Just think about how different this list would have looked 20 years ago. No Republican can win a Senate seat in West Virginia. No Democrat can win a Senate seat in Colorado.
In the long term, the only two things that are constant are uncertainty and change.
No one credible would have said those things 20 years ago.
I would definitely agree with this in regards to Colorado, which was definitely competitive for Democrats at the downballot level during that time, though it leaned Republican at the presidential level. Gary Hart won his two terms in 1974 and 1980; Tim Wirth was elected to succeed him in 1986; and Ben Nighthorse Campbell in turn won the 1992 election to succeed Wirth (before switching parties in 1995). And Republican Wayne Allard had two competitive races in 1996 and 2002. As for West Virginia, however, this argument would have somewhat more credibility. Jay Rockefeller won his first term in 1984 in a competitive race against John Raese, but otherwise, almost every other Senate race from the 1960s to the 2000s was a Democratic blowout in West Virginia.
With hindsight, yes, your Colorado descriptions are spot on. But West Virginia easily could have gone for someone like Moore Capito even then.
True, and Republicans were competitive downballot throughout that period as well, especially with regards to the governorship. But given that by the turn of the millennium, four decades had passed since a Republican had won a Senate race there, I don't think it's too far fetched to say that someone could have made a claim at that time.
