Politics of Colorado

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The politics of Colorado, United States, are that of a blue state. Once considered a swing state that used to be Republican-leaning, Colorado has been trending Democratic since the early part of the 21st century due to the organization of the state Democratic Party, changing demographics, and a rising number of the large unaffiliated bloc of voters leaning Democratic. The growing shift of the state's Republican Party towards social and religious conservatism along with shifting further to the right has also been cited as reasons for the changing voting patterns of Colorado.

After showing support for the populist movement between the 1890s and 1910s, Colorado voted for Republicans nationally, all but five times between 1920 and 2004. Only in a few instances did the state vote Democratic before 2008, however, since then, Democrats have won the state four cycles in a row, the longest such win streak for the party in the state's history.^[1] For instance, until the election of Barack Obama in 2008, the people of Colorado had voted Republican in every U.S. Presidential Election since 1964, with the exception of 1992 when a plurality voted for Bill Clinton. Conversely, Colorado has held a Democratic governor for 24 of the past 32 years since 1991.^[2]

In state politics, Democrats have historically fared better, often winning state offices and later on control of the state legislature, when the state was still considered Republican-leaning and then purple. However, they tended to be more moderate than the national party.^[3]