A Democratic vacancy committee has selected Jillaire McMillan as the party’s candidate for a key state House race in November, weeks after the sitting legislator announced she wouldn’t run for reelection.

McMillan, who runs a small marine robotics company with her husband, beat Richard Garcia by two votes — 16 to 14 — in the second round of balloting Thursday night. Garcia is the father of Rep. Lorena Garcia, an Adams County Democrat who was appointed by a vacancy committee in 2023.

Anil Pesaramelli and Jim Reed also vied for the candidacy Thursday.

McMillan will now challenge Republican candidate Dan Woog to represent House District 19 in the House for the next two years. The district straddles Interstate 25 and includes some north metro Denver communities.

Woog previously represented the area before losing to Democratic Rep. Jennifer Parenti in 2022. Parenti, who lives in Erie, announced in July that she wouldn’t run for reelection, blaming a Capitol culture that prioritized “personal agendas and special interests.”

Because Parenti dropped out after the June primary, a vacancy committee — made up of Democratic party members because of Parenti’s party affiliation — was convened to find a replacement candidate.

Parenti’s 2022 win helped cement Democrats’ supermajority control of the state House over the past two years — giving Republicans less power over procedure — and her reelection bid was seen as a key battleground for Democrats’ defense of that supermajority this year. Her decision to drop out makes McMillan’s, and Democrats’, task all the harder.

Still, the party’s overall control of the Capitol is not in doubt, and Democrats have a chance to attain a supermajority of seats in the Senate come November.

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Originally Published: August 9, 2024 at 11:09 a.m.