How does a Republican win Colorado & Nevada?

[Spark]

These states haven't been won since 2004.

[OSR stands with Israel]

Simple If they nominated Kasich or Rubio this year instead of Trump

[Skill and Chance]

Nevada is more plausible.  I think Colorado could be gone at the presidential level, more gone than VA even though the consensus here is the reverse.

[Mr. Smith]

Colorado: It's probably gone now.

Nevada: Actually reflect the will of the nation, given that its margins were the closest and it's predicted the winner just as many times as Ohio in the past 100 years.

[RINO Tom]

Pretty similar states, really.  Win more Hispanic votes, run up your margins in the suburbs or lose the states.

[PoliticalShelter]

Long term Gop prospects in either state are pretty bleak since the urban and Hispanic population are not only growing but growing at faster rate compared to the rest of America. Overall both states probably maybe have a decade left of being tipping point states before only being winnable for the Gop in large victories.

[Medal506]

It really depends more so who the democrats put up than who the Republicans put up. If Dems put Cory Booker up then Colorado and Nevada would probably go to the Democratic candidates. If they put someone like Elizabeth Warren up then the Republicans would probably win those two states

[erſatz-york]

You need to have a GOP candidate of the Romney-Rubio-Haley variety to have the best chance of winning these states. If you are winning these states, you will probably also win VA.

[Miles]

Nevada is more plausible.  I think Colorado could be gone at the presidential level, more gone than VA even though the consensus here is the reverse.

I'm not a big believer in reverse coattails, but I really wonder how the Presidential vote in NV would have looked like if Sandoval ran for Senate.

[Xing]

Pretty similar states, really.  Win more Hispanic votes, run up your margins in the suburbs or lose the states.

Pretty much this.

[Co-Chair Bagel23]

Too late. Too many mexicans for the GOP to handle, that's the beauty of demographics.

[Arbitrage1980]

You need to have a GOP candidate of the Romney-Rubio-Haley variety to have the best chance of winning these states. If you are winning these states, you will probably also win VA.

I agree with this sentiment generally, but Trump did lose NV and CO by a smaller margin than Romney did. I do think Rubio would have won them both, mainly because he's Latino.

CO's shift from rock solid GOP to dem is pretty stunning. Dubya won them easily in 2000 and 2004, but it was to the left of the nation since then.