We’ve seen the beginning of a narrative emerging on some national news sites, such as MSNBC, about a greater meaning to high Republican voter turnout — a narrative that ignores some important details:
On the one hand, the Tea Party is giving the GOP a jolt of energy and enthusiasm heading into the fall. For instance, more Coloradoans last night voted in the Republican Senate primary than the Democratic one; in fact, Norton and Buck both got more votes individually in their primary than Michael Bennet did in his, and Bennet won by a larger margin.
It’s true that Republicans voted in higher numbers than Democrats in the Primary, and there is probably a slightly higher level of enthusiasm among Republican voters than among Democrats. But that’s only part of the story. Democrats only had one top-ticket race to consider yesterday, while Republicans had three statewide races and three other congressional primaries. Here are the races that were on the ballot for seats higher than state legislative battles:
Democratic Primary Races
Republican Primary Races
To put it another way, there are 12 top-ticket races in Colorado in 2010 (5 statewide seats and 7 congressional seats), and Republicans had Primary fights in half of them. Of course the GOP turnout was going to be significantly higher than Democratic turnout, because there were 10 more Republican campaigns running GOTV operations.
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They had so many more contested primaries, plus this supposed tea party fervor, that they should have turned out way more party loyalists than Democrats did. But the difference wasn’t that startk.
I think it undercuts the idea that Republicans are so much more enthused.
They had more primaries, but look at the awful choices they had.
But ditto on your point that they’re not that enthused.
The difference wasn’t all that great but the number of contested races was.
For real? Republicans voted in higher numbers because they have more racists?
Really? That’s who votes in off years?
a 2-person contest for those of us who voted early.
YES this is a factor. but the “I want my country back” fear/hate/angst IS a motivator.
Just as in 2006 and 2008 for Democrats.
I would also add that a Mail in ballot turned out more votes this time around.
lets face it, republicans want to vote 6-10 times in every race at this point. be it a primary or a general election.
Just as the “Obamatrons” feel let down and lethargic because of the Democrats lack of spine towards Republicans. The attitude of “my vote really does not count” is creeping back in to the masses that voted once in the last 30 years, for Obama.
Yes the Democrats have stabilized things. But that only counts for so long. Now people want to know why things aren’t improving. I think Dems are sort of lost figuring that who gets elected doesn’t matter.
Meanwhile as you said, the Republicans are totally charged up.
D turn out including a ery significant percentage of first time primary voters so it hardly seems as though Ds are as dispirited as the MSM says, at least not here in Colorado.
Wouldn’t that account for higher R turnout as well?
http://www.pollster.com/blogs/…
It was done before the primary, so the pairings were purely hypothetical.
They also polled on Hick/McInnis/Tancredo
Some one will do a real survey post-primary.
Taylor Marsh and Huffpo are running with this “oh noes! The Republican loser got more votes than Bennet” meme.
As far as I can tell, Huffpo is just pissed off that Romanoff did not win.
PS I’m still boycotting Huffpo. I only know they reported it because TM linked to it.