June 19, 2019 10:14 AM UTC

Colorado Trump Faithful Delude, Console Selves

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• by: Colorado Pols

Kicking off a brief roundup of coverage from watch parties around the state organized by Colorado Republicans to celebrate the kickoff of President Donald Trump’s 2020 re-election campaign, FOX 31’s Joe St. George lays the scene:

President Donald Trump is officially launching his reelection campaign in Orlando, Florida Tuesday evening.

While the president lost Colorado by more than 136,000 votes in 2016, Colorado Republicans still see the state as a possible “pickup” state in 2020…

Sources tell FOX31 political reporter Joe St. George that Trump has already hired several major staffers for the state and that Trump is expected to have more staffers in Colorado than in 2016.

Sen. Cory Gardner told FOX31 last week he believes Trump “certainly can” win the state.

We’ll start by saying what many of you are thinking, which is the last thing Democrats should be going into the 2020 election cycle is complacent. Here in Colorado, though, the math is very much not looking good for Trump or Republicans down the ballot, after Trump lost the state in 2016 and GOP losing margins grew dramatically in 2018 largely as a referendum on Trump’s presidency. Nonetheless hope springs eternal among the GOP faithful, and Colorado Public Radio’s Sam Brasch caught up with Steve Barlock, the diehard Trump campaign staffer from 2016 who ran for governor in 2018–and got some memorable quotes on the record:

There were at least nine county Republican watch parties across the state. In deep blue Denver, dozens of the president’s supporters, decked out in American flag hoodies and MAGA hats, packed a sports bar in the tony Washington Park neighborhood…

Steven Barlock, who worked on Trump’s 2016 Colorado campaign and unsuccessfully challenged Walker Stapleton for the Republican governor’s nomination last year, suggested Colorado’s left turn in the last midterm election could end up helping Trump…

“I would like to see him [Trump] be tough on Nancy Pelosi. He’s been very inviting to work with Nancy and Nancy has been such a stubborn b—h,” [Pols emphasis] [Barlock] said. “I would like to see Donald Trump really stand up to Nancy and slap her around a little harder. [Pols emphasis] It’s really sad.”

While you’re picking your jaw up off the floor from that moment of extreme classiness, the Phil Anschutz-owned Colorado Springs Gazette assigned three different reporters for a “team coverage” tour de force featuring its own fascinating moments of Republican candor:

Weston Imer, a teenager who is part of the Trump Victory Campaign for Jefferson County, read off a list of the president’s accomplishments on jobs, trade and foreign affairs.

“One of the things we want to focus on in this 2020 campaign is talking to your neighbors and saying, ‘The president isn’t that bad,'” [Pols emphasis] Imer told the crowd of about 150 at the church.

Got that, swing voters of America? “The president isn’t that bad.” Go forth and conquer!

And if that wasn’t gratifying enough for Democrats,

Colorado GOP Chairman Ken Buck issued a statement Tuesday evening that took a dig at former President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden, a 2020 presidential contender, calling their time in office “eight years of stagnation.”

“Our nation’s economy was dragging, health care costs were skyrocketing, our immigration system was crumbling, and the rule of law was not respected,” Buck said in the statement. “Thanks to President Trump, we are finally turning our country around. Colorado Republicans are proud to stand with the president in 2020.”

Folks, by any objective measure there is not a single truthful statement in the above quote. You can look at any GDP chart and see that President Barack Obama pulled the nation out of recession and grew the economy Trump then inherited. The Affordable Care Act reduced the rate of uninsured to historic lows. Obama deported so many undocumented immigrants it outraged the left. As for the “rule of law” not being “respected?”

Seriously, what planet was this statement written on?

Like we said above, complacency going into this pivotal election would be disastrous for Democrats nationally and in Colorado. Traditionally, unseating an incumbent President during a time of economic growth is a difficult prospect. But with respect to Colorado’s electoral votes, there is absolutely no evidence that the state is in play next year. Every metric of support for Trump has declined since he lost Colorado in 2016, and the results of both the 2016 and 2018 elections indicate a growing buffer of strength for Democrats in Colorado even when Republicans do well nationally.

We’re not so naive as to suggest there is no path for Trump to win re-election. But we feel pretty confident asserting that Trump’s path to victory does not lead through Colorado. Especially given the distasteful Trump-style crassness and delusional thinking on display from local Republican leaders yesterday, more time in the political wilderness awaits.