For Pam Espinoza, her dark blue t-shirt that says “Dirt Road Democrat” reflects a lot about her thoughts on what politicians need to know about her community.
“It's a nod to my rural roots,” said Espinoza, chair of the Las Animas County Democrats. “People assume that dirt road Democrats would rather have pavement. And that's not true. We cherish our dirt roads. We cherish our rural communities. We cherish our way of life.”
Espinoza learned about the Democratic Party at her father’s knee – driving down dirt roads, having conversations on front porches and in church basements. Her dad, Daniel Espinoza, was elected county assessor for seven consecutive terms until he retired in January 2014.
But it’s been a while since Democrats have had that electoral streak here. Even as registered Democrats slightly outnumber registered Republicans, the once reliably blue county has shifted red. Donald Trump won it three times.
Espinoza said there’s blue in southeastern Colorado, but it’s an ombre.
“You run from the palest of blue to the color of my shirt and everything in between,” she explained. “And the challenge of the Democratic Party is trying to figure out how to talk to everybody.”
Geographically, Las Animas County, which borders New Mexico, is the largest in Colorado, but has a population of less than 15,000. And it is often overlooked.
“They think Colorado ends at Pueblo,” quipped Hallie Baca. She’s treasurer of the county party and also Espinoza’s daughter.
“The way that we democrat(s) compared to the way Denver democrats is very different,” Baca explained. “You can reach your neighbors in Denver by walking 20 feet to their doorstep. The way we reach each other in Las Animas County is walking 20 miles to someone's doorstep sometimes.”
Over the last several years, Democrats have lost ground
There are different types of rural areas in Colorado – the empty beauty of the plains, the high altitude desert of the San Luis valley and small mountain communities that support farming, ranching, and outdoor recreation. There are also large mountain resort communities and small cities like Grand Junction, Durango or Sterling.
Over the past several years, the Democratic Party has lost ground in many parts of rural Colorado.
On the one hand it makes sense to Dea Jacobson, chair of the Delta County Democrats on the Western Slope, even if it disappoints her.
“The candidates have to go where the votes are,” said Jacobson. She used to work for Ben Nighthorse Campbell – a rural Democrat who famously switched parties in 1995, two years into his first Senate term. “Nobody who is consulting with a candidate is going to tell them to spend two days driving around in an area where they might get a handful of votes where they could go to a bigger county.”
She said that strategy has come at a cost.
Yes, the rural parts of the state trend more conservative, but it’s more than that, said Zachary May, who was watching the Prowers County parade with his family.
“I think the party, in general, kind of loses touch with rural Colorado,” said May, who is an unaffiliated voter.
Those issues can run the gamut, from gun rights to reintroduction of gray wolves to housing policy.
“We got caught up in the one-size-fits-all discussion,” said Gunnison County Commissioner Jonathan Houck, reflecting on housing policies that reflect the needs of Front Range communities, but are hard to implement in rural areas, such as building housing around transit hubs. “All we're left with is some legislation that really didn't look at the granular details of what it looks like in a rural community.”
Gunnison has a little bit of everything – rural resort, ag and ranching, the largest coal mine in the state and a university. It’s also not off I-25 or I-70, the two main highways running through the state.
On paper Democrats have done well here in what he describes as a purplish county. He said that’s because they’re focused on solutions.
“What is the issue? What are we trying to solve or work on or come together on?” he explained. “Oftentimes some of the answers might skew a little more conservative or a little more liberal. And we're open to the ideas that solve problems not being turfed out.”
Listening helps, but it will take more to win over rural voters
There may be different answers for why the party has lost ground with rural voters, but many Democrats across rural Colorado have the same answer for how to win them back.
“You show up and you listen,” Houck said. Often candidates and elected officials show up to his county for fundraisers or a drive-through photo op. “But to know our issues and understand our issues means you meet with people. You meet with people you don't agree with. You meet with people who have different perspectives.”
It was a sentiment all of the rural Democratic leaders CPR News spoke with echoed.
“What conservative voters want to see here, or what our ranchers and ag producers want to see here are people who show up,” she Routt County Commissioner Angelica Salinas, a Democrat. “People who care about their work, people who want to preserve their work. They don't actually care what letter is next to your name as long as you are doing the work and helping them.”
One other big factor is the party has begun investing in rural parts of the state, supporting county offices through a state Democratic party program called the Colorado Comeback.
It’s a grant program that helps local county parties build grassroots support and helps support local candidates running in conservative or competitive areas in Colorado.
“In 2024, we invested tens of thousands of dollars into rural and red counties across the state,” said state party chair Shad Murib, pointing out those counties shifted to varying degrees towards Democrats. And the party’s doubling down this cycle, which is welcome news to several rural counties, including Las Animas.
“Finally you're willing to put time and effort and money into local and rural politics like you should have been,” said Baca. “And maybe if you had been doing this longer and earlier, we wouldn't have seen that sort of red wave that we did.”
Salinas benefited from the program in 2024. That’s the year she ran and was elected Routt County commissioner in what’s considered a blue county. The $3,000 she received might not seem like a lot, but in rural Colorado it helped her create a plan for her campaign.
“It's really been great to see the state party invest in local races and invest in rural races because that's where I think a lot of the power lies,” she said from her Steamboat Springs office.
Winning over rural voters could help the party gain statehouse seats and maybe flip Republican-held congressional seats.
But Colorado Democrats could face a major speed bump this year.
“The label of the Social Democrats is probably hurting them,” said Jane Green, a Democratic voter from Hayden who was enjoying the Routt County Fair. “Personally I'm more of a steady-eddy Democrat rather than on the edge. But they do have some good ideas, but not way out on the left side.”
Some of the issues driving a wedge in the party include defunding the police. Republicans from Trump on down have also been painting the Democratic Party with a big socialist or communist paintbrush. It’s not new.
Bob Rice, a co-chair of the Alamosa County Democrats, said it’s a ridiculous argument.
“Uncle Bernie Sanders has been around for decades and decades and then for the last three weeks, he's Joseph Stalin? Give me a break. That's crazy,” he said.
He countered Democrats can work around these labels if they actually talk about the policies – like how to address affordability – as well as Democratic ideas voters across the country support, such as Medicaid, signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson, and Social Security, which was part of President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal.
But that won’t be a magic bullet for rural voters like Julia Gallegos, who lives in Lamar. She’s tired of the extremes on both sides.
“It seems like the next person to get in office just continues to be the furthest right or furthest left,” she explained. “And it just comes back to — no matter what you're talking about — coming back to the middle. Because nothing is attainable at this point with how far both parties have swayed in my opinion.”