As Republicans and Democrats move toward their extremes, Colorado’s electorate continues to be dominated by unaffiliated voters who are voting with their feet in rejecting both parties.

The most recent affiliation figures released by the Colorado Secretary of State have unaffiliated voters at 1,862,600 or 48.5%, Democrats at 997,611 or 26%, and Republicans trailing in third place at 896,726 or 23.4% as of Aug. 1.

This dramatic change of Colorado’s electorate emerged after decades of the state being roughly divided into thirds between Republicans, Democrats and unaffiliated voters. A clear majority of voters of more than 65% chose to affiliate as either Democrat or Republican with unaffiliated voters at around a third.

Going back to the 1970s through the early 2000s, Colorado was truly a competitive state where statewide elections along with congressional and state legislative races were on relatively equal competitive turf. These elections required the very best of candidates and campaigns and the party that met that challenge in those races would win.

A huge migration of more than 800,000 people started around 2010 and over the ensuing decade these newcomers dramatically changed the Colorado electorate. Even though a large number of these new residents were younger and more liberal in their social attitudes, they did not automatically default to registering as Democrats.

They chose to be unaffiliated which has resulted in the lopsided numbers reflected today representing half of the electorate.

But these new unaffiliated voters have made Colorado a blue state driving huge Democratic victories across the board since 2016 when Trump was first nominated for president. Even more than embracing Democrats, they rejected Donald Trump and his brand of politics which, in their minds, defined all Republican candidates.

Are these unaffiliated voters permanently locked in as reliable Democratic votes? The overwhelming rejection of the Proposition HH property tax increase in November 2023 suggests that when the anti-Trump factor is removed from the question, they still could have right-of-center attitudes when it comes to fundamental tax and spending issues.

Regardless of who wins the national election for president, there is no indication Colorado is remotely competitive in 2024. Republican candidates for Congress and the state legislature will have to run effective campaigns focusing on issues of concern to their district and not wallow in a bitter presidential campaign.

Recent primary victories by strong Republican candidates in congressional and state legislative primaries that rejected the narrow ideology of stolen election conspiracy mongers, suggest some level of balance could be restored to a state which is virtually a one-party, blue state.

It is fashionable for the stolen election conspiracy crowd that now controls the leadership of the Colorado Republican Party to claim those Republicans who led the party before the emergence of Trump in 2016 are irrelevant.

They believe only a doubling-down on the conspiracy agenda and stealing the ability of unaffiliated voters to vote in primary elections can result in Republican victories.

They apparently believe a narrowly focused Republican minority of 23.4% can somehow defeat the other 76% of the electorate representing Democrats and unaffiliated voters.

Soon unaffiliated voters will soar beyond 50% while the two political parties continue to decline. They will not be content standing on the sidelines while two partisan minority parties dominate the nomination process that decides what choices they have in a general election. They want to be involved in the political process from the beginning to the end, not just deciding between choices made for them by political insiders.

Democrats continue to fend off emerging Democratic Socialist challengers while Republicans wallow in stolen election conspiracies.

The first political party to recognize that Colorado is steadily moving toward a post-partisan future dominated by unaffiliated voters who reject the extremes of both parties will be the party that can win.

Dick Wadhams is a former Colorado Republican state chairman who worked for U.S. Sen. Bill Armstrong for nine years before managing campaigns for U.S. Sens. Hank Brown and Wayne Allard, Gov. Bill Owens, and U.S. Sen. John Thune of South Dakota.