Abortion and a Tarnished GOP Brand Helped Democrats Mostly Buck National Headwinds in Colorado

Welcome to The Mountaineer, a resource for progressives and a guide for advocates across Colorado, published by GSG and ProgressNow Colorado.

The new Mountaineer Research exit poll, which took a close look at the Colorado presidential race, the legislative battleground, and Amendment 79 shows that:

  • Harris and legislative Democrats dominated with unaffiliateds and white and suburban women – but losses with Hispanic voters and an influx of new Trump-friendly voters prevented Harris from matching Biden’s 2020 margin.
  • Legislative Democrats over-performed in the GOP-leaning legislative battleground.
  • Democrats were able to fight to a draw on the economy and gained votes on the issue of abortion, though Republican messaging on immigration and crime partially countered those gains.
  • The GOP’s embrace of Trump, Boebert, and MAGA continues to doom them with unaffiliateds.
  • Amendment 79 achieved its overwhelming margin thanks in large part to less-conservative Republicans who think that abortion should be legal in most cases supporting the measure at the same time they were voting for Trump.

Read the memo.