Colorado is Donald Trump’s nemesis.
The bitter history is clear. The Republican presidential candidate snubbed the state this primary season. Ted Cruz at stake in the caucus — a rare shutout for Trump’s campaign. And Colorado is home to some of the “Dump Trump” leaders ahead of the national convention.
To add insult, the state’s top Republican, U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner, is refusing to endorse him. And experienced political operatives won’t work for him.
The remain visible ahead of Trump’s to Colorado on Friday for a speech to committed conservatives at the Western Conservative Summit.
“You can’t jump off a cliff and expect anyone to follow you,” said Kaye Ferry, the Eagle County Republican Party chairwoman, referring to Trump. “You would think he’d tuck it in to unify the party, and he’s doing just the opposite.”
The last time Colorado caught Trump’s attention, he didn’t exactly endear himself to its Republican voters.
“Great anger — totally unfair!” Trump after rival Cruz swept the state’s national delegates in a series of local and state conventions. “The people of Colorado had their vote taken away from them by the phony politicians.”
The attack spurred and exposed the deep rift in the state toward the billionaire businessman’s candidacy.
“How on earth are you going to defeat ISIS if you can’t figure out the (Colorado GOP) convention?” Gardner on Twitter.
It didn’t help that the Colorado GOP with the tweet: “We did it. #NeverTrump” —a comment that was quickly deleted and blamed on “unauthorized access.” The explanation did little to assuage skeptical Trump supporters.
Since then, temperatures have cooled but the relationship remains tepid in a key battleground state that will help decide who wins the White House.
The Trump visit — and a the same day — are the first steps toward making amends. Earlier this week, the campaign named Patrick Davis, a Colorado Springs-based political consultant, to serve . He has experience working in numerous states, including Texas where he was involved in a dispute with a client regarding .
“Colorado is still kind of unknown territory for Donald Trump because we didn’t have a primary here,” Davis acknowledged Wednesday. “Everywhere else in the country, we had a primary, so we know where he stands, at least among Republicans. But what we do know is where Hillary Clinton stands. … And Hillary Clinton got beat in Colorado.”
Davis knows the mood in Colorado. He joined Trump’s team at the last minute ahead of the state GOP convention, as the campaign scrambled to win delegates against a better organized Cruz campaign. He said Trump is ready to move on.
“I think Donald Trump has buried the hatchet with the state Republican Party already,” he said.
But others are not. Paulo Sibaja, a Colorado political consultant, said Trump’s comments about the Latino community alienated significant numbers of voters. He worked for the Republican National Committee and led Hispanic outreach for Mitt Romney’s campaign in Colorado in 2012. This year, he’s sitting out.
“I would have to believe in a candidate” to work for him, Sibaja said. “I don’t believe in Donald Trump at the moment.”
And prominent activists are not ready to give Trump the party’s nomination. Regina Thomson and Kendal Unruh, two Colorado national delegates, are organizing the Free the Delegates 2016 effort to allow delegates to vote their conscience at the Cleveland convention in July and cast ballots against Trump.
The goal is to block his nomination on the first ballot and open the convention to negotiation among delegates as to the party’s best candidate for November. Even as many Republicans reluctantly move behind the nominee, Thomson said other conservatives are saying, “Hell no. We can’t do this.”
“Itap just not that our guy didn’t make it, but this one is so flawed personally and politically that they can’t do it,” she said.
Randy Corporon, another Colorado delegate supporting the effort, said Trump’s reaction to Colorado’s caucus process still stings.
“My position has always been ‘Not-Yet Trump.’ I’ve refused to go to the ‘Never Trump’ camp because I have real concerns about Hillary Clinton as president,” he said. “But I have to say, after the state convention and the attack and the lies on the process and the way delegates got elected … my likelihood of supporting him has gone down even more than when it started.”
But not all in Colorado are holding grudges. John Andrews, the former director of the Centennial Institute, the think tank linked to Colorado Christian University that organizes the summit, expects Trump to receive an enthusiastic welcome and draw people from outside the normal political class to his speech.
“I’m increasingly encouraged that the man and the moment have met,” he said. “The sharp break with politics as usual will (turn) a new page, where lots of ignored voices and constituencies … are going to have their day.”
Either way, the antipathy toward the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee reflects how Trump can win back support, if he can do it.
“Focusing on Hillary Clinton is probably Trump’s best path, but I don’t know if itap in his nature to do that. He’s a self-promoter,” said Nathan Gonzales, editor and publisher of the nonpartisan Rothenberg & Gonzales Political Report.
Staff writer Ellis Arnold contributed to this report.