Colorado is one of two blue states in the Rocky Mountain region, a clear anomaly in a sea of red for almost 20 years. The gradual shift from conservative stronghold to political outlier has left many asking: What makes the Centennial State different from its Western neighbors?

The answer, put simply, is that Colorado has Democratic demographics. Democrats tend to be more educated, wealthy and concentrated in urban areas, according to Pew Research Center. Colorado is the fourth-most educated state, among the wealthiest in the U.S. and has over three million people living near the Denver metro area.

“It’s such an educated state; it’s a wealthy state, a cosmopolitan state, (and) that tends to align with even the national Democratic Party right now,” said Kyle Saunders, a political science professor at Colorado State University. “Educated, wealthy, cosmopolitan people do not tend to vote for Trump, and so that has led the Republican Party in Colorado to be not doing very well.”

But Democratic demographics don’t just appear out of nowhere, especially in a state that was reliably Republican for so long. In the case of Colorado, the demographic swing came from other states, namely California. Matthew Hitt, another political science professor at CSU, said Colorado was once a hotbed of in-migration.

“Colorado’s population, for a time, was really booming, and a lot of in-migration was coming from, at the time, more expensive cost-of-living areas like California,” Hitt said. “Folks who are Democrats from other states moved to Colorado and particularly concentrate along the front range, right (by) the Denver area. That’s where a lot of job opportunity was.”

Hitt noted that Colorado looked attractive compared to surrounding Western states because Denver offered economic opportunity in a variety of fields and had uniquely easy access to other benefits like outdoor recreation.

“You’ve got a really serious, major big city that’s actually grown a lot since the ’90s, with a lot of economic opportunity, an international airport and it’s also pretty close to world-class outdoor amenities,” Hitt said. “The mountains, you know, skiing, snowboarding — you can be skiing within an hour, hour and a half of Denver. A lot of other Western neighbors, they have beautiful mountains, but they’re not set up like that.”

Migration can also help explain why Colorado is so highly educated, even though it is among the lowest spenders on education nationwide. The high quality of life kept the educated population here, Saunders said.

“Net in-migration has really been to Colorado’s benefit,” Saunders said. “We’ve been able to bring in a lot of educated people, and it is a nice place to live. It’s high-quality of life, 300 days of sunshine, all of that. So that’s no doubt part of the story, and it has definitely sustained.”

Despite the low education spending and for reasons beyond sunshine, Colorado continues to be favorable to academics. CSU and the University of Colorado Boulder are both cutting-edge research institutions that are not at risk of interference by a Republican state government.

“Academic freedom is as safe here as it’s going to be anywhere in the United States, so we’ll continue to attract faculty who want to be here because, frankly, it’s better than working in Ohio right now.” -Matthew Hitt, CSU professor

Hitt pointed out that recent legislation has been proposed or passed in dominantly red states — including Northern Colorado’s neighbor, Wyoming — that threatens to reshape higher education entirely.

“We chronically underfund our higher education, chronically underfund K-12, but high-quality professionals, high-quality educators and researchers and professors continue to want to live in Colorado,” Hitt said. “Even if we’re underfunded, we’re not under threat. … In states with Republican-controlled legislatures, we are seeing really aggressive and unnerving lawmaking activity directed at universities.”

Although Colorado is equally subject to some recent federal initiatives directed at higher education, the state’s Democratic trifecta, in part, prevents experienced educators from fleeing, ultimately boosting the overall quality of education.

“Academic freedom is as safe here as it’s going to be anywhere in the United States, so we’ll continue to attract faculty who want to be here because, frankly, it’s better than working in Ohio right now,” Hitt said.

Security in Colorado’s Democratic hold is reinforced by the relative weakness of the Republican opposition. Saunders said the national Republican messaging in favor of President Donald Trump has failed to resonate among Coloradans, whereas state Democrats have adapted to the changing population.

“The Democratic Party in Colorado, at least the last 10 years, has done a much better job adapting to the changing electorate than the Republicans have,” Saunders said. “The Republicans could have gone with less ‘Trumpy’ candidates and perhaps had more electable success, but that’s not the national trend with the Republican Party.”

In fact, Colorado defied the 2024 national trend toward the Republican Party within Democratic districts, with every blue district only turning more blue.

While Colorado has become the blue sheep of the Rocky Mountain family, it hasn’t shed its Western roots. The region’s hallmark libertarian streak still shapes Colorado politics but in a distinctly progressive way.

“That notion of, ‘Stay out of my business; let me live my life’ — that’s a streak that infects Western states more than, say, conservative southerners,” Hitt said. “Some of that you can see in Colorado — the first state to legalize cannabis, one of the first states to legalize civil unions for same-sex couples. So those are very progressive stances but also libertarian stances. ‘Get the government out of our business.’”

Hitt said Colorado has created a unique identity for itself — one that evolved from its Western roots yet is distinguishable from its Western neighbors.

“The mountain communities have a culture and a vibe that’s distinctly Colorado,” Hitt said. “It’s not really Western cowboy stuff, but … there is an identity there that is very Colorado, very tied to our geography.”

Reach Chloe Waskey at news@collegian.com or on social media @CSUCollegian.