June 24, 2019 03:34 PM UTC

So, Uh, Casper Stockham in CO-6

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• by: Colorado Pols

Republican Casper Stockham has run two consecutive unsuccessful campaigns for Congress in Denver against incumbent Democratic Rep. Diana DeGette, so he’s trying something different in 2020. Stockham is shifting his sights eastward to challenge Democrat Jason Crow in CO-6.

We bring this up not only to prevent getting a bunch of Facebook messages from Stockham himself, but to again highlight the incredible shift in a district that had always been held by a Republican until Crow’s dismantling of then-Rep. Mike Coffman in 2018. As we noted in April when Crow reported raising nearly a half-million dollars in his first fundraising quarter as an incumbent, there has been very little buzz from Republicans about attracting a top candidate in CO-6.

Stockham seems like a nice enough guy, but he’s a perennial candidate for public office who is not a serious challenger to Crow (or anyone else in Congress, for that matter). After raising about $60,000 in his 2016 campaign against DeGette, Stockham’s fundraising dropped to a total of about $35k in 2018 — both figures are nevertheless significantly higher than we would have guessed before checking FEC reports. Based on voter registration numbers, Stockham is statistically more likely to win in CO-6 than in CO-1…though that’s sort of like saying you have a better chance of visiting Mars than Venus.

What we find most interesting about this story is that a right-wing radio outlet in Colorado considers Stockham’s candidacy to be “news” in the first place. Stockham’s presence won’t likely prevent a more serious Republican challenger in CO-6, but it does make things slightly more awkward for the GOP when they inevitably have to pretend that he’s not their real challenger to Crow.

National Republicans aren’t feeling good about taking back control of the House in 2020. We don’t blame them one bit.