Early Colorado returns: Dem and GOP strategists see a blue wave crashing

Across Colorado, mailbags are bulging with cast ballots and county clerks have been tabulating how many people have already voted and who those people are.

Today, Craig Hughes, a Denver-based political consultant for Democratic candidates, logged onto Twitter to put some of this early return data into context.

Hughes and a counterpart, Colorado Republican pollster and consultant David Flaherty, agree: The numbers look remarkably good for Democrats in Colorado this presidential election season with still two weeks to go until Nov. 8.

Flaherty, who runs the Republican-leaning public affairs firm Magellan Strategies, acknowledges what appears might be on the horizon.

“I think we are beginning to see a Democratic wave,” he told The Colorado Independent. “I think there are major problems afoot [for Republicans] with these numbers. Democrats have never been up his high this early.”

Since 1992 Flaherty has been closely watching voter data in Colorado. He says Republicans, who lost the state in 2012, were much more organized than this year.

“This operation is just on fumes,” he says.

Never had Flaherty seen so much organized turnout on the Democratic side. Republicans, he says, are likely holding onto their ballots longer because of the effect of Donald Trump at the top of the ticket. Does he think they can catch up?

“No,” he says flatly.

This is first presidential election in which voters in Colorado can cast their ballots entirely by mail.

To learn if you are registered and how to make sure you get a ballot, click here.

2 COMMENTS

  1. Here’s the Sec of State’s numbers as of yesterday.

    Dems 117,766 + 82%
    Reps 94,499 + 4%
    UNA 70,410 + 52%
    LIB 2,531 + 85%
    OTHER 1,433 +190%
    TOTAL 286,639 + 40%

  2. Those are staggering stats that illustrate a possible sea change having taken place in Colorado since the last midterms.

    Wow. It’s a little shocking for Dave Flaherty to throw these numbers out with such a frank assessment this early.

    15% with NO VOTING HISTORY….that’s an early sign of a big motivational deficit on The Right.

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