As we were first to report on Saturday, Paul Ryan has selected Colorado as his first major fundraising stop since becoming the Vice Presidential pick of Mitt Romney, with an event in Cherry Creek. He has since added a spot in the pivotal Jefferson County, with a rally in Lakewood on Tuesday.
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The event is at Lakewood High School (9700 W. 8th Avenue, Lakewood) at 11. Doors open at 9. Get there early — Romney/Ryan events over the weekend routinely surpassed 10,000 people.
The Ryan pick has lit the conservative base on fire.
A poll conducted by USA Today/Gallup even prior to the Ryan pick — July 19-22 — and released today, shows the race was already dominated by a more engaged Republican electorate:
More Republicans than Democrats are engaged in the presidential contest and voter turnout could decrease compared with the 2008 election, according to a Gallup poll on Monday.
Seventy-four percent of Republicans said they’re thinking about the election “quite a lot,” compared to 61 percent of Democrats, the USA Today/Gallup survey found.
“In most prior election campaigns, Republicans have typically paid a higher level of attention to the election than Democrats. However, the current 13-point Republican advantage is larger than Gallup has measured in recent presidential election years,” Gallup wrote.
The crowds at this weekend’s events demonstrated that Republican engagement is virtually guaranteed to increase with the addition of Ryan to the ticket.
Looks like fired up and ready to go is no longer the purview of Team Hopenchange.