Is the GOP Dead in Colorado?

Here’s an election result you may not have heard: Coloradans favored the Democratic candidate for president by a margin not seen among the state’s electorate since Lyndon Johnson was the guy in 1964. Such massive support for Dems was in stark contrast to the red wave that engulfed much of the country—and would seem to paint a very bleak future for Colorado’s GOP.

“It’s a challenging environment for Republicans these days, that’s for sure,” says Republican Lori Weigel, a pollster with nearly three decades of experience leading surveys in Colorado. Over the course of her career, Weigel has seen the political winds here shift from favoring GOP candidates to being solidly purple to rivaling California for liberal proclivities.

Between October 24 and November 4 of this year, Weigel’s New Bridge Strategy teamed up with Democratic pollster Aspect Strategic to get a sense of the state’s electorate. The nonpartisan poll—conducted on behalf of the Colorado Polling Institute, a public opinion research nonprofit—included 822 voters statewide who’d either self-identified as having voted or who said they were “definitely” planning to vote in this fall’s election.

We asked Weigel about the survey results plus the plight of the state’s Republicans, how voters may be misled by their media, and a potential path forward for the GOP in Colorado.

Read More: How Colorado Voted on Key Races and Ballot Measures in 2024

Editor’s note: The following conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

5280: There was a Trumpian shift nationwide, but not in Colorado. Is Colorado a political island?
Lori Weigel: I would say the Trump wave lapped at our shores, but it did not overwhelm us. It was not a tsunami that completely engulfed the entire country. We’re a very well-educated electorate, and education level is one of the strongest indicators of how people voted for president in every single state—not just Colorado. So, really, the election results should not have been a surprise.

For our poll, we asked people about political ideologies regarding fiscal and social issues. Voters were upbeat about Colorado and its future. Lots of people in our state are excited to be here and thinking the best days are ahead. Even long-term residents say that.

Your survey showed that 75 percent of Colorado’s Trump voters said they were voting for Trump solely, as opposed to voting for the Republican Party’s candidate. That seems to show real weakness for the GOP here. Is this a danger zone for the state party?
Not only that, but our poll showed three in five Coloradans are negative about Republicans. It’s a real brand challenge. Look at the party number: 37 percent favorable, 59 percent unfavorable. Every Republican candidate for statewide office has a party designation next to their name and is starting with a massive deficit.

For any Republican candidate, if voters don’t look you up and find more information about you and understand your actual positions, they’re going to assume you’re connected to some of the things they don’t like about the Republican Party. It means there’s a branding problem, especially among those unaffiliated voters who aren’t firmly in one camp or another, and they’re looking for those political guideposts. They go off party affiliation.

Do you think it’s hard for Colorado voters to set aside political affiliations when Lauren Boebert exists in the state’s political ecosystem?
In past surveys, we’ve asked something like, “Who’s the most familiar Republican in the state of Colorado?” It’s Lauren Boebert. She’s the most familiar elected Republican official in our state. And clearly, her ratings are unfavorable. First of all, you need different faces to become more prominent.

Read more: Why Won’t Some Western Slope Republicans Talk About Lauren Boebert?

Given the current state of the Colorado GOP, is that the big challenge?
Only 19 percent of unaffiliated voters in our survey said they’re conservative on social issues. And we had one in 10 Colorado voters saying abortion was a top issue for them. That wasn’t because there was something happening in the state of Colorado related to abortion. That was a nationalized view.

So, you have to have a Republican who aligns with the priorities of the electorate. And I think there are Republicans in our state who align with Coloradans’ values and probably have great stories to tell about themselves. Those are the ones who can set themselves apart.

Considering the popularity deficit between the parties, where does that Republican candidate come from?
I think you’re going to see a desire for stability, competency. I think it has to start with some of those nonpartisan races, where you don’t have an “R” at the end of your name. [To most Coloradans], the Republican brand has been tarnished. I think there’s a pathway where you could have a quiet, competent person who just says, “Let’s figure out how to govern.” Competency is boring, but competency gets a lot of stuff done.

It’s a challenge, sure, but it’s not impossible. In 1998, Democrats were like, “Woe is me.” Things change over time.

How do you make that change?
Our survey shows healthcare costs and immigration were among voters’ top priorities. I think you have to address those, but so much of [the Republican agenda in Colorado] was about housing and school safety and bread-and-butter governance issues.

On the immigration issue, the survey showed some interesting numbers. Immigration was both the second-most important issue and the least important issue for voters. Why is that?
It was the most polarizing issue—there was about a 55-point margin on that question. I think that shows that people are living in very different media ecosystems. They’re hearing different conversations. When I started doing this work [in the late 1990s], everyone was speaking a common language. But now, I hear people talking about some issue, and I have to sit down and Google it. I don’t watch Newsmax, you know, so I don’t hear about X, Y, and Z. We’re not watching the same TV shows anymore. There’s such little commonality across where people are getting information.

People are telling me in focus groups, “Sometimes I’ll turn this show on and they’re talking about this, and then I turn this show on and they’re talking the exact opposite.” Nobody knows what to trust. It’s only going to get worse. And it wasn’t just Republicans saying this. [Most voters are] totally rejecting the idea that it’s easy to find unbiased information about what’s happening in politics.

Your survey shows that independent voters are not interested in talking about any of this anymore. Will they be the peacemakers now?
Yes. I think politics were less integral to their views of themselves…. I think we’re going to have really difficult [family get-togethers this holiday season], where people are trying to talk around a lot of big issues. But that’s not good. There needs to be engagement.

We need a new generation of leaders and people who want to make a difference, who are willing to have conversations. We need to figure out how we can make politics less toxic.