If Demographics Are Destiny, Why Can’t Democrats Win This Denver District?

This article ignores the fact that a substantial percentage of eligible voters in the 6th Congressional District reside in the upper income areas of Highlands Ranch, Centennial, and south Aurora. Brighton, also part of the district, is increasingly prosperous. All are white communities with a substantial block of older voters who already have theirs. Coffman has come to the center only recently and mostly in rhetorical terms. He is still a solid Conservative member of Congress who is changing his message to appease the increased ethnic and racial make-up of the 6th but who still votes the party line. Coffman is a well-funded cog in the machine of white, well-to-do, conservative politics.

Im not taking a pro/con position on whether this district goes blue or red. However, I think this is a very clear example of WHY democrats support open borders. Political currency is votes. Democrats can earn votes by promoting open borders.

The only way to stop the Trump hate administration is to vote for EVERY DEMOCRAT on the ballot. Things will get worse if we stay home. That fact his advisor Steven Miller is a White nationalist, tells me all I need to know about Trump and his friends. And yes, he is in bed with Putin.

In the first week or so in office, whoever is elected here will be voting for a Speaker of the House, who in turn will be appointing each and every committee chairman. Ought that not give voters here (and everywhere) something to think about?

Coffman shot to viral video "fame" when the healthcare issue was huge in Colorado and he would only talk with a few constituents at a time, not a crowd, and then later bolted out the side door and someone recorded him running away.

Thank you, New York Times, for explaining to Republicans that to win the votes of immigrants, they must demand more immigration. This bulletproof logic is, of course, why Marco Rubio is President today.

Good grief, we really expect people who worked hard to earn a green card are going to say that illegals should jump the line?

It isn't the party affiliation, its the man or woman. Do they have integrity, morals? Do they respond to the needs of their constituents. I know, then how do we explain trump? His constituents are just like him.

Terrible that the Democrats have to win using "fear and anger" and then people wonder why the country is so divided? When Democrats are openly making people fearful to gain power, they are a danger to democracy.

So far, the democrats seem to be doing fine in primaries across the country. If the last 18 months haven't shown this country how quickly things degenerate when a loud-mouthed carnival barker promises suckers across America daily showers of dollars from heaven yet truthfully calls his faithful followers "poorly educated", then we as Americans deserve the scorn and dislike that is coming our way.

So, the Dems think they deserve the immigrant's vote. They believe that they have the best solution for immigrants? They do not. Both parties represent legal immigrants, those that came legally with papers having passed the vetting process. Any party that supports illegal immigration - come if you want - is not representing the US, it's citizens, or it's culture. But then, saying 'American culture' is a no no to those folks as they believe the US is evil and deserves to be torn apart because white people are bad (unless they live in Europe) and everyone else is good, just 'cause.

The tough guy American image appeals to many immigrants too. Some immigrants I see around NYC wear extravagantly patriotic items of clothing, such as baseball caps. One even sees "MAGA" caps.

It is rather too bad how many migrants/refugees/imigrants still believe that coming to Amerika solves any of their problems. I'm sure it helps. My church still provides refuge. Currently, we tend to make it worse. As long as trump and his trumpets treat refugees as "migrants/immigrants" our meaning has lost its value. I prefer valuing humans and the human spirit...

"Instead, Colorado’s Sixth Congressional District has become a scene of frustration and failure for Democrats. In election after cash-soaked election, Democrats have been unable to unseat Mike Coffman, a five-term Republican congressman, even after his Republican-layup district was redrawn to slice out some conservative white voters and include thousands more Hispanic residents." From other NYT articles - I thought it was just republicans who engage in blatant gerrymandering.

Representing your constituents is how you win elections, even in "Saudi" Aurora.

How about Democrats can’t win because the DCCC decided it wanted to decide the primary for the district not through votes but strong armed tactics. That both Democrats moves into the 6th district from Denver to run. Ie they are both carpetbaggers. That they Democrats in this district don’t engage with voters. No democrat is going to go around the district, just to fund raisers. Jason Crow doesn’t want to know the 6th district they way someone like Beto O’ Rourke wants to represent Texas. Jason Crow wants to represent Denver not Aurora,Centennial or other surrounding communities. I doubt he could could get around the district without google maps. But this is a district that voted for Hillary Clinton. It is diverse. But it is not elite. It is not Boulder or Denver. It still has some more affordable housing in the area. As a lifelong resident and a life long democrat. Th party fails to try to understand, let alone represent his district. I will vote for Crow, and it feels like eating Crow. The problem is that separating families and indefinite detention makes for a low bar. It is low enough for me, I doubt it will be for the district. But then the democrats would have to raise the bar of being just not Trump themselves- and that would mean having to address issues that matter to a district.

Perhaps the people choose based on what they think is most important, not what someone else tells them they should care about most.

Mr. Echeverry summarizes our dilemma well; while we aim to demographically transform our nation so that it looks like Aurora or L.A., and white-minority, we will always have an element within the immigrant ranks who view later arrivals as "bad elements." Over time these people will probably see themselves as "white." The exact same thing happened with the Irish, Italian, Polish and German migrants. They too were once viewed as a permanent lock for the Democratic urban organizations that supported them, but today their descendants are slowly turning the Midwest red. I think the solution is better vetting. Trump seems to know this, hence his position on a merit based immigration system. This is why we need to push hard against this, and give preference to single mothers from Central America, sub-Saharan Africans, and single men and large families from the Middle East. These cohorts won't be as likely to switch sides like this Colombian man has, and I think it makes sense now to be skeptical of people from Colombia, the Philippines, Cuba and Venezuela - the first two have deep right wing streaks, and the second two are properly socialist, and so the ones who have come here tend to be doubters and right wingers. I feel like single mothers from Central America though, and sub-Saharan Africans, and Muslims from the Middle East will be more loyal to progressive goals over time. When we take over, we should vet for people with these attributes.

Could it be that Democrats stand for nothing, except for 'leading with our values' whatever that means, or that they do nothing as in Nancy 'I don't think people want a new direction' Pelosi. Or maybe because they are really just a different form of Republican, as when Obama grinningly proclaimed that his policies are consistent with a moderate Republican, or Chuck Schumer writing off actual Democrats in western Pennsylvania for Republicans in the Philadelphia suburbs. Do ya think that's why? When people have a choice between a Republican and a wanna be Republican, they choose the real Republican. Do ya think that has anything to do with it?

I live in this district. Mike Coffman has done little or nothing meaningful to oppose GOP policies on immigration or anything else. He says one thing here in Colorado, then does another in DC.

If Mike Coffman is taking care of his constituents, then it's no surprise he keeps getting elected. Democrats shouldn't fall into the "throw everyone out the window" mentality and try to elect Democrats in every Republican district because - well, just they're Democrats. On the other hand; if Coffman votes for legislation and supports policies that run counter to his constituents' wants and needs, then have at him. Example: In Pennsylvania's new 1st district, which Hillary won but in which Brian Fitzpatrick (R) took the House seat, Fitzpatrick is tacking more to the center on issues of concern to everyone - such as the PFOA contamination around the old Naval Air Station in Horsham, PA. Fitzpatrick's latest mailing talks about partnering with other legislators "across the aisle" to force Scott Pruitt to release an EPA study on the harmful effects of PFOAs in public water supplies. I vote Independent, but if Fitz is siccing the hounds on the ethically-challenged Pruitt, he has my support. It's likely he'll lose the seat this fall to a Blue Wave candidate, but I hope he can facilitate Pruit being removed from EPA before then.

Sounds like Mr. Coffman works hard to connect with his constituents and represent their interests. As a result they keep him in office. Isn't that how it's supposed to work?

Well, the flood of 3rd grade equivalency, no English, some are criminals, desperate will work for slave-wages, used to horrific employer abuse immigrants flooding into immigrant communities 'compete' the most with legal immigrants, kill their wages, overcrowd and dumb-down 2 grade levels the class rooms their children are in, exhaust the supply of scarce social services so that's why many honest legal immigrants who actually pay some taxes and are not "takers" for generations will not jump on the insane Democrat "open borders" band wagon. But of course "experts" like Healy and the dem party machine have known this for decades, because of the 40% of immigrants who have replied on surveys for decades that they want this nation's immigration laws efficiently enforced. You know they really didn't come here to live in an anarchy of a corrupt, no rule of law society like the ones they came from.

All my life, I have voted for whoever I thought was the best qualified candidate. But this Congress and this president have shown me the error of my ways. Republicans do not operate independently, they operate as a single unit. All the Republicans, regardless of what they say to contrary, have proven with their votes that they are in lockstep behind Trump. And even more importantly, they are in lockstep protecting Trump from the Rule of Law. Maybe someday we can have a viable centrist party, but for now, the choice is Democrat or dictatorship.

Legal immigrants; the ones who have become citizens; the ones who vote; who followed the law through an exhaustive, expensive process are unlikely to be in favor of Abolish ICE or CBP. They may not say so to a reporter or a pollster but don't be surprised when 'immigrants' don't support unfettered mass illegal migration.

In 2016 Americans for Prosperity, the Koch/Rove PAC and similar PACs ran some of the nastiest political ads we had ever seen against the woman who dared to run against Coffman. If you’ve ever had a bad photograph taken or done anything that anyone might criticize, these despicable hacks will find it and display it endlessly in political ads. They would smear Mother Theresa and probably have a field day ripping the pope to shreds. Hope Mr. Crow and the voters have the courage and stamina to withstand the attacks that are likely coming.