El Paso County plays critical role in statewide election results

For months, polls put Hillary Clinton in the lead in Colorado , but those polls are tightening with just hours left before Election Day.

There’s one patch of ground Donald Trump will rely on heavily: El Paso County.

“Without El Paso County you don’t have any republican success statewide and in fact El Paso County has been the firewall,” said Josh Dunn, KRDO political analyst.

Dunn says success depends on how close the republican vote gests to 65%.

“If the republican candidate gets close to that, it means they’re going to have a good night statewide. It means there’s a tailwind supporting them not just here, but throughout the state.”

And it’s not just this year. El Paso County has played a crucial part in our battleground state for decades.

“(It) has been a republican county for its entire history and republicans have counted on it for a long time. It’s become more essential to republican ambitions since 1970,” explained Dunn.

It’s still hard to say where the chips will fall because of voter dissatisfaction, however,

“Certainly you aren’t going to have a lot of republican defections to Hillary Clinton, but you might have republicans who choose to vote libertarian or don’t vote at all beacuse they’re so dissatisfied with Trump.”

Our growing population is another factor, according to Dunnm, which change the demographics in this republican-heavy county.

“El Paso County has dramatically increased in size — that means you have more republicans. That also means you have more democrats.”