Mark Z. Barabak: From red bastion to blue bulwark: What the political shift in Colorado and West means for the US
DENVER — Kevin Priola was a Republican before he could even vote.
Inspired by Ronald Reagan, he preregistered with the GOP at age 17. He joined the College Republicans at the University of Colorado in Boulder — a true act of faith in that liberal stronghold — and was elected to the Legislature in 2008, where he's served ever since.
But Priola slowly grew estranged from the GOP, seeing it as more authoritarian than conservative, and last August he became a Democrat.
"I couldn't stomach it," Priola said of his old party, "and associate with that style and brand of politics."
He's hardly alone.
In the last two decades, the Republican ranks in Colorado have shrunk drastically, to just a quarter of registered voters, as the once reliably red state has turned a distinct shade of blue.
The transformation is part of a larger political shift across the West: along the Pacific Coast, through the deserts of Nevada and Arizona, into the
