CO Democrats did not need to nominate Hickenlooper-D to defeat Gardner-R.

Romanoff-D is easily able to defeat Gardner-R in the November 2020 General Election.
Romanoff's major weakness is his performance in the 2014 US House Race in CO-6 against Republican incumbent Mike Coffman. Romanoff lost that race by an 8 percent margin. We can argue that 2014 was a Republican wave election year. CO-6 was a swing district. Romanoff's 2020 performance in CO-6 is going to be better than his 2014 performance in CO-6. The Democratic nominee for statewide elected office in CO does not need to carry CO-6 to win statewide in the November General Election. They just have to win big in CO-1,CO-2,and CO-7. Democratic primary voters in states that are less Democratic than CO has nominated more progressive generic candidates to challenge the Republican incumbents in their states.
Gideon-ME,Ossoff-GA, and Greenfield-IA. These 3 candidate are likely to win in November 2020 General Election.
Hickenlooper is the only incoming Democratic US Senator that is vulnerable to a Democratic primary challenge in 2026.
Hickenlooper is moderate Democrat from a state that turning into a safe Democratic state. The Democrats have a strong candidates to win in the primary and win in the general election.
Polis-D 2 term Governor of CO who can not seek another term for Governor of CO in 2026 due to term limits.
Griswold-D 2 term Secretary of State of CO who can not seek another term for Secretary of State of CO in 2026 due to term limits.
Neguse-D 4 term US House member from CO-2 cd.