Republican nominee Ralph Lawrence Carr defeated Democratic incumbent Teller Ammons with 59.50% of the vote.

He initially faced a primary challenge from conservative State Senator Elmer E. Headlee, who represented the San Luis Valley.

[2] Prior to the primary, however, Pueblo newspaper editor George J. Knapp, who had previously run for Congress as a Republican in 1936, gathered enough signatures to challenge Ammons for renomination.

However, party leaders were angling for a third candidate and considered former State Senator Nate C. Warren, Colorado Springs Mayor George Birdsall, and former U.S. Attorney Ralph Carr.

[6] And though Snodgrass won enough votes to secure a place on the primary election ballot, he ultimately withdrew from the race as well, allowing Carr to be nominated unopposed.