Pam Anderson, who acknowledged that Joe Biden was legitimately elected in 2020, won Colorados Republican secretary of state primary Tuesday night, defeating an election skeptic whod pushed the lie that the contest had been stolen from former President Donald Trump .

The Associated Press called the race for Anderson, who easily knocked off Tina Peters, the Mesa County clerk who was indicted last year on charges that she allowed someone to improperly access and download data from election machines as she sought to prove that widespread fraud had occurred in the states 2020 presidential election.

Anderson, by contrast, bluntly stated that the 2020 election was legitimate in a recent interview with The Colorado Sun , in which she acknowledged that Biden had won the presidency.

No, Anderson said when asked if she believed the race had been stolen from Trump. Here in Colorado we have independent, verifiable paper ballot audits that have found no evidence that the outcome was incorrect.

Election deniers like Peters fared poorly across Colorado on Tuesday: Businessman Joe ODea, who also accepted Bidens victory as legitimate, won the GOP Senate primary over state Rep. Ron Hanks (R), who staked his campaign on Trumps lies about the 2020 election.

Anderson, a former county clerk with experience overseeing elections, will now face Democratic Secretary of State Jena Griswold in Novembers general election. Her victory is the second major win for a Republican who has defended the legitimacy of the 2020 election in a GOP secretary of state primary, after Georgia incumbent Brad Raffensperger (R) easily defeated a Trump-endorsed primary challenger in May.

It also ensures that elections in a key swing state will not be overseen by an election denier. Peters was no ordinary skeptic: She was barred from overseeing local elections in Mesa County in 2021 and has similarly been banned from running the countys elections this year.