Danielle Lammon seeks GOP nod to challenge Sen. Tom Sullivan in Senate District 27

AURORA — Republican Danielle Lammon is running for the Colorado state Senate seat in District 27, telling The Kim Monson Show she wants to bring a conservative voice back to a south-metro district now held by a Democrat.

Lammon must first win a contested Republican primary on Tuesday, June 30, before any general-election matchup. She faces Darryl Gibbs, a trucking-business owner, longtime Air Force Reserves C-130 crew chief and former Denver police officer, for the GOP nomination. The winner advances to the Nov. 3 general election against the incumbent.

Senate District 27 covers Arapahoe County, including Centennial and south Aurora, plus a small portion of Douglas County, Colorado Politics reported. The district is currently represented by Democrat Sen. Tom Sullivan, who is running for a second term.

“I’m running for State Senate District 27,” Lammon said on The Kim Monson Show, appearing in a June 19 interview with guest host Brad Beck. “That’s in Southeast Aurora and Centennial.”

A background in community nonprofits

Lammon described herself on the air as “a small business owner and a mom, military wife, who’s been in Colorado over 28 years.” She said she decided to run because she does not “love seeing how our state is going in this direction of losing some of our common sense values.”

Lammon is the founder and CEO of the Aurora Fire Foundation, which supports first responders and public safety, and the founder of the Buddy Publishing Foundation, a literacy nonprofit. A retired small-business owner and former insurance broker, she has chaired the Spina Bifida Association of Colorado and the Aurora Citizens Budget Committee, served as past president of the Rotary Club of Aurora, and authored a children’s picture book. She holds a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from Metropolitan State University of Denver.

“So I’ve just decided to step up and run for Senate, challenge Senator Tom Sullivan,” Lammon said, adding that she wants conservative residents “spoken for again.” She directed voters to her campaign site.

Affordability, the budget, and regulation

Lammon said affordability is the central concern she hears at the doors. “People are tired of taxes being too high and way tired of fees that are just making everything unaffordable,” she said.

She pointed to the state’s budget as a priority. “As everybody’s pretty aware, we’re in a $1.5 billion structural deficit,” Lammon said. That figure is confirmed: nonpartisan Legislative Council Staff told lawmakers in March that the gap between available revenue and the cost of maintaining current state programs and services for the coming fiscal year had grown to more than $1.5 billion, The Colorado Sun reported. The fiscal year takes effect July 1.

Lammon said the state needs to find places to cut. She said that since Democrats took the majority over the last eight years, Colorado has added 7,000 new employees and 270 new programs that it cannot properly fund. She called for a review of the budget and for reducing fees she said are not delivering their stated purpose, citing road maintenance as an example.

On the economy, Lammon said regulation is pushing employers out of the state. “We need to cut our regulations,” she said. “We are the sixth most regulated state and our businesses are leaving.” She said standardizing practices and lowering compliance costs would help small businesses return and add jobs.

Public safety was a recurring theme. Lammon said she hears from residents installing home cameras to protect property and argued that the state needs to “hold our criminals accountable.”

The incumbent and the contrast

Lammon drew a sharp contrast with Sullivan, framing her case around constituent engagement. “I am somebody that’s been out in our community making positive impact, and that’s the same thing I want to bring to the Capitol,” she said.

She characterized Sullivan in her own terms. “If you follow Senator Sullivan’s track record, he just is a one-issue person, and that’s about taking our constitutional rights away,” Lammon said. “He doesn’t vote to protect our kids. He doesn’t vote to have punishment for criminals.”

Sullivan is among the state’s most prominent gun-policy legislators. His son Alex was killed in the 2012 Aurora theater shooting, and Sullivan went on to sponsor Senate Bill 25-003, the 2025 law establishing a permit-to-purchase requirement for certain semiautomatic firearms. He won the District 27 seat in 2022 and took office in January 2023.

Campaign-finance reports filed through the June 10 reporting period show Lammon raised $26,600 plus a $10,000 self-loan, with her largest single contribution coming from the Colorado State Shooting Association, Colorado Politics reported. Gibbs reported raising $876 from six donors over the same period.

Colorado’s statewide primary is June 30, with mail ballots sent to all active registered voters. The general election is Nov. 3.