John Hickenlooper won’t have long to relish his cruise to the Democratic nomination in Tuesday’s U.S. Senate primary. He still has a case to make to Colorado, one left unsettled in my insider’s eye after all his years as governor and all these months on the campaign trail.

“I’ve never lost an election in this state, and I don’t intend to lose this one,” he pointed out to his supporters in his victory speech Tuesday night, before talking climate change, health care and the woes of tax breaks for the rich.

Cory Gardner didn’t sound scared when I talked to him Tuesday night. I wasn’t skilled enough to hem him in with questions about Trump on election night. Trump who? We’ll be talking more about Gardner’s heavy campaign burdens in the weeks ahead — an unpopular president, a faltering economy, and energized Democratic electorate and a state that has moved far to the left since the last time Gardner was the challenger in 2014.

There’s no hemming Gardner in on Trump. I tried. Donald who?

The Democrats have taken to calling the incumbent “No Comment Cory” for his lack of willingness to discuss the Republican president’s antics and scandals. Hick, so far, has been unwilling to talk much about anything.

He’s offered no personal agenda beyond the usual Democratic talking points. If I wanted to know what Hick thinks — since he hasn’t been available to reporters in awhile now — I guess I could contact Nancy Pelosi’s office.

The former governor won the primary on the brute strength of his name recognition, the deep pockets of out-of-state Democrats and his reputation for good will.

He might be battered, but he’s not beaten, and it pays not to beat on him too hard. Coloradans don’t like that kind of politics, and Hickenlooper has built his brand on it.

I remember a particularly tough TV ad in the closing days of his run for governor in 2014. The piece asked if the incumbent governor could keep Coloradans safe, and it made passing reference to the assassination of Hickenlooper’s prisons chief, orchestrated by a white supremacist prison gang.

If you dislike everything about Hickenlooper’s politics, you probably still like the guy. Despite all his money, fame and fancy friends, he’s still an everyman who makes the mistakes you would probably make if you had to be both charming and insightful for cameras and critics.

Trish Zornio, a first-time candidate who lasted longer than most and ran near the top of the pack throughout the campaign, endorsed Hickenlooper. Now’s the time for unity for her party, she tells me.

“Throughout the last year and a half, Colorado Democrats have fought to champion the nuances of our causes,” she said in an email Tuesday, after I asked for her appraisal. “We’ve embattled over how best to achieve universal healthcare, how best to combat climate change, and how best to protect immigrants, women, minorities, and working families. But one thing is for sure, at the end of the day we’ve always been on the same team.

“Any differences between us are minuscule compared to the differences we have with Cory Gardner.”

Zornio pointed at health care, citing Gardner’s vote with fellow Republicans to repeal the Affordable Care Act.

“While we acknowledge climate change, he ignores it.” she said of Gardner, though Romanoff portrayed Hickenlooper as in bed with oil and gas, and an industry that employed him before the bar business did.

“And while we believe in defending our country without keeping children in cages, he aided in separating children from their parents and tossing away the key. Today’s GOP is out of step with Colorado, and our impassioned primary has never undermined our need to come together starting July 1 to defeat Donald Trump and his chief supporter, Cory Gardner. We’re ready for November.”

Joe Salazar, the former state representative who barely lost the Democratic nomination for attorney general last year, backed Romanoff. Salazar, a civil rights attorney, now leads Colorado Rising, the environmental advocacy organization and lead combatant against the industry.

“Now that Hickenlooper appears to be the winner of the primary, it will be important for his campaign to stop all the unforced errors,” Salazar told me in a text. “He’s in the title fight now, and Gardner is formidable.

“Hick has a lot of work to do to court progressive Democrats and unaffiliated voters. The next few weeks will tell us a lot about who he is.”

The question will persist throughout this campaign as to whether Hickenlooper really wants this. His party certainly does.

My friend Dick Wadhams, the former Colorado GOP chairman and national-caliber campaign strategist, has told me a couple of different ways that the one thing every successful politician he’s known has is an unquenchable thirst to win.

Hick has shown little or no sign of that yet. When he was campaigning for president in Iowa last year and the idea of taking on Gardner was raised, he famously said:

“I’m not cut out to be a senator. Senators don’t build teams. Senators sit and debate in small groups, which is important, right? But I’m not sure that’s my — I’m a doer. That’s what gives me joy.”

Like Salazar said, he’s got plenty to do now.

John Hickenlooper won’t have long to relish his cruise to the Democratic nomination in Tuesday’s U.S. Senate primary. He still has a case to make to Colorado, one left unsettled in my insider’s eye after all his years as governor and all these months on the campaign trail.

“I’ve never lost an election in this state, and I don’t intend to lose this one,” he pointed out to his supporters in his victory speech Tuesday night, before talking climate change, health care and the woes of tax breaks for the rich.

Cory Gardner didn’t sound scared when I talked to him Tuesday night. I wasn’t skilled enough to hem him in with questions about Trump on election night. Trump who? We’ll be talking more about Gardner’s heavy campaign burdens in the weeks ahead — an unpopular president, a faltering economy, and energized Democratic electorate and a state that has moved far to the left since the last time Gardner was the challenger in 2014.

There’s no hemming Gardner in on Trump. I tried. Donald who?

The Democrats have taken to calling the incumbent “No Comment Cory” for his lack of willingness to discuss the Republican president’s antics and scandals. Hick, so far, has been unwilling to talk much about anything.

He’s offered no personal agenda beyond the usual Democratic talking points. If I wanted to know what Hick thinks — since he hasn’t been available to reporters in awhile now — I guess I could contact Nancy Pelosi’s office.

The former governor won the primary on the brute strength of his name recognition, the deep pockets of out-of-state Democrats and his reputation for good will.

He might be battered, but he’s not beaten, and it pays not to beat on him too hard. Coloradans don’t like that kind of politics, and Hickenlooper has built his brand on it.

I remember a particularly tough TV ad in the closing days of his run for governor in 2014. The piece asked if the incumbent governor could keep Coloradans safe, and it made passing reference to the assassination of Hickenlooper’s prisons chief, orchestrated by a white supremacist prison gang.

If you dislike everything about Hickenlooper’s politics, you probably still like the guy. Despite all his money, fame and fancy friends, he’s still an everyman who makes the mistakes you would probably make if you had to be both charming and insightful for cameras and critics.

Trish Zornio, a first-time candidate who lasted longer than most and ran near the top of the pack throughout the campaign, endorsed Hickenlooper. Now’s the time for unity for her party, she tells me.

“Throughout the last year and a half, Colorado Democrats have fought to champion the nuances of our causes,” she said in an email Tuesday, after I asked for her appraisal. “We’ve embattled over how best to achieve universal healthcare, how best to combat climate change, and how best to protect immigrants, women, minorities, and working families. But one thing is for sure, at the end of the day we’ve always been on the same team.

“Any differences between us are minuscule compared to the differences we have with Cory Gardner.”

Zornio pointed at health care, citing Gardner’s vote with fellow Republicans to repeal the Affordable Care Act.

“While we acknowledge climate change, he ignores it.” she said of Gardner, though Romanoff portrayed Hickenlooper as in bed with oil and gas, and an industry that employed him before the bar business did.

“And while we believe in defending our country without keeping children in cages, he aided in separating children from their parents and tossing away the key. Today’s GOP is out of step with Colorado, and our impassioned primary has never undermined our need to come together starting July 1 to defeat Donald Trump and his chief supporter, Cory Gardner. We’re ready for November.”

Joe Salazar, the former state representative who barely lost the Democratic nomination for attorney general last year, backed Romanoff. Salazar, a civil rights attorney, now leads Colorado Rising, the environmental advocacy organization and lead combatant against the industry.

“Now that Hickenlooper appears to be the winner of the primary, it will be important for his campaign to stop all the unforced errors,” Salazar told me in a text. “He’s in the title fight now, and Gardner is formidable.

“Hick has a lot of work to do to court progressive Democrats and unaffiliated voters. The next few weeks will tell us a lot about who he is.”

The question will persist throughout this campaign as to whether Hickenlooper really wants this. His party certainly does.

My friend Dick Wadhams, the former Colorado GOP chairman and national-caliber campaign strategist, has told me a couple of different ways that the one thing every successful politician he’s known has is an unquenchable thirst to win.

Hick has shown little or no sign of that yet. When he was campaigning for president in Iowa last year and the idea of taking on Gardner was raised, he famously said:

“I’m not cut out to be a senator. Senators don’t build teams. Senators sit and debate in small groups, which is important, right? But I’m not sure that’s my — I’m a doer. That’s what gives me joy.”

Like Salazar said, he’s got plenty to do now.