A recent Denver Post report on the state of affairs in Colorado affirmed what Democrats have seen nationally—that their brand has become the Bud Light of political parties. Another recent Quinnipiac University poll affirmed the same, the Democrat Party is in freefall and is deeply unpopular nationwide and traditionally blue Colorado isn’t immune from the same trend.
“The strength of Republicans’ identification with working-class issues is a warning shot for a party that’s lost ground across the country,” reported the left-leaning Denver Post in a September 16 feature. Reliably blue Colorado has seen a dramatic political shift rejecting Democrat policies, suggesting the longtime blue state may be in play for Republicans for the first time in nearly two decades. The poll was conducted by Keating Research and looked at the state’s top Democrats running for Governor. The upshot was that state voters have grown weary of Democrat policies and the people associated with them.
Moreover, a recent Denver Post headline was a red flag to the state’s Democrats, “Colorado voters are dissatisfied with Democrats. Governor Jared Polis, Senators John Hickenlooper, and Michael Bennet can’t hide.” The takeaway of the editorial was that Polis, whose term expires next year, and both Bennet and Hickenlooper are significantly underwater in approval numbers.
The poll was conducted by Magellan Strategies and included responses from 1,136 registered Colorado voters with the results mirroring what Democrats have seen nationwide—that Americans are unhappy with Democrat policies in urban centers across the country including Denver.
While the news isn’t rosy for Colorado Democrats, the state’s Republicans have plenty of work ahead of them if they hope to flip the state red. For the first time in nearly 20 years, however, polls indicate that the blue wave that once overtook the state could hit a red wall come November 2026.
In a poll conducted two weeks ago by On Message, a Beltway-based Republican survey firm, a vast majority of Colorado Republicans and Independents (comprising two-thirds of all voters) think the state is headed in the wrong direction. Couple that with one-third of Democrats sharing the same view and you have a recipe for a political upset.
For On Message’s veteran pollster Wes Anderson, Colorado is setting up for a seismic political shift. “What’s clear from our results is that Coloradans are not happy with the party in power, so much so that flipping the state red is now conceivable—especially given the weakness of the Democrat Party and their declared candidates for governor.”
Bennet, who has held his Senate seat since 2009, is seen as the most likely Democrat to win the party’s primary for Governor—largely based on name recognition alone. However, multiple polls show that his support and job approval could best be described as soft.
“Bennet is seen as part of the problem,” says Chris Cox of DC-based Cap6 Advisors, a Republican strategy group. “He’s tied to the open borders disaster, soaring fentanyl death rates that are especially high in Colorado, and the state’s overall crime rates that far exceed the national average and that are directly linked to the flow of criminal elements crossing the southern border into Colorado because of the state’s Democrat-led sanctuary policies.”
The poll also revealed that crime has emerged as a key issue for voters in urban and suburban Denver, a city that now ranks in the top ten most dangerous cities in America and where the auto theft rate is the second highest in the country, behind only Bakersfield, California.
On the Republican side, however, the poll revealed that of the declared and likely candidates, only longtime District Attorney George Brauchler stands a viable chance of pulling off one of the nation’s biggest political upsets in 2026.
Brauchler rose to national prominence as the prosecutor of some of the country’s highest profile crimes—including the Aurora massacre, the STEM School shooting, and Columbine case. He’s been a fixture on national cable news outlets covering some of the country’s most notorious crimes.
Many state political operatives see his tough-on-crime track record and ability to engage voters on other key issues as the party’s best chance to win back the governorship. In 2018, he lost a close race for Attorney General, dramatically outperforming all other Republicans in statewide races.
Among the potentially crowded Republican field, Brauchler pulled 33 percent support among party voters in the On Message survey, with populist evangelical conservative Victor Marx coming in a distant second with 15 percent. No other Republican managed more than single digits.
“On the Republican side, it’s Brauchler’s race to lose,” says Anderson. “And given what we’re seeing in terms of dissatisfaction among the state’s voters—across all political affiliations—he would have a real shot should he choose to run.”
“When you look at the coalitions that will make or break the race in 2026,” says Cox, “the Democrats are facing motivated opposition from Second Amendment advocates because of what many gun owners perceive as overreach on gun rights by state Democrats (half of Colorado residents own firearms), the farm and ranch community that feels betrayed by the Democrat-led disastrous wolf introduction, marginalized people of faith, sportsmen and women who have seen anti-hunting elements appointed by Democrats overtake the state’s fish and wildlife agency, the energy industry that has been made a pariah by Democrats, school choice proponents, those who don’t believe biological males should compete in women’s sports, and those who see Democrats as having invited crime into their communities while at the same time limiting citizens’ ability to defend themselves. No matter how the Democrats try and spin their failed policies, their numbers don’t add up—just as they didn’t nationally in the last election.”
The question for Colorado and national Republicans, however, is will they seize what polls indicate is a historic opportunity to reset the political landscape in Colorado?
For now, all eyes are on Brauchler and whether he will enter the race for Governor with a realistic shot to flip the state red.