The mission of the Weld County GOP is quite simple: Elect Republicans. In order to accomplish our relatively simple mission, we must faithfully do some basic things. One is to register more Republican voters.
The frank truth is that Republicans at the state and county level have put almost no effort into registration activities and the Democrats and left-leaning groups have significantly invested in registration activities. Let me share some numbers from a presentation that some of you have seen me give.
Wait a minute, you say…
…certainly, registration is not a problem in Weld County?! This is Weld County! We’re Republican! Let me share the registration trends from the past decade…
| 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | |
| DEM | 32,178 | 32,134 | 31,506 | 38,139 | 36,419 | 37,892 | 37,628 | 41,913 | 40,846 | 40,917 |
| REP | 50,760 | 53,546 | 52,478 | 62,718 | 60,653 | 63,914 | 64,153 | 70,919 | 61,168 | 68,096 |
| UAF | 49,164 | 51,102 | 50,264 | 58,159 | 58,683 | 65,815 | 70,443 | 82,090 | 87,823 | 95,051 |
To further break down those numbers…
- In ten years, the Democrats added 8,739 registered voters for an increase of 23.9%
- In the same 10 years, Republicans added 17,336 registered voters for an increase of 30.6%.
And what about population growth?!
- Weld grew by 74,108 to 344,213 persons.
- That’s an increase of 24.1%.
- The Unaffiliateds added 45,887 registered voters.
- That’s an increase of 63.4%.
Let’s take a look at ten years of registration trends in Colorado…
| 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | |
| DEM | 892,962 | 901,936 | 898,492 | 904,913 | 998,111 | 1,038,442 | 1,022,364 | 1,127,654 | 1,070,918 | 1,052,609 |
| REP | 930,774 | 959,411 | 955,100 | 941,108 | 993,030 | 990,434 | 967,449 | 1,025,921 | 954,371 | 931,195 |
| UAF | 979,665 | 1,021,221 | 1,013,371 | 1,002,653 | 1,155,117 | 1,284,581 | 1,344,562 | 1,550,329 | 1,623,434 | 1,729,570 |
To further break down these numbers…
- In ten years, the Democrats added 159,647 registered voters for an increase of 17.8%.
- In the same 10 years, Republicans added 421 registered voters for an increase of 0.04%.
And what about population growth?!
- Colorado grew by 646,265 to 5,839,925 persons.
- That’s an increase of 12.4%.
- The Unaffiliateds added 749,905 registered voters.
- That’s an increase of 76.5%.
Simply put, we must register new Republicans and convert conservative-leaning unaffiliated voters back to registered Republicans. The Weld County GOP is working on a plan to do just that and I will be sharing that plan as we roll out our strategic plan for 2024 over the next two months.
For now, we need interested Republicans to study Registration Drives through the Colorado Secretary of State and take the online training. Learn what a Voter Registration Drive (VRD) is and take note of the approved VRDs for 2023 in Colorado. None of these groups are exactly right-leaning.
While the registration outlook is not positive, we can turn that around with effort. Let’s begin today. I will share more in the weeks to come.