Three presidential campaign visits in one week showcase Colorado’s swing state status

For more than a decade, Colorado politics has taken on a distinctive purple hue.

“Neither party has a lock on the electorate in Colorado,” UCCS professor and KRDO political analyst Josh Dunn said. “If you’re a Democrat you can’t just count on Colorado. You need to come in and put in some effort, unlike California where you can mail it in if you’re a Democrat in a statewide election in California.

If you add inactive voters, for the first time, registered Democrats in the state outnumber registered Republicans. The largest voters bloc remains unaffiliated voters.

“When you are talking about wide open spaces, it gives us a rich community where we can get to practice our liberty, our freedom and our entreprenurship,” El Paso County Vice Chair Sandra Bankes said.

President Obama won Colorado in 2008 and 2012. Polls show Hillary Clinton leading Donald Trump at this juncture. Democrats say they will continue their winning ways this fall.

“We’re not going to take it easy,” Chris Meagher, with the Colorado Democratic Party, said. “We’re going at this full force and we’re going to make sure we keep Colorado blue.”

Bankes is banking on the fact there are three months to go.

“When we talk about poll numbers, we are still talking about a game that’s still in play and we won’t know until the last vote is counted,” she said.

Neither side will relent in its pursuit.

“We’re not going to be resting until November,” Meagher said.