Obama Gained More Than 200,000 Voters as Colorado Shifted Democratic

In the eight years from President G.W. Bush’s five-point Colorado re-election win in 2004 to President Obama’s five-point win in 2012, Colorado has been transformed from a lean Republican state to lean Democratic.

A combination of new voters and changed opinion caused the shift. Although it is by no means permanent, it constitutes a new fact on the ground for the two parties.

Out of the 422,000 more voters participating in 2012 compared to 2004, 245,000, or 62 percent, were in the Denver metro area. Democrats won 86 percent of the additional votes, or 211,000 out of the 245,000 increase, offering the clearest explanation for their domination of Colorado politics in the first six months of 2013.

Obama won every metro county but Douglas, unexpectedly taking Arapahoe by a higher percentage than Jefferson. Democrats received 63 percent of their statewide vote from the metro area, which is 57 percent of the total vote.

Denver, not surprisingly, is the Democrats’ best metro county, and had the biggest voter increase for them during the eight years.

See The Buzz:
New voters move Colorado to the left
Jefferson biggest vote total, but Denver added most voters since 2004