Redefining Red in Trump’s Pueblo County
Pueblo Republicans are searching for unity, riding on a wave of hope after Pueblo County went Republican by 390 votes.
By Kara Mason
Just 390 votes gave now-President Donald Trump the win in Pueblo County — a feat for Republicans in the Southern Colorado county, which is closely aligned with industries that have seen brighter days, such as steel, manufacturing and agriculture.
The story of Trump winning Pueblo is one that can be told in any Rust Belt town. But the story of division and the splintering within parties, specifically in Pueblo’s Republican Party, became more evident after the fateful day that gave Pueblo a deeper tinge of red.
On November 9 the big question for Pueblo County Republican Chairman, and former state senator, George Rivera was how his group pulled it off. There were two Democrat groups in Pueblo and they managed to lose the county. There had been some murmur that visibility, Trump supporters who always seemed to be out waving signs, was the key.
Yes, there were sign wavers, Rivera told PULP, led by former Republican county chair Becky Mizel. But that wasn’t who he was crediting for the win. The sign wavers, which named themselves the Trump Street Team, were an offshoot of the county Republican Party.
The real success stemmed from good organization and a candidate who sold himself. Rivera said the Colorado GOP sent down an organizer who was able to build on a presidential candidate that garnered support through rhetoric that painted a bleak picture of the manufacturing economy. Returning to American-made steel and creating manufacturing jobs was a good sell for Pueblo, nevermind evidence of automation and the fact that Evraz is actually a Russian-owned company.
Related: Pueblo Dems on losing the blue-collar steel town and uniting for the future
Even Congressional District 3 incumbent Rep. Scott Tipton performed well in Pueblo, getting 41 percent of the vote. His opponent Gail Schwartz, a former state senator for extreme Southern Colorado who ran an active campaign in Pueblo, received 31 percent of the 78,000 votes cast for the seat.
State Rep. Clarice Navarro, who appeared to be facing a real challenge from Democrat Jason Munoz, easily outpaced her opponent with 53 percent of the vote.
On the flipside, U.S. Senate candidate Darryl Glenn flopped, with 42 percent of Pueblo County’s vote. And Republican candidate for Pueblo County Commissioner Brian Mater was beat by 9 points. From the conversations that I’ve had with Pueblo Republicans, it seems Glenn’s issue was one of showing up. The candidate was in Pueblo twice throughout his campaign bid.
There isn’t a blanket reason for which Republicans won and why others didn’t. When politics are analyzed in bulk, such as it was this cycle, political scientists, pundits and journalists can point to one or a few reasons why a particular party did so well. After Trump won, it was a running narrative that coastal Democrats overlooked middle America in its decisions, and thus the rise of the Trump movement.
But later on, on Trump’s first official day in the Oval Office, a small meeting of Republicans in Pueblo West brought on another unexpected observation: Republicans, at least in Pueblo West, are not absolute backers of the party.
The entire meeting — led by Jerry Eller, a Pueblo Republican who threw his hat into the November U.S Senate race — focused on dissatisfaction, particularly of how local, state and federal lawmakers have handled marijuana.
Sheriff Kirk Taylor, a Democrat, was invited to speak about crime and marijuana, Eller had a slide prepared specifically to the legal substance and many of the 25-or-so attendees stuck close to the topic. So much so that one attendee and his wife at the end of the meeting said it seemed the meeting was more anti-marijuana than pro-Republican.
Eller said the next meeting might turn the group into something else other than the Republican Party, as marijuana was the root issue that inspired the party.
“That’s how democracy works,” Eller said.
During the meeting, Eller stressed that if the group wanted anything to change they would have to fight for it, because elected officials were obviously not listening. Rivera, who also spoke at the meeting, urged people to run for office. This was all despite the wins the party had in November and sitting in a district represented at the statehouse by a Republican. Neither were mentioned.
At one point in the meeting when the topic of what might happen with marijuana under the direction of Trump, it was advised that people write their congressmen. “Scott Tipton is worthless,” emerged from beneath a deep sigh behind me.
Even within the growing Pueblo County Republican Party there is obvious division.
Rivera faced a challenge for county chair from longtime Pueblo Republican Marla Reichert after the election. Her platform? Unity. “We win more elections if we stand together & work together. We will focus on beating Democrats, not each other,” she said on her campaign website.
After the Pueblo West Republican Party meeting, I asked Reichert how anybody can unite a party that at its core, at the presidency, is divisive and challenging what it means to be conservative.
“That’s a big question for anybody to answer,” I told Reichert after a few quick moments of silence. She agreed.
So perhaps, it’s too early to tell what unity will look like for the party at home and across the nation.
