Southern Colorado

[💥💥 brandon bro (he/him/his)]

There was a good PBS show that a local Colorado syndicate put together a show where they went to this area and talked with people about the election. The broadcast made a compelling case that this is a case of genuine economic anxiety; a mining/extraction region that had been in decline at the hands of energy markets and had fallen on very hard times. Trump's stance on energy was a big part of people deciding to stick with him, although I imagine there was also a tinge of cultural resentment as a predominantly rural area sharing a state with a bustling progessive urban center. But, with Trump's energy policy here, I'm betting this area will be highly competitive in 2020 and I would go out on a limb and say it mostly supports Stapelton in the gov. race next month.

[💥💥 brandon bro (he/him/his)]

I would go out on a limb and say it mostly supports Stapelton in the gov. race next month.

It was roughly halfway between the 2016 and 2012 results. Good news for Dems in the Rust Belt?

I heard some reporting on the ground that said that people in the southern part of the state were pretty tuned out this election. Thankfully both candidates spent a fair bit of time campaigning down there but neither one generated very much interest. The turnout numbers for Pueblo County (population over 150K) strike mas especially pathetic.

Although there's a steel and manufacturing presence in Pueblo I think there's enough demographic difference and economic difference (e.g., some old mining activity, lots of drilling) that makes this too different from the midwest to draw comparisons.

[💥💥 brandon bro (he/him/his)]

Even the Republican-trending Hispanic counties of Southern Colorado are varied in themselves. Las Animas County showed a trend analogous to Appalachia or the Midwest, yet relatively nearby Alamosa County voted for a losing Democrat for the first time since it was created in 1916. In the case of Pueblo and Las Animas there may also be increasing influences from the arch-Republican High Plains upon the culture and politics.

Those two are split by a mountain range (the Sangre de Cristos) which changes their geography. Las Animas and somewhat Huerfano have developed into big gas drilling counties in the last ten years; Las Animas in particular is going to stay on the right because CO Dems are increasingly hostile to fracking and deferent to renewables. Alamosa (and Costilla, Saguache, etc.) is basically just agriculture with a small amount of adventure/mountain tourism mixed in.



map source - a good short article about drilling in CO