How does Colorado, Nevada and New Mexico trend GOP?

[hopper]

Only way is if GOP gets immigration reform done effectively after 2016 if they win 2016 election. Then, they champion legal immigration, the reformed system, and welcome them as taxpayers. THis is how to win over Hispanics and Asians.

Heck, that might even help in California.

True if the GOP did champion Immigration Reform they could do better with the Hispanic Vote but enough to win NV, and NM? Maybe not. I think CO they could win though with immigration reform though.

[hopper]

How does Colorado, Nevada and New Mexico trend GOP? What will it take to get them to appeal to the GOP again in the long term? These three states were 'red' back in the 1980s. Would the GOP changing their policies to Libertarian help their cause?

1. Cory Gardner barely won in 2014 running against a weak Democrat, Mark Udall.

Yeah but people even on this board thought the polls were wrong and that Udall would pull it out in the end. It didn't happen.

Yeah maybe CO and NV were red states at the Presidential Level in the 80's. I should note CO did vote at the average popular vote in 1988 on the Presidential Level.  At the state level CO had a Dem Governor from 1975-1998. The Dems had the Class III US Senate Seat at the Federal Level with Gary Hart and Tim Wirth in the 80's. NV: The Dems had the Governorship from 1983-1988 with Richard Bryan and had a majority in the State Assembly except the 1985-1986 session.  They also had the majority in the State Senate from 1979-1986 before the Republicans took the majority from 1987-1990. The Republicans have held a majority in the State Senate since 1990 except for the 1991-1992 session and the 2009-2014 time period. To conclude NV does have a more of a Dem History than CO does. The Dems only had offices of LT. Governor and Treasurer in the 80's in CO.

[hopper]

They need some way to appeal to Hispanics. I don't see that happening any time soon.

Don't worry they will get sick of losing like the Dems did from 1968-1988 (except for 1976) at some point. They will appeal at some point to Hispanics.

[hopper]

How does Colorado, Nevada and New Mexico trend GOP? What will it take to get them to appeal to the GOP again in the long term? These three states were 'red' back in the 1980s. Would the GOP changing their policies to Libertarian help their cause?

1. Cory Gardner barely won in 2014 running against a weak Democrat, Mark Udall.
2. People are moving to CO and NV in high numbers, especially from blue states. They import their liberal politics with them from their old state such as the west/east coast, which changes the demographics.
3. Should the GOP change their policies to become more of an urban/suburb educated party and 'steal' votes away from the Democratic party, but still be fiscally conservative and socially moderate?

1. Gardner loses in 2020.

2. They are moving from California for cheaper real estate and lower taxes. Even if they are conservatives they bring their kids already drifting D with them. Add to this, the Hispanic populations tend to bring a communitarian culture with them. Hispanics look out for each other as white Anglos closer to the questionable ethos of every-man-for-himself. Figure that there is much assimilation between Hispanics and Anglo whites, and assimilation is toward the Hispanic norm in political culture.

3. Easily said, and not easily done. The level of formal education was a strong proxy for Republican voting, but it is now a strong proxy for Democratic voting. Republicans adopted the Southern Strategy of appealing to the least-educated of white voters and ended up alienating the most-educated of voters whatever their origin. Except for not winning the Plains states and Mormon country, Obama wins look much like Eisenhower wins. Educated people are the swing voters between the 1950s and now.

Look closely at an Eisenhower win. The more middle-class a state was, the better Eisenhower did. Ike actually won three of the states normally toughest for Republican nominees for President then and now: Massachusetts, Minnesota, and Rhode Island. Not since 1924 has any Republican other than Eisenhower won all three states at once, but he won all three -- twice. Ike did not do so well in the Mountain and Deep South, where Obama did about as badly as McGovern.

Republicans need to give up on the white ignoramus vote; it no longer is large enough to win a national election. It's impossible to show contempt for liberal learning and win the respect of people who see formal education as necessary for avoiding poverty. It is worth remembering: the Asian, black, and Hispanic middle class are all well educated.     

Its not entirely education levels that is killing the Republicans in Presidential Elections. Romney in 2012 won College Graduates(non-post grad) 51-47% but lost Post Graduates 55-42% to Obama.

[hopper]

If anything, becoming libertarian/socially liberal would make it worse for them. NM/NV are trending D because of Hispanic vote. I don't see CO ever becoming a lean or solid D state like NM.

I don't know if it's fair to say it's entirely the Hispanic vote (though given the current overall white vote in CO, it's clearly the decisive factor right now). What are Millennial voting patterns in Colorado? I looked up exit polls for 2012 and neither NYT or CNN had any exit polls from Millennials, yet had it for everyone else. Not sure why that is.

Yeah if Romney had won the same % of the white vote in CO(54%) that he did nationally(59%) he would have won the state probably.

[hopper]

Unfortunately, after this election with Trump being the standard bearer for the GOP, the country's politics will be even more divided by race. I just don't see the GOP getting many Hispanic and Asian votes in the future, not to mention Blacks. The only way I don't see that happening is if Trump suffers a historic loss and the Republican party deliberately goes a different direction after 2016. I doubt that will happen.

Under that scenario, only Colorado might still vote Republican. I don't see that happening though and I see the west becoming even more Democratic while the midwest moves more towards the GOP. It is whites out east who are more receptive to a racist message, as we can see in the current Republican primaries.

Well the Northeast is "Trump Country" because he lives there mostly being the factor as to why people vote for him. The Southeast that is different because of race yes.