{"id":50648,"date":"2020-11-04T03:26:51","date_gmt":"2020-11-04T10:26:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/county-democrats-celebrate-the-positives-at-watch-party\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:52:30","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T09:52:30","slug":"county-democrats-celebrate-the-positives-at-watch-party","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/county-democrats-celebrate-the-positives-at-watch-party\/","title":{"rendered":"County Democrats celebrate the positives at watch party"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Montezuma
Montezuma County Democrats meet with Democratic candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives briefly via Zoom on the evening of Election Day, soon after the polls close in Colorado.<\/span>Emily Hayes\/The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Montezuma County Democrats held a virtual Election Day watch party Tuesday evening to celebrate reaching and exceeding their advocacy goals, despite clear outcomes in the election.<\/p>\n

Results were not in for the most contentious races by the time the watch party ended, but Mary Dodd, chair of the Montezuma County Democrats, shared accomplishments the Democrats made in a largely Republican corner of the state.<\/p>\n

As of Oct. 10, there are 3,560 active voting Democrats in Montezuma County, alongside 7,601 active voting Republicans and over 6,400 active unaffiliated voters.<\/p>\n

By midday on Election Day, Montezuma County Democrats brought a higher voter turnout than 2018.<\/p>\n

County Democrats also raised $11,000 in a single fundraiser, a large amount without having an in-person event, Dodd said.<\/p>\n

Attendees chatted about rising tensions after the polls closed, as well as what went well and what didn\u2019t during their campaigning efforts such as phone banking.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want it to be a positive discussion \u2013 we are tired of the tension and strife, particularly in our county,\u201d Dodd said in a phone interview before the event.<\/p>\n

Despite the national Democratic wave in 2018 that brought a Democratic majority to the Colorado Legislature and the U.S. House of Representatives, Montezuma County has remained a majority Republican county.<\/p>\n

Polls show presidential candidate Joe Biden and U.S. Senate candidate John Hickenlooper in the lead in an increasingly Democratic Colorado, but local races are less likely to bring a Democrat to victory in the traditionally conservative corner of the state.<\/p>\n

The Montezuma County Patriots led their most political Freedom Ride on Saturday morning, calling out \u201cTrump 2020\u201d and \u201cfour more years.\u201d<\/p>\n

Small groups of Trump for President and Don\u2019t Tread on Me flag wavers lined Main Street in Cortez Tuesday morning as in-person voting began in poll locations across the country.<\/p>\n

Democratic candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives Diane Mitsch Bush briefly joined the Zoom call to thank Montezuma Democrats for their support.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve been rocking it,\u201d Mitsch Bush said to the group.<\/p>\n

If she wins, she will be the first Democrat since 2008 to win the 3rd Congressional District. The former state representative and sociology professor faces political newcomer and restaurant owner Lauren Boebert, who won against a five-term incumbent in the Republican primary with her far-right stances.<\/p>\n

Rep. Scott Tipton, R-Cortez, beat Mitsch Bush by 8 percentage points in the 2018 election.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut this time it\u2019s a very different race,\u201d Mitsch Bush said during the watch party.<\/p>\n

The tension will is not set to dissipate anytime soon.<\/p>\n

Pueblo County\u2019s clerk said it may not have results until Friday, and Garfield and Mesa Counties will continue to count ballots into Wednesday or Thursday.<\/p>\n

ehayes@the-journal.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

celebrate their accomplishments<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":50649,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[21,28,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-50648","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-cortez","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50648","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50648"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50648\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":87792,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50648\/revisions\/87792"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50649"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50648"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50648"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50648"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=50648"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}