Status Quo Ante: Colorado Breaks Another Wave

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by: Colorado Pols

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Without a doubt, last night marked another massive win for Republicans across the nation, riding unexpected coattails of a surging Donald Trump to victories at all levels of American government. Republicans held the U.S. Senate, and made pre-election talk of Democrats taking the House look foolish. Across the nation, Republicans expanded their power in state legislatures and picked up several governorships–increasingly vital advantages with 2020’s all-important redistricting looming in the distance.

And of course, the full meaning of Trump’s victory and its portent for the future of American democracy cannot be objectively processed today.

But here in Colorado, in the third Republican “wave election” in six years, Democrats survived with not only minimal losses, but some modest wins to console themselves while mourning the national headlines. Clinton carried the state, the third consecutive presidential win for Democrats here. Michael Bennet’s victory, though unexpectedly narrow, underscores the huge missed opportunity for Republicans caused by Darryl Glenn’s nomination. Democrats expanded their majority in the Colorado House by several seats, and appear to have ousted several of the state’s more embarrassing hard-right Republicans in both chambers.

We’ll have much more to say as we pick up the pieces of the 2016 elections in Colorado, and unpack the many undeniable failures on both sides. At the end of the day, the parties in Colorado fought to a draw. In an election that turned from retreat to rout for Democrats nationally, this can reasonably be considered a victory for Democrats locally.

But it’s not at all what they expected. And on balance, it only provides so much comfort the morning after.

9 thoughts on “Status Quo Ante: Colorado Breaks Another Wave”

Powerful Pear says:

November 9, 2016 at 11:26 am

Glenn could have won this race if he had a competent campaign organization. Bad advice to call on Trump to withdraw from the race. That was the establishment position, like Mike Coffman.

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1. Voyageur says:
  
  November 9, 2016 at 12:29 pm
  
  yeah, it sure hurt Coffman, powerless one.
  
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  1. Powerful Pear says:
    
    November 9, 2016 at 2:21 pm
    
    Understand what you're saying. Encumbency does have some benefits, no room fo error with a novice.
    
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  2. Civics101 says:
    
    November 9, 2016 at 2:32 pm
    
    Frankly, I never understood the "need" for a candidate, for federal office, to disclose who, or what, they are voting for on anything that is on their ballot. They, like us, are entitled to a secret ballot.
    
    Morgan Carroll certainly played the game during the Democratic presidential caucuses. She "rode the fence" until it was clear Hillary Clinton was going to be the Democratic nominee, then she suddenly declared she had been for Hillary all along.
    
    As it was, Coffman did not support Trump and yet Carroll and her allies insisted on pretending he did. People didn't buy it and I suspect it negatively impacted her credibility with voters.
    
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CDW says:

November 9, 2016 at 8:15 pm

Morgan Carroll ran a pitiful race. and Michael Bennet is the face of all that's wrong with the democratic party.

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Zappatero says:

November 9, 2016 at 9:07 pm

Bennet will find it very easy to work with Trump and support his proposals.

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Zappatero says:

November 10, 2016 at 6:44 am

How Democrats Fucked Up, Part xxxx:

Back in January, the labor group Working America raised an alarm for Democrats: Their canvassing near Pittsburgh and Cleveland suggested Donald Trump had undeniable appeal in areas with high union membership. His outsider message, built on assailing trade deals such as NAFTA, was resonating with white folks with union cards who might normally vote Democratic.

….

CNN’s exit polling found that 51 percent of union households went for Clinton, compared to 49 for Trump. That would be an unusually poor showing for a Democratic presidential candidate. The numbers from the Fox News and ABC exit polls weren’t as bad for Clinton. Fox News said union households broke for Clinton by an 8-point margin, and ABC gave her a 16-point margin.

But those would still be weak performances compared with other recent candidates. Exit polls from 2012 showed Obama taking union households by 18 points.

Trump did something unheard of for a modern Republican presidential candidate: He made a direct appeal to union workers and claimed to be their champion. When the AFL-CIO announced its endorsement of Clinton ― the federation went on to send millions of dollars to her and other Democrats ― Trump predicted that “their members will be voting for me in much larger numbers than for her.”

Union members are a small population thanks to many things, and the decades-long war against them by R's. But when you have a Democratic senator like Michael Bennet helping kill "card check" and helping implement TPP (despite his lies about that), why would a union member vote for another Democrat?

I know our reliable pollsters at CPols will analyze the numbers any number of ways to show how we were right, they were wrong, but that won't change the fact that Democrats fucked up the union vote this year, and probably many other years, by being afraid to support the very constituency that puts them in office.

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1. Gorky Pulviczek says:
  
  November 10, 2016 at 6:55 am
  
  As Ohio, then Michigan, then Pennsylvania, then Wisconsin turned red the other night, I remarked to a friend, "perhaps the Democrats should not have stabbed the unions in the back?"
  
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madmike says:

November 10, 2016 at 8:14 am

If the best Democrats can do is elect limousine liberals like Michael Bennet, they don't stand a chance against Trump's populism for very long. Democrats need to start saying things and doing things to attract the working poor or they won't survive for long. I'm hoping that the crusade that Bernie Sanders started will continue and that the Democrats in Colorado get on board with his ideas.

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