Yesterday, as Coloradans finished casting a blue wave of ballots that upended state politics, U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner, who along with CU Regent Heidi Ganahl are now the lone Republicans occupying state-wide offices in Colorado, was on the radio talking like a candidate.
After U.S. Rep. Mike Coffman won re-election in 2016, prevailing in a district carried by Hillary Clinton, even the liberal blog ColoradoPols wrote that the Republican’s “ability to survive so many very different electoral climates and the complete refashioning of his congressional district make another serious run at Coffman increasingly difficult to justify.”
U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner didn’t appear in the Denver area, but he made campaign stops last week in rural parts of the state to encourage fellow Republicans to vote for Walker Stapleton, the GOP candidate for governor, and other allied candidates.
The lead organizer with Abolish Slavery Colorado, the campaign to pass Amendment A, received a burned stack of campaign literature on his front porch this afternoon.
Unaffiliated voters are casting ballots “at a level never seen before in a midterm election in Colorado,” says Republican Pollster Ryan Winger at Magellan Strategies in a blog post today.
Republican Christine Jensen is running for a Jefferson County state senate seat that will likely determine whether Democrats control Colorado government. And she has no public position on President Donald Trump.
This guest editorial from Denver Mayor Michael Hancock first appeared in Colorado Politics.
With multiple polls showing U.S. Rep. Mike Coffman of Aurora headed toward defeat in Tuesday’s election, the longtime Republican Congressman saw no reason to worry yesterday, blaming the New York Times for deliberately skewing polling results toward his opponent, Democrat Jason Crow, and manufacturing concern about a possible loss by Coffman.
Democrats and Republicans have submitted about the same number of ballots so far, but most political observers are giving Colorado Democrats the serious upper hand this morning, as figures continue to show strong midterm turnout by unaffiliated voters and women, who favor Democrats in recent polling.
The 2018 election may be remembered as the year most Republican candidates in Colorado decided not to speak out against Trump. And paid the price.
