The two Democrats running for governor of Colorado agreed on nearly every policy-related topic but vehemently clashed over which of them is best equipped to lead the state through what one described as an “existential moment” in a televised debate Tuesday night in Denver.

U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet and Attorney General Phil Weiser each made the case that they’re the one to replace term-limited Gov Jared Polis, a fellow Democrat, during the hourlong contest on the University of Denver campus, held just days before primary ballots are scheduled to go in the mail to Colorado voters.

Sponsored by 9News, Colorado Politics and The Gazette, the debate aired live on KUSA-TV and streamed on all three media outlets’ websites.

While exchanges between the two Democrats at times grew heated, it was a decidedly more conventional debate than the one that took place on the same stage two nights earlier, when the three Republicans running for governor, state Sen. Barb Kirkmeyer, state Rep. Scott Bottoms and ministry leader Victor Marx, debated for the first time in an event filled with bizarre exchanges.

Instead, the two Democrats outlined their plans to address what Bennet called Colorado’s “cost-of-living crisis” amid what Weiser characterized as “this lawless, bullying administration,” referring to President Donald Trump’s second term in the White House.

In between, Bennet and Weiser vented over a series of attacks they’ve hurled at each other all year, from Weiser knocking Bennet for voting to confirm multiple Trump Cabinet nominees and Bennet jabbing Weiser for declining to sign on to numerous lawsuits challenging the first Trump administration’s policies.

Trump, who lost the vote in Colorado three times, by increasingly larger margins, could have been a third candidate on stage, as often as he appeared as a foil.

Responding to the mutual accusations, both candidates reiterated defenses they’ve been articulating for months.

Asked whether he still stands by his votes for specific Trump nominees, including Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, Bennet said he did, citing what he called “the reality” that “Colorado and the American West are going through an existential fire crisis, and we need the resources that the Forest Service is bringing to bear in Colorado.”

Weiser, who has touted the dozens of lawsuits he’s filed against the Trump administration since the Republican took office again last year, said that Democratic attorneys general were better prepared to counter Trump during his second term. In contrast, he added, with what he charged was Bennet’s business-as-usual approach in the Senate, a characterization Bennet denied.

“He was missing in action for the entire first term of Donald Trump, and he said the reason that he was missing in action was that there were restraints on Donald Trump in Donald Trump’s own administration,” Weiser said.

“[Bennet’s] had months to find a single lawsuit that I brought and shouldn’t, and he can’t. He’s making a charge. It’s a serious charge, calling me an opportunist, bringing lawsuits for political reasons, not to protect the people of Colorado,” Weiser continued. “When I sue, every time I take it seriously, and I asked two questions, is the law being broken, and are Coloradans being harmed?”

9News anchor Kyle Clark moderated the debate with the station’s chief political reporter, Marshall Zelinger.

In response to a question that described the primary race as a “contest to see who can blame Donald Trump for more things and promise to fight him harder,” Bennet said he disagreed with the characterization.

“Most of what we’re talking about is the cost-of-living crisis that Colorado is having,” Bennet said. “Most of what we’re talking about is the inability for people to be able to live the life that Susan and I lived here in Colorado. … No, I don’t think [Trump’s] caused every single problem for Colorado or America. I think he is a symptom of the economic challenges that too many Americans and too many Coloradans are facing.”

The race for the Democratic nomination could be tightening as the primary approaches, according to a poll released Wednesday by Fighting for Colorado, an independent expenditure committee that supports Weiser.

The survey, conducted June 1-2 by Democratic firm Public Policy Polling, showed Bennet leading Weiser 36%-30% among likely primary voters — just outside the poll’s 4.4% margin for error — with 34% undecided.

County clerks can start sending primary ballots to Colorado voters on Monday, and they must be returned by 7 p.m. on June 30. Democrats and Republicans receive their party’s ballots, while unaffiliated voters get both major parties’ ballots and can vote and return one of them.