Is Colorado Springs politically conservative? (Denver, Pueblo: appointed, house, neighborhoods)

[Cinema Cat]

I've heard that Colorado Springs is politically conservative, partially due to the presence of the Air Force Academy.

And that Pueblo is largely progressive.

Is this true?

[Mike from back east]

Yes. But lots of room in both cities for people with a variety of viewpoints and lifestyles.

[TCHP]

Colo Spgs is politically and fiscally very conservative. Socially it is fairly liberal. Every major religion has a church/mosque/temple here in addition to a large new age and wiccan presence. There are more mixed race people by percentage than many major cities and is home to one of the oldest liberal arts colleges in the western United States and home to the fastest growing college in CO with UCCS.

Pueblo has had a traditionally Democratic base, but not sure I'd necessarily label it progressive. It is a neat city with a broad range of neighborhoods and was historically a melting pot of nationalities. But it tends to have virtually no growth, the highest teenage birthrate in the state, and struggling education districts. In many ways being there feels like a throwback in time. Its like living the 1980s with modern cell phones and cars.

[otowi]

It kind of depends on how you define it.

The breakdown of party registration for El Paso County is really somewhat diverse -
Democrats are 21% of registered voters
Republicans are 37% of registered voters
Independents are 40% of registered voters
The remainder are registered in minor parties.

A lot of those independents are more left-leaning than the Republican base, so things can happen like, for example, Obama/Biden winning the county in 2012. Trump won it in 2016.

Practically speaking, Republicans nearly always win the majority of every local political seat of note in the county and city, with some consistent pockets of exception.

Pueblo is left-leaning. But, for example, Trump narrowly won Pueblo in 2016, so it is not hugely liberal.

[Phil P]

You know, the thing about Colorado Springs is that it really is diverse, much more so than Denver is, so there's people from all over the spectrum, religiously and politically, and they seem to get a long fairly well. The evangelical church I grew up in had prayer meetings against the spirits of Manitou, but prayer battles were the extent of the action, no protests or anything like that. The conservative majority I think can be explained by 1. Hangover from when CO was more like NE and WY and 2. Ex military. It's also a bit of a self sort feature, people from all over the spectrum come to CO for the mountains, the conservative retirees tend to come down here, the liberal ones go north to Ft. Collins / Evergreen.

The main thing that annoys me about COS conservatism is the gun culture. That's the most wacko element of it, and again it's related to the military; sounds like the War in Iraq is still going on up here in Black Forest and out near Mt. Hermon.

[bluescreen73]

At this point the problem in the Springs isn't necessarily the populace, but rather some of the moonbats they choose to represent them in government.

Doug Bruce - serial slumlord and convicted tax cheat. Has been both a county commissioner and a State Representative. He was appointed to fill a vacancy in the state house and was subsequently primaried out at the next election. He became the first representative in state history to be censured - for kicking a photographer. He's a boorish, cantankerous jackass whose sole purpose in life is being an anti-establishment nit.

Gordon Klingenschmitt - former Navy chaplain and all-around bigot. Has repeatedly made homophobic and Islamophobic statements. During his one term in the state house ol' Gordy made a really low-brow hot take about a woman in Longmont who had her unborn child cut from her womb by a pyschopath. He essentially said she had it coming to her - “This is the curse of God upon America for our sin of not protecting innocent children in the womb.” He's also made idiotic statements about Jared Polis saying he'd "join ISIS in beheading Christians, not just in Syria, right here in America." Even after all the stupid, abhorrent crap he's said, he came thisclose to winning a seat on the Colorado Springs city council last fall.

Vickie Tonkins - El Paso County GOP chairwoman. In April she made a Facebook post (on the official El Paso County Republicans page she controls, no less) suggesting COVID-19 was a false flag hoax.

[dr.frog]

It's seemed to me that the local Democratic party organization is dominated by left-wing zealots who value shouting about ideological purity over just getting elected so they can accomplish *some* of their policy goals. They've got some good people in the state legislature but I don't see how they have any hope of e.g. unseating Doug Lamborn with the candidates they've been choosing to run against him. And those county-level offices, things like sheriff and coroner and treasurer.... it usually seems like either the Dems aren't running candidates at all, or they're woefully unqualified to run those offices. FAOD, I'm speaking as a long-time independent voter, a libertarian-leaning moderate. I'm totally fed up with the GOP these days and I've been disappointed that the Democrats haven't been fielding better candidates either.

[Mike from back east]

Note that Gordon Klingenschmitt - former Navy chaplain was kicked out of the Navy for his outrageous behavior. Having worked 30 years for DoD, you have to be a truly execrable officer to get kicked out.

[hollyt00]

Klingenschmitt's replacement isn't much better.

It also depends on where you live; downtown is more mixed, the farther northeast you go, the more conservative it can tend to be. But those lines appear to be blurring more and more.

[davebarnes]

Two words.
Doug Lamchop.