Colorado’s Presidential Primary Election is now over and things are heating up for the county, district and state assemblies and the subsequent elections. Let’s look at the results of Presidential Primary here in Delta County and see if there is any indication of what could happen in the November 5th General Election. The following shows the results here in Delta County:
In Delta County there are 22,575 active voters; 11,347 voters voted, which is a 50.26% voter turnout.
Statewide there are 3,785,594 active voters; 1,450,450 voters voted, which is a 38.31% voter turnout.
There were 573,538 Democrat votes cast, which is 40% of the votes cast.
There were 867,085 Republican votes cast, which is 60% of the votes cast. These last two figures represent both Democrats and Unaffiliated voters who voted the Democrat ballot and Republicans and Unaffiliated voters who voted the Republican ballot.
Biden received 33% of the statewide total votes cast.
Trump received 38% of statewide total votes cast.
Haley received 20% of the statewide total votes.
Biden received 18% of the total votes cast in Delta County.
Trump received 59% of the total votes cast in Delta County.
Haley received 16% of the total votes cast in Delta County.
So, what do these numbers mean? I think you can say that Trump has considerable support in Delta County; Biden has very low support in Delta County and Nikki Haley has almost as much support as the incumbent president. Does this mean that Donald Trump is going to be a shoe-in in the presidential race? I’m not sure you can go that far. There were almost as many Delta County voters who did not vote as there were voters who did – 11,347 voters to 11,228 non-voters. The voter turn-out at the state level is much lower. Who knows which way the non-voters are inclined to vote? Or, even if they will vote. This is why I keep pushing increased voter turn-out, promoting our Republican candidates. We need more people to vote for Republican candidates to win. It is that simple, but achieving that is not.
Caucuses.
The caucuses are also over. All in all, the caucuses went well. Here’s what happened at our four locations.
The turnout was up from the turnout at the 2022 caucuses. We had 164 attendees this year. Unfortunately, no one turned out for Precinct 4 and Precincts 2 & 3 only had 1 person show up, at each caucus. Other precincts had fairly strong turnouts – Precincts1, 8, 12, 13, 14, 17 and 18. Precinct 14 wins the prize for the largest turnout with 20 people in attendance. There were 32 Precinct Committee People (PCPs) elected, ten of which are new PCPs. Eight positions were unfilled. That means we have eight vacancies for PCPs in our 20 precincts. Those vacancies are in Precincts 2, 3, 4 (2 openings), 5, 10, 11 and 13. If any one lives in those seven precincts and would like to serve as PCP for the next two-years, please contact me and we will run your name through the Vacancy Committee to get you appointed. Thanks to all who attended and participated. And thanks to all who volunteered to serve as delegates for the county assembly and other higher assemblies. We filled many of the delegate spots to the various assemblies, though not all. Many of the Alternates that were elected will be moved up to Delegate status, at the County Assembly, because we had unfilled slots at unattended and lower attendance caucuses. I’ll be notifying these individuals so they can plan on being a delegate.
I think this would be a good time to list the individuals who were elected as PCPs:
We’ll be ratifying the election of the PCPs at the County Assembly and swearing them in to their office.
I want to thank Debbie Barnhart, Debbie Griffith and Sue Whittlesey who served as
caucus coordinators. I also want to thank Lisa Tafoya who produced the video we showed at the four locations. The video allowed the same information to be presented at all the caucuses. I believe the caucus attendees enjoyed seeing and hearing from the various candidates who submitted video clips. Now that the caucuses are over, we are preparing for the various assemblies to nominate our candidates to the primary.
Here are the assemblies and the dates and the currently planned times for each assembly:
County Assembly – Saturday, March 23, 2024 at the Delta Center for the Performing Arts in Delta, CO at 10:00 am. Credentialing opens at 8:00 a.m.
For the county assembly, there were 136 delegates and 17 alternates elected at the caucuses. At this time three of the alternates can be moved up to delegate. The other 14 can only be moved up if one of the current delegates in their precinct does not show at the assembly. This is a restriction in the state and our county bylaws for the county assembly. I’ll be notifying the alternates so they know if they have been moved up or if they will remain as an alternate. The agenda for the upcoming county assembly will be:
Call to Order.
Invocation.
Pledge of Allegiance.
Appointments and Committees.
Introduction of Elected Officials and Candidates.
Adoption of Credential Committee Report and Meeting Rules.
Ratification of Election of Precinct Committee Persons (PCPs).
Designation of a Candidate to the Primary Ballot for County Office Positions -County Commissioner-District 2, County Commissioner-District 3.
Designate Vacancy Committees.
Ratification of Election of Delegates to Higher Assemblies (State, Congressional District 3, State Senatorial District 5, Judicial District 7, State House District 54 & 58 Assemblies).
Adoption of Resolutions.
New Business.
Adjourn.
The county assembly brings together the active members of the Republican Party in Delta County. It will be a good opportunity to see and converse with our fellow Republicans. And it will be where we elect the candidates for the two County Commissioner seats to go on the primary ballot. If you were elected as a delegate or an alternate, I hope to see you there. The other higher assemblies will be held on the following dates and locations. The current planned times are also listed, but these could change, so be aware of that and we’ll plan to keep you updated.
District Assemblies:
SD5 –Saturday, March 30, 2024, at Montrose Event Center, 1036 North 7th St., Meeting Room 4, Montrose, CO at 10:45 am. Credentialing opens at 10:15 am.
HD54 – Saturday, March 30, 2024 at Palisade High School, 3679 G Road, Palisade, CO at 2:00 pm, Credentialing begins at 1:30pm.
Colorado State Central Committee Meeting – Friday, April 5, 2024 at the Pueblo Convention Center, 320 Central Main Street, Pueblo, CO at 7:15 am. Credentialing opens at 6:30 am. (Only the DCRCC Chair, Vice-Chair and Secretary can vote at this meeting, though it is open for visitors).
CD3 - Friday, April 5, 2024 at the State Fairgrounds Southwest Motors Event Center, 950 S. Prairie Ave., Pueblo, CO at 2:00 pm. Credentialing opens at 1:00 pm.
JD7 – Friday, April 5, 2024 at the State Fairgrounds Southwest Motors Event Center, 950 S. Prairie Ave., Pueblo, CO at 5:30 pm.
HD58 - Friday, April 5, 2024 at the State Fairgrounds Southwest Motors Event Center, 950 S. Prairie Ave., Pueblo, CO at 6:00 pm.
State Assembly & Convention – Saturday, April 6, 2024 at the State Fairgrounds Southwest Motors Events Center, 950 S. Prairie Ave., Pueblo, CO at 9:00 am. Credentialing opens at 7:00 am.
If you went to the caucuses and became a delegate, we will see you at the County Assembly on Saturday, March 23 or at one of the other higher assemblies that will follow. If you did not attend caucus, you can still attend the County Assembly as a visitor to observe and see what goes on. If you don’t plan to attend, I hope to see you at one of our monthly meetings.
Our next DCRCC monthly meeting is going to be on April 2, 2024 at the Surface Creek Community Church in Austin. The meeting starts at 6:00 pm and we try to finish by 7:30 pm. Hope to see you there.
David Bradford
Chairman, Delta County Republican Central Committee
PS- Anyone living inside city or town limits should have received a ballot this past week. This is for the municipal elections in the county. The actual election day is April 2, 2024. These elections are considered non-partisan, so the candidate’s political affiliation is not shown on the ballot. The March 13, 2024 edition of the High Country Spotlight (published as part of the High Country Shopper) includes a section on the municipal elections. I recommend you check it out when pondering who to vote for in your municipal election. I can tell you which of these candidates are registered Republicans. I believe these individuals deserve a very close look and your support, if your evaluation is positive. The Republican-registered candidates in the municipal elections are:
Cedaredge – Rodney Bodwell running for mayor, Jerry Pippin running for trustee; Crawford – Cris Johnson and Wanda Gofforth both running for mayor, and Jon Jeffrey Peed running for trustee; Delta – Ron White running for councilmember at-large, Dan Korthuis running for councilmember, District A; Hotchkiss – all candidates are registered Republicans; Orchard City – Richard Kirkpatrick running for mayor, and William (Will) Punkoney running for trustee; Paonia – no registered Republicans are running for office in this election. So, again, check out the March 13, 2024 edition of the High Country Spotlight and any other source you might have and vote in your municipal election.
PSS –Remember you can donate to the Delta County Republican Central Committee, by going to our website https://www.deltacoloradogop.com Since we won’t have a headquarters this year, donations are critical in helping build up our bank account so we have funds for supporting our candidates in the 2024 election. An individual donation of $20 is a great small donation. You can also donate in person at our monthly meeting. Thank you! db