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Former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper will challenge Republican U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner in November, voters decided Tuesday night in the state’s Democratic U.S. Senate primary.

Hickenlooper jumped out to an early lead over former state House Speaker Andrew Romanoff shortly after ballots were due at 7 p.m., and he never relinquished it. The Associated Press called the race for Hickenlooper at 7:37 p.m., when he held a 20 percentage-points lead, according to the Colorado Secretary of State’s Office.

“We must come together to reclaim our country and assert the fundamental decency of a nation that looks out for its people, treats everyone with respect and lives up to the ideals at the very foundation of who we are as a country,” a jubilant Hickenlooper said in a live video feed after the race had been called.

Recruited by national Democrats into a crowded primary last summer after he abandoned a stalled presidential run, Hickenlooper was the early favorite and the first candidate to make the primary ballot, by petition. But as ballots went out, he was met with weeks of blistering attacks from Romanoff, Gardner and national Republicans, who kicked off their summer ad campaign weeks early after Hickenlooper was found to have violated a state gift ban.

“I’ve never lost an election in this state, and I don’t intend to lose this one,” said Hickenlooper, who served two terms as Denver mayor and two terms as governor. “There’s far too much at stake. But this fight isn’t going to be easy.”

With a nod toward the barrage of charges hurled at him by Republicans, Hickenlooper said, “Donald Trump, the Republicans and their dark money groups are going to keep throwing everything they’ve got at us because they can’t defend Cory Gardner’s record.”

Trump, who lost Colorado to Democrat Hillary Clinton by about 5 percentage points and has embraced Gardner, is underwater with state voters, according to polls. Hickenlooper left no doubt that he plans to run against both Republicans in the four months that remain in the campaign.

Hickenlooper said his opponents won’t be able to defend Gardner’s attempts to “gut people’s health care” or his vote to cut taxes for corporations and the nation’s wealthiest. “They can’t defend Gardner’s cowardly silence as Donald Trump ignored a pandemic, fanned the flames of racism and divided the America we love.”

Shortly before 8 p.m., Romanoff told supporters gathered online for a virtual primary night watch party that he had just called Hickenlooper to congratulate him and pledge his full support in the race against Gardner.

“I hope you’ll join me,” Romanoff said. “For all the differences we had, and there were many in this race, I am equally committed to making sure Cory Gardner is a one-term senator.”

Romanoff, who has been in Ohio since traveling there a week ago to be with his ailing father, who died Sunday night, added: “I’ve learned this week that there are far more important things than losing an election.”

As the conclusion of a primary season neared, both candidates’ campaigns were charging to the finish line as mail ballots poured in to county clerks, though vote totals fell short of the record primary turnout in Colorado’s March 3 presidential primary.

The primary caps months of campaigning amid a pandemic — with the candidates pressing “enter” instead of pressing the flesh, in-person events replaced by virtual gatherings online, and door knocks replaced by text message alerts.

Hickenlooper was the early front-runner and maintained an overwhelming lead in fundraising through the primary. But weeks of missteps and millions of dollars in attack ads could leave the still-popular former brewpub owner battered heading into a fall campaign that could determine which party controls the Senate after the election.

Hickenlooper faced rulings this month by the state’s Independent Ethics Commission that found he violated an ethics clause in the state constitution by accepting a private plane ride and ground transportation during trips he took as governor, as well as a contempt citation after he spurned a subpoena to testify in a virtual hearing.

The avowedly unpolished politico also found his foot frequently in contact with his mouth, including mangling an answer about the sentiment behind the Black Lives Matter movement and being forced to apologize for a years-old remark comparing busy politicians to whip-driven slaves.

Coupled with more pointed performances by Romanoff in a series of televised debates held after ballots went to voters, those stumbles appeared to boost Romanoff’s momentum, though the underdog still trailed by double digits in a pair of polls released in recent weeks, including one commissioned by Romanoff’s own campaign.

Romanoff staked out positions far to the left, including support for the aggressive Green New Deal and the single-payer Medicare for all plan — potentially making him vulnerable in the general election in a state that still counts roughly equal numbers of Democrats and Republicans among its registered voters.

Hickenlooper will face a skilled and disciplined campaigner in Gardner — though he’s one of only two Republicans still holding office statewide after a 2018 blue-wave election swept Democrats into offices they haven’t held in decades. University of Colorado regent at large Heidi Ganahl is the other.

The primary has seen an avalanche of outside spending, including $1.4 million spent by the National Republican Senatorial Committee on ads attacking Hickenlooper, $1.4 million spent by Let’s Turn Colorado Blue, a shadowy group of Hickenlooper supporters, on ads attacking Romanoff, and nearly $2.7 million spent by the Senate Majority PAC, the leading Democratic Senate PAC, defending Hickenlooper.

After Hickenlooper was declared the primary’s winner, a spokeswoman for the Republican Senatorial Committee applauded the Democrats for nominating a candidate who said repeatedly during his presidential campaign that he wasn’t cut out to be a senator.

“Over the next few months, voters are going to learn what Hickenlooper has been hiding — about his disregard for the law, his misuse of taxpayer funds, and all the illegal gifts and travel from his corporate sugar daddies. If watching him fall apart under pressure these last few weeks is any indication, ‘hot mess’ Hickenlooper is in for a very bumpy ride”,” committee press secretary Joanna Rodriguez said.

There’s a reason Republicans have spent so much money bashing Hickenlooper before he won the nomination. Recent polling has showed him leading Gardner by as much as 18 percentage points, and in April national election forecaster Nathan Gonzales at Inside Elections moved the seat from the “toss-up” category to “tilts Democratic,” citing the state’s shifting electorate and Hickenlooper’s strengths as a challenger.