From left to right: Jeff Herd, Jeff Crank, and Gabe EvansImmediately after the election, Colorado Democrats were arguing the state provided a Blue Wall and didn’t shift to the right with the rest of the nation, but the defeat of Congressperson Caraveo mostly ended that discussion. And in fact, Colorado voters, including many Democrats, were out of sync with the party’s direction on several key issues:
- Along with losing a congressional district that will help Republicans pad their renewed majority, they failed to win the 3rd District, which was within sight before Lauren Boebert moved, but is now represented by a Republican, Jeff Herd, likely to be in office for many years. The state’s other new Congressperson, Jeff Crank, represents a non-MAGA conservative leader, helping build a new center of the Republican Party. Also, Boebert, the Democrat’s chief antagonist, won her new district handily.
- The state’s voters supported a package of law and order propositions on the state ballot related to parole, bail, and funding police that are not part of the Democratic agenda. Animal rights groups lost bans of lion hunting, and in Denver, bans of fur products and a slaughter house were beaten solidly.
Denver Democrats defeated their new Mayor’s $100 million sales tax increase for housing, reflecting exhaustion for new taxes and ill-defined programs. - Democrats failed to achieve their top goal of a super majority in the state senate and lost their super majority in the state house. One of the state’s historic working class Democratic strongholds with a large Hispanic voting base, Pueblo County, gave Donald Trump a 4,000 vote edge, elected another Republican county commissioner and a Republican DA. The city already has a Republican mayor.
As Democrats return to D.C. facing a trifecta of dedicated opposition and local Democrats assemble at the legislature to manage a diminished state budget, they should realistically examine their policies and tactics in light of this election.
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