prison expansion over its first five years — all while Colorado’s prisons are already full, the state is facing deep budget cuts, and treatment is badly underfunded (thanks, TABOR!).

Proposition 133 is a “solution” in search of a problem. It would increase the penalty for child sex trafficking from a class 2 to a class 1 felony and require a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole. Sex trafficking is already a serious felony in Colorado, carrying lengthy prison sentences. Legislative Council Staff projects that this measure will not result in any additional child sex trafficking convictions, but it could harm trafficking victims themselves, who are often coerced by their traffickers into recruiting or managing other victims. If charged, they would face life in prison without parole under the measure — judges would have no discretion to look at the individual circumstances that may have compelled another victim to commit this crime.

But as policy goes, Prop 133 may not be the point. It comes from Protect Kids Colorado, the same anti-LGBTQ+ Christian nationalist organization behind Prop 134 and 135, the two ballot measures targeting transgender youth. It fits a political strategy its allies have openly discussed: use emotionally charged issues involving children to drive conservative voters to the polls. Child sex trafficking is a compelling rallying cry for a political movement obsessed with trafficking conspiracies (not the Epstein files, though).

The headlines write themselves: “Denver DSA supports child sex trafficking!” — but no one should support anything bigots like Erin Lee or “Prophet” Lance Wallnau get behind.

Backed by the deep-pocketed conservative political organization Advance Colorado, Prop 136 would cap Colorado’s individual and corporate income tax rates at 4.4% — the same rate they are today. This comes as Colorado faces a third year of major budget shortfalls and further cuts to essential services statewide. The measure is designed in part to put competing Amendment 87 (the Graduated Income Tax measure) into legal jeopardy if both measures pass. But the real boon for Advance Colorado’s billionaire backers is the corporate tax cap. California’s corporate tax rate is 8.84%, and New York’s is 7.25%. Locking Colorado’s rate at 4.4% shields corporations from future tax increases and means less state revenue for education, transportation, health care, and other public services. Colorado already has a regressive tax system, with the wealthiest Coloradans paying the smallest share of their income in state and local taxes. As the economy worsens and more Coloradans recognize the choice between more austerity and asking corporations and the wealthy to pay their fair share, Prop 136 acts as a firewall protecting corporations and the wealthiest Coloradans from paying more.

Prop 137 would exempt existing sales tax on sporting goods from the TABOR revenue cap and direct it towards wilderness conservation, wildfire mitigation, watershed restoration, and outdoor recreation. This is estimated to be about $175 million. In fiscal years that the State is above the TABOR cap, these funds would not impact existing programs. In years when the State is below the TABOR cap, Prop 137 would reduce the amount of General Fund dollars available for existing programs by $175 million.

If Prop NN (the State Public K-12 Education Funding measure) passes, Colorado will be below the cap for the foreseeable future, meaning that if both measures pass, then Prop 137 would reduce available General Fund dollars.

Referred to the voters by the Front Range Passenger Rail District Board, this measure will appear on ballots in the following counties: Adams, Arapahoe, Broomfield, Boulder, Denver, Douglas, El Paso, Huerfano, Jefferson, Larimer, Las Animas, Pueblo, and Weld.

Ballot Issue 7A proposes a 0.333% sales tax increase for residents of the Front Range Passenger Rail District to fund the construction and ongoing operations of the “Colorado Connector” intercity train service. This service will start with 3 trains per day between Denver and Fort Collins in 2029, and eventually expand to 10 trains per day north and 8 trains per day south to Pueblo. The Colorado Connector will be a cheaper, safer, and much more environmentally friendly way to travel up and down the Front Range than driving, while still remaining time-competitive.

This measure will also fund the “local return” program, where municipalities with stations will receive a fixed amount of money from the Colorado Connector each year to build out additional improvements in and around their rail station. Additional low-carbon, low-cost travel options are necessary to combat the cost-of-living and climate crises. Although the measure is being funded by a regressive sales tax, the benefits easily outweigh the negatives.

Amendment 81 would dramatically expand ICE’s power in Colorado and override current state laws that limit ICE involvement. Brought to the ballot by the billionaire-funded conservative dark-money group Advance Colorado, it would require state and local law enforcement to report people to ICE based on criminal charges alone, before they have been convicted of anything. It risks putting Coloradans in the hands of ICE simply because they can’t prove their citizenship or lawful status within 72 hours. It also opens the door to racial profiling, with judgments about immigration status potentially based on subjective factors like appearance or accent.

This amendment threatens to separate more Colorado families and could make immigrant communities less likely to report crimes or cooperate with law enforcement out of fear of detention or deportation. Worse, Amendment 81 would bake ICE cooperation into the Colorado Constitution for decades, making it harder for Colorado to set its own limits on immigration enforcement in the future.

Amendment 82 looks like a benign “consumer choice” protection, but it’s a gift to the fossil fuel industry. Brought to the ballot by the conservative dark-money group Advance Colorado, this measure would make it a constitutional right for consumers to purchase natural gas for cooking or heating, and for distributors and utilities to sell it for use in homes and businesses. Natural gas emits greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change. Because Colorado is already dealing with increasingly severe impacts of climate change, this measure would restrict state and local efforts to reduce emissions, improve air quality, and transition to cleaner energy. It would also make it easier for fossil fuel companies to sue to block clean-energy policies or protections for public health and safety from corporate polluters.

Colorado’s wealthiest man and one of Advance Colorado’s major funders, billionaire Phil Anschutz, is heavily invested in natural gas. No other industry gets a constitutional guarantee that Coloradans be able to buy and sell its product. The fossil fuel industry shouldn’t either. Our state constitution should protect fundamental rights, not guarantee profits for fossil fuel companies and their investors.

Amendment 83 was brought to the ballot by the billionaire-backed right-wing political organization Advance Colorado. It would force the state to prioritize hunting and fishing over other approaches to wildlife management, limiting the state’s ability to respond to changing science, protect habitat, or consider other species. It would shift authority away from the scientists and wildlife experts at Colorado Parks and Wildlife by limiting their ability to implement science-based conservation. Similar measures in other states have made new wildlife protections harder to adopt: in Florida, a right-to-hunt law was used to stop new protections for endangered sea turtles, while Wisconsin has faced lengthy and expensive legal battles over conflicts between hunting rights and wildlife management.

The amendment’s undefined “traditional methods” language could open the door to allowing baiting and steel-jawed leghold traps, practices that Colorado voters have previously banned. Ultimately, with climate change making the future of Colorado’s wildlife and habitats increasingly unpredictable, the state needs more flexibility to respond to changing conditions, not less. The Constitution should protect fundamental rights, not lock one approach to wildlife management into place for generations.

Colorado is known for its gold-standard, secure elections. Yet this proposed Constitutional amendment from the billionaire-funded conservative dark-money group Advance Colorado would require voters to provide government-issued identification information with their mail ballots. If that information is missing or cannot be matched with the voter database, their ballot will not be counted unless they take additional steps within a very limited time.

Voter ID laws have nothing to do with election security and everything to do with voter suppression. A 2024 study of states with strict voter ID laws found that nearly 50% of transgender people did not have an ID that matched their name and/or gender identity. 15%–25% of older voters, Black & Latino voters, and lower-income voters don’t possess the accepted forms of identification required by this measure.

On the surface, Amendment 85 seems to be a helpful way to ensure voters understand the policies they’re voting on. But this measure would actually do the opposite by eliminating important information from ballot titles. The Bell Policy Center calls the initiative a “wolf in sheep’s clothing” designed to enshrine in our state Constitution a system that leaves voters with less information about how proposed tax changes will affect them. It would overturn existing laws that require ballot titles to explain their real-world impacts, such as Proposition GG, passed by Colorado voters in 2022, which requires ballot questions changing state income taxes to include a table showing how the change would affect taxpayers at different income levels. Another current law (HB21-1321) requires measures that increase or reduce taxes to explain how those changes would affect state and local budgets.

This measure is one of the many (eight!) proposals brought to Colorado’s 2026 ballot by the dark-money group Advance Colorado, which hopes to continue to leverage Colorado’s citizen-initiated ballot measure process to push a right-wing policy agenda unencumbered by those pesky facts.

Backed by the right-wing dark money group Advance Colorado, Amendment 86 would make it harder for Colorado to redraw its congressional districts between censuses. Congressional maps are normally redrawn every ten years after the U.S. Census. Under this measure, any attempt to redraw them sooner would have to go through Colorado’s independent redistricting commission and be approved by the Colorado Supreme Court. The measure would also prohibit maps intentionally drawn to favor one political party.

Amendment 86 comes amid a wave of mid-decade redistricting efforts across the country, led by Republicans anxious to keep their 3-seat majority in the House. California is the only state to successfully redraw its map to benefit Democrats in 2026. The national redistricting battles have advantaged Republicans in about 10 additional congressional districts. In Colorado, a Democratic group proposed a measure to draw a temporary new map that could have given Democrats a 7–1 advantage in the state’s congressional delegation. Republicans filed competing proposals. The Colorado Supreme Court blocked all of them in June for violating the state Constitution’s single-subject rule.

Amendment 86 would add another constitutional barrier to Colorado changing its maps in response to national gerrymandering efforts.

Due to Federal Republican tax cuts for the rich and defunding of Medicare reimbursements to the states, we in Colorado are facing a major budget shortfall. To address this, the Graduated Income Tax (GIT) measure seeks to raise revenue and avoid damaging cuts to state programs by raising state income taxes on the same segments of society receiving tax cuts at the federal level. This initiative simultaneously cuts income taxes for the bulk of Colorado residents who make under a million dollars to help working families make ends meet. To see how your taxes would be impacted, see the Colorado Sun’s GIT Calculator.

Denver DSA and indeed practically all left-aligned groups view progressive taxes (higher rates on higher incomes) as inherently more fair than flat rates due to the fact that the first dollars earned go to satisfy the most basic needs — food, shelter, clothing, etc. — while each additional dollar is increasingly more likely to go to luxury consumption, and thus the taxation of those dollars at a higher rate to help society is just as important, as the health and welfare of all takes priority over the lifestyle of the most affluent. This is why Federal income tax has been progressive from its inception, as are most state income taxes; Colorado’s flat tax is out of line with the nation.

All new revenue raised by this measure would be earmarked for the state’s health, childcare, and education spending, which ensures the money is spent on high-priority needs, while giving the state legislature flexibility within these categories that has been denied under the disastrous TABOR system.