Democrats are upset about the congressional redistricting maps for Colorado because it doesn’t give them control of every seat in the state.
Democrats would like to split Denver four ways, but they can’t because of Her Majesty Diana DeGette. If there’s a way to keep reelecting DeGette to Congress after she’s dead, Democrats will figure it out.
The bottom line on redistricting, Colorado is a tricky pie to slice around population numbers because liberals live on top of each other along the Front Range, while everyone else lives on the Western Slope or Eastern Plains.
Here’s the demographic and party breakdown in the proposed new districts with the current member of Congress:
District 1 U.S Rep. Diana DeGette (Democrat)
Population 721,715
White 76.1%
Black 9.3%
American Indian 0.9%
Asian 3.6%
Other 6%
Non-Hispanic 71.4%
Hispanic 28.6%
GOP 10.5%
Democrat 46.2%
Unaffiliated 41.60%
Minority Party 1.80%
District 2 U.S. Rep. Joe Neguse (Democrat)
Population 721,715
White 90.3%
Black 0.9%
American Indian 3.6%
Asian 3.3%
Other 1.7%
Non-Hispanic 87.5%
Hispanic 12.5%
GOP 20.6%
Democrat 22%
Unaffiliated 44%
Minority Party 1.7%
District 3 U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert (Republican)
Population 721,713
White 91.8%
Black 0.9%
American Indian 1.6%
Asian 0.9%
Other 2.8%
Non-Hispanic 84.7%
Hispanic 15.3%
GOP 33%
Democrat 22%
Unaffiliated 44%
Minority Party 1.7%
District 4 U.S. Rep. Ken Buck (Republican)
Population 721,713
White 88.2%
Black 1.7%
American Indian 1.7%
Asian 1.1%
Other 3.9%
Non-Hispanic 69%
Hispanic 31%
GOP 35.1%
Democrat 24.2%
Unaffiliated 39%
Minority Party 1.7%
District 5 U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn (Republican)
Population 721,715
White 80%
Black 6.3%
American Indian 0.8%
Asian 2.8%
Other 3.9%
Non-Hispanic 83.4%
Hispanic 16.6%
GOP 33.9%
Democrat 19.9%
Unaffiliated 44%
Minority Party 2.2%
District 6 U.S. Rep. Jason Crow (Democrat)
Population 721,713
White 71.2%
Black 10.6%
American Indian 0.7%
Asian 6.1%
Other 6.6%
Non-Hispanic 79.4%
Hispanic 20.6%
GOP 22.4%
Democrat 32.4%
Unaffiliated 43.4%
Minority Party 1.8%
District 7 U.S. Rep. Ed Perlmutter (Democrat)
Population 721,715
White 89.6%
Black 1.3%
American Indian 0.5%
Asian 3.8%
Other 1.8%
Non-Hispanic 87.2%
Hispanic 12.8%
GOP 28.8%
Democrat 25.5%
Unaffiliated 44%
Minority Party 1.7%
District 8 To Be Determined
Population 721,715
White 86.4%
Black 1.7%
American Indian 0.9%
Asian 3.8%
Other 3.4%
Non-Hispanic 70.1%
Hispanic 29.9%
GOP 23.1%
Democrat 30.2%
Unaffiliated 44.9%
Minority Party 1.9%
Common Cause endorsed this redistricting process and Democrats are just pissed that it’s working.
All their bitching and moaning just means Democrats want districts to be gerrymandered.
From the Cook Political Report:
If Democrats had free rein to gerrymander Colorado, they might be able to draw themselves a 7-1 advantage. But a 5-3 split is about as strong a result as they could hope for from a bipartisan commission, and this draft is a first step.
Here’s the breakdown:
The plan would place the state’s new 8th CD in the northern Denver suburbs, and it would have voted for President Biden by 15 points in 2020. It would also shift Democratic Rep. Ed Perlmutter’s 7th CD south into fast-growing and traditionally Republican Douglas County, reducing Biden’s margin in that seat from 23 points to nine points. In 2016, it would have voted for Donald Trump by one point.
However, as we wrote back in February, given that Colorado is one of only a handful of states with competitiveness spelled out in its map-drawing criteria, it was always likely at least one new competitive (Trump 2016/Biden 2020) seat would be created.
Democrats are clearly faking outrage over the proposed maps, in preparation for their public hearing testimony.