Colorado voters cast ballots yesterday in races for governor, Senate, and all eight congressional seats. They also weighed in on 14 statewide ballot measures. Democrats swept Colorado’s statewide races and made gains in congressional contests. Check out the latest results.
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Marty Lenz discussed the results with Seth Masket, Political Science Professor at the University of Denver.
Marty Lenz: I want to start by asking you this: You look at the wave. How much of this was a vote for the Democrats versus, say, a vote against President Trump and the GOP?
Seth Masket: Yeah, in some ways, it's both. But you know, any real any midterm election is almost you know invariably some kind of a referendum on the president and his party, so you know, and you see that really echoed all across the country. Republicans really suffered pretty extreme losses, you know, in pretty liberal states and very conservative states, and Colorado was no exception to that. I think you do see an influence of some candidate quality issues. There is some variation. Not every state, not every district had a perfect, 10 or 12 point shift toward the Democrats. There were some ups and downs, definitely, that I think you can attribute to either spending patterns or the quality of the candidates.
Marty Lenz: So far, with these results, what stands out to you regarding Colorado?
Seth Masket: In some ways, just like statewide, it's just the depth of the Republican losses here. I mean, I you know it's it's been a pretty blue state for a while now. I don't know that I expected you know Phil Weiser to beat Victor Marx by like more than 25 points or something like that. I mean, it's pretty staggering. Also, the fact that possibly seven, possibly even eight of the state's Democratic districts are going Democratic. I mean, there's a few that are still very close right now, and hard to say. I think if you know House District Four, represented by Lauren Bobert, which she is trailing in right now by a couple of points. That's really a striking one to me. Donald Trump won that district two years ago by about 18 points. That's the deeply Republican district that Lauren Boebert jumped to from the third because she was worried about losing her seat, and she might actually lose this one. Some of that's about her, but a big part of that is just this intense national swing against her party.
Marty Lenz: I do want to go back to something you said, though, because you mentioned quality of candidates. You mentioned the gubernatorial race, Phil Weiser versus Victor Marty. Isn't that an example of quality of candidates? I share this all the time with friends of mine that are conservative. I said you lament things going on in Colorado, but until the conservatives in the state nominate, if you want to say within the realm of normal people and smart people that are serious, isn't that part of the issue? They're not serious about fixing the issues when they nominate people. With all due respect, like Victor Marx?
Seth Masket: I think that's right. Now, I think given just how blue the district, the state has been trending over the last decade or so, you know, I think even a very high quality Republican candidate would have still lost this handily, but not by this much. Big problem there. So you know, for example, if that Republican primary could have pretty easily gone to Barb Kirkmaier, that was very close in the end. If she'd won, I don't know. Maybe she only loses by 18 or 19 points. That said, when you have someone who even the party is not very enthusiastic about with Victor Marx. Quite a few Republicans seem to be quite embarrassed about his nomination. That's really kind of depresses turnout all the way down the ballot. That makes it harder for Republicans to win even closer state legislative seats to win some initiative ballots. It has sort of downstream effects where a stronger Republican candidate might have saved some other races.
Marty Lenz: I have a couple moments left. I want to get to congressional district eight because it went from a Democrat to Republican back to a Democrat. You talk about gerrymandering districts, but it looks like eight has been apportioned properly. It really is balanced and fair. Your thoughts on that race and Manny Rutinel winning?
Seth Masket: That was a pretty stunning outcome, actually. You know that's as you point out, that's a district that was designed in the early part of this decade to be very balanced, to have equal numbers of Democrats and Republicans. And you know, in '22 and in '24, it was won very narrowly, less than a percentage point. It went first Democratic, then flipped Republican, and last night it flipped Democratic again, but this time not by one or two points, but by like 15. I'd heard from some Democrats earlier this fall who were, I think, worried that Routenel was underperforming Gabe Evans compared to how Democrats were doing elsewhere. That he might have been a lower candidate quality. He's really sort of caught the Democratic wave and then some, winning a very neatly balanced district by 15 points. That's pretty stunning outcome.
Marty Lenz: What kind of mandate do the Democrats have in Colorado and nationally, or do they have a mandate? Should they be cautious about thinking they have a mandate?
Seth Masket: It's hard to say what the mandate would be. I think, in one sense, a lot of Democrats got elected on this idea that they should be focused on jobs, that they should be able to, you know, deliver on affordability and deliver on a number of other things. I think it's going to be limited what Democrats in Congress at least can actually do, given that the president still has the veto and can can veto down a lot of things that they push. The other sort of side is, do they have some mandate to deliver accountability? That is to sort of push back on some law breaking and some norm breaking. I think they're going to be struggling with themselves on that, but I think they certainly have a fair amount of public support to push that right now.
