1996 United States presidential election in Colorado

The 1996 United States presidential election in Colorado took place on November 7, 1996, as part of the 1996 United States presidential election. Voters chose eight representatives, or electors to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.

Main article: 1996 United States presidential election
1996 United States presidential election in Colorado
November 5, 1996
 
Nominee Bob Dole Bill Clinton Ross Perot
Party Republican Democratic Reform
Home state Kansas Arkansas Texas
Running mate Jack Kemp Al Gore Pat Choate
Electoral vote 8 0 0
Popular vote 691,848 671,152 99,629
Percentage 45.80% 44.43% 6.59%
County Results
President before election

Bill Clinton
Democratic

 Elected President

Bill Clinton
Democratic

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Colorado was narrowly won by Republican Senator Bob Dole of Kansas over incumbent Democratic President Bill Clinton of Arkansas. Dole won with a plurality of 45.80% of the vote to Clinton's 44.43%, a margin of 1.37%.[1] Billionaire businessman Ross Perot of Texas, running as the Reform Party candidate, finished in third, with 6.59% of the popular vote.

Dole, from neighboring Kansas, performed most strongly in the eastern parts of Colorado bordering his home state. Clinton won Denver by 31.8%, about the same as his 31.4% margin in the city in 1992. He also won Boulder County, which had been a historically Republican county before voting for Dukakis in 1988, by a commanding margin of 17.6%, although this was down somewhat from his 24.4% margin in the county in 1992. He won the traditionally Democratic Denver-area suburban county of Adams County by 12.4%, a larger margin than Humphrey, Carter, or Dukakis had scored in the county, but, again, down from his own 14.1% margin in 1992. Clinton also retained a number of smaller counties that he had won for the Democrats for the first time since 1964--Clear Creek, Eagle, Gunnison, Routt, and Summit--and did well in the traditionally Democratic counties in the southern parts of the state.

However, aside from slightly narrowing Clinton's margins in Boulder and Adams Counties, Dole improved substantially on George H. W. Bush's 1992 margins in the large, then-traditionally Republican Denver-area suburban counties of Jefferson and Arapahoe, winning them by 5.7% and 8.9%, respectively (Bush had won them in 1992 by 0.9% and 3.1%, respectively). He also won conservative stronghold El Paso County, home to Colorado Springs, by a commanding margin of 26.8%, an improvement over Bush's 1992 margin of 23.7%. And he flipped sizeable Larimer County, home to Fort Collins, which had been the largest county in the state that Clinton won for the Democrats for the first time since 1964 in 1992. He also flipped smaller Garfield and La Plata Counties, and won the two counties Perot had won a plurality in 1992, Moffat and San Juan.

Dole's slim victory made Colorado one of three states (along with Georgia and Montana) to flip from voting for Clinton in 1992 to voting against him in 1996, even as Clinton increased his national margin of victory by nearly 3 points. As of the 2020 presidential election, this is the last time that the state voted differently to Nevada and the last time to date that Colorado has backed a losing Republican for President. This is also the last election in which Mineral County, Otero County, and Bent County voted for a Democratic presidential candidate.[2] Colorado was one of only two states which Bill Clinton lost in either of his elections but Hillary Clinton won in 2016; the other being Virginia.

Results
1996 United States presidential election in Colorado
Party Candidate Running mate Votes Percentage Electoral votes
Republican Robert Dole Jack Kemp 691,848 45.80% 8
Democratic Bill Clinton (incumbent) Al Gore 671,152 44.43% 0
Reform Ross Perot Patrick Choate 99,629 6.59% 0
Green CO Ralph Nader Winona LaDuke 25,070 1.66% 0
Libertarian Harry Browne Jo Jorgensen 12,392 0.82% 0
American Constitution Howard Phillips Herbert Titus 2,813 0.19% 0
Independent Charles Collins Rosemary Giumarra 2,809 0.19% 0
Natural Law Dr. John Hagelin Dr. V. Tompkins 2,547 0.17% 0
Socialist Mary Cal Hollis Eric Chester 669 0.04% 0
Workers World Monica Moorehead Gloria La Riva 599 0.04% 0
American Diane Templin Gary Van Horn 557 0.04% 0
CO Prohibition Earl Dodge Rachel Kelly 375 0.02% 0
Socialist Workers Campaign James Harris Laura Garza 244 0.02% 0

Results by county
County Robert Joseph Dole[3]
Republican		 William Jefferson Clinton[3]
Democratic		 Henry Ross Perot[3]
Reform		 Ralph Nader[3]
Green		 Harry Edson Browne[3]
Libertarian		 Various candidates
Other parties		 Margin
% # % # % # % # % # % # % #
Washington 64.18% 1,566 26.60% 649 7.79% 190 0.25% 6 0.29% 7 0.90% 22 37.58% 917
Rio Blanco 62.50% 1,697 26.92% 731 8.95% 243 0.63% 17 0.52% 14 0.48% 13 35.58% 966
Cheyenne 62.84% 739 27.89% 328 7.74% 91 0.09% 1 0.26% 3 1.19% 14 34.95% 411
Kiowa 61.96% 549 27.77% 246 8.35% 74 0.56% 5 0.23% 2 1.13% 10 34.20% 303
Elbert 61.04% 4,125 28.03% 1,894 7.50% 507 0.95% 64 1.07% 72 1.42% 96 33.01% 2,231
Custer 58.90% 920 26.38% 412 10.50% 164 1.60% 25 0.96% 15 1.66% 26 32.52% 508
Jackson 58.34% 486 26.65% 222 12.85% 107 1.08% 9 0.36% 3 0.72% 6 31.69% 264
Douglas 61.80% 32,120 31.23% 16,232 5.12% 2,662 0.80% 415 0.61% 315 0.44% 231 30.57% 15,888
Baca 59.53% 1,321 29.70% 659 9.15% 203 0.50% 11 0.41% 9 0.72% 16 29.83% 662
Kit Carson 60.26% 2,068 31.26% 1,073 6.85% 235 0.35% 12 0.32% 11 0.96% 33 28.99% 995
Archuleta 57.11% 1,963 29.01% 997 10.47% 360 1.69% 58 0.87% 30 0.84% 29 28.11% 966
Teller 57.93% 4,458 30.05% 2,312 9.19% 707 1.20% 92 0.96% 74 0.68% 52 27.89% 2,146
El Paso 59.04% 102,403 32.19% 55,822 6.44% 11,175 0.95% 1,653 0.71% 1,237 0.66% 1,151 26.86% 46,581
Phillips 58.76% 1,284 32.31% 706 7.14% 156 0.09% 2 0.69% 15 1.01% 22 26.45% 578
Yuma 58.72% 2,589 32.64% 1,439 7.24% 319 0.27% 12 0.27% 12 0.86% 38 26.08% 1,150
Lincoln 57.74% 1,272 33.09% 729 7.44% 164 0.32% 7 0.41% 9 1.00% 22 24.65% 543
Ouray 54.85% 984 31.72% 569 9.31% 167 2.90% 52 0.67% 12 0.56% 10 23.13% 415
Delta 54.48% 6,047 32.29% 3,584 9.55% 1,060 2.14% 237 0.71% 79 0.84% 93 22.19% 2,463
Montrose 54.99% 6,730 32.84% 4,019 9.70% 1,187 1.12% 137 0.68% 83 0.68% 83 22.15% 2,711
Montezuma 53.31% 4,175 32.92% 2,578 10.56% 827 2.06% 161 0.41% 32 0.74% 58 20.39% 1,597
Hinsdale 52.83% 289 33.82% 185 10.24% 56 2.56% 14 0.37% 2 0.18% 1 19.01% 104
Dolores 51.67% 417 34.20% 276 11.77% 95 1.49% 12 0.74% 6 0.12% 1 17.47% 141
Moffat 50.99% 2,466 33.81% 1,635 13.42% 649 0.54% 26 0.85% 41 0.39% 19 17.18% 831
Logan 53.15% 4,032 36.45% 2,765 8.03% 609 0.51% 39 0.73% 55 1.13% 86 16.70% 1,267
Mesa 53.12% 24,761 36.72% 17,114 7.95% 3,707 0.81% 379 0.76% 356 0.64% 296 16.41% 7,647
Prowers 53.83% 2,504 37.51% 1,745 7.35% 342 0.43% 20 0.41% 19 0.47% 22 16.32% 759
Park 50.77% 2,661 35.18% 1,844 10.19% 534 1.66% 87 1.34% 70 0.86% 45 15.59% 817
Sedgwick 52.69% 715 38.25% 519 7.44% 101 0.29% 4 0.81% 11 0.52% 7 14.44% 196
Fremont 51.24% 7,437 36.82% 5,344 9.91% 1,438 0.90% 131 0.47% 68 0.65% 95 14.42% 2,093
Morgan 52.34% 4,557 38.44% 3,347 7.89% 687 0.33% 29 0.30% 26 0.70% 61 13.90% 1,210
Weld 49.67% 26,518 39.94% 21,325 8.14% 4,347 0.87% 465 0.58% 307 0.80% 428 9.73% 5,193
Rio Grande 49.50% 2,129 39.99% 1,720 8.81% 379 0.70% 30 0.33% 14 0.67% 29 9.51% 409
La Plata 46.56% 8,057 37.61% 6,509 8.11% 1,403 6.47% 1,119 0.73% 126 0.53% 92 8.94% 1,548
Arapahoe 50.79% 82,778 41.91% 68,306 5.20% 8,476 0.95% 1,549 0.65% 1,063 0.51% 824 8.88% 14,472
Crowley 49.60% 680 40.77% 559 8.32% 114 0.22% 3 0.58% 8 0.51% 7 8.83% 121
Jefferson 48.41% 101,517 42.67% 89,494 6.18% 12,967 1.24% 2,600 0.84% 1,763 0.66% 1,382 5.73% 12,023
San Juan 41.35% 153 35.95% 133 13.51% 50 5.14% 19 1.35% 5 2.70% 10 5.41% 20
Grand 46.30% 2,264 41.15% 2,012 9.67% 473 1.33% 65 0.76% 37 0.80% 39 5.15% 252
Larimer 47.14% 45,935 42.04% 40,965 7.00% 6,823 1.74% 1,691 1.08% 1,050 1.01% 986 5.10% 4,970
Chaffee 46.85% 3,052 42.49% 2,768 8.26% 538 1.17% 76 0.69% 45 0.55% 36 4.36% 284
Garfield 44.43% 6,281 40.47% 5,722 11.05% 1,562 2.61% 369 0.83% 117 0.62% 87 3.95% 559
Otero 45.13% 3,356 45.53% 3,386 7.81% 581 0.42% 31 0.28% 21 0.83% 62 -0.40% -30
Clear Creek 41.97% 1,746 44.78% 1,863 8.77% 365 1.90% 79 1.54% 64 1.03% 43 -2.81% -117
Mineral 40.04% 179 42.95% 192 15.44% 69 0.22% 1 0.45% 2 0.89% 4 -2.91% -13
Eagle 40.89% 4,637 44.92% 5,094 10.52% 1,193 2.32% 263 0.88% 100 0.48% 54 -4.03% -457
Bent 41.70% 917 47.57% 1,046 9.50% 209 0.59% 13 0.09% 2 0.55% 12 -5.87% -129
Alamosa 41.23% 2,038 47.14% 2,330 8.84% 437 1.62% 80 0.69% 34 0.49% 24 -5.91% -292
Gilpin 38.12% 682 44.66% 799 10.29% 184 4.81% 86 1.62% 29 0.50% 9 -6.54% -117
Routt 38.52% 3,019 46.70% 3,660 10.96% 859 1.88% 147 1.33% 104 0.61% 48 -8.18% -641
Summit 38.73% 3,261 47.16% 3,970 9.78% 823 2.23% 188 1.41% 119 0.69% 58 -8.42% -709
Gunnison 37.04% 2,230 46.70% 2,812 9.47% 570 4.72% 284 1.18% 71 0.90% 54 -9.67% -582
Adams 38.92% 36,666 51.28% 48,314 7.65% 7,206 0.92% 869 0.63% 596 0.60% 563 -12.36% -11,648
Saguache 36.48% 712 49.64% 969 8.20% 160 3.84% 75 0.87% 17 0.97% 19 -13.17% -257
Huerfano 35.88% 996 53.42% 1,483 7.56% 210 2.23% 62 0.32% 9 0.58% 16 -17.54% -487
Boulder 34.55% 41,922 52.17% 63,316 5.64% 6,840 5.58% 6,772 1.21% 1,469 0.85% 1,035 -17.63% -21,394
Conejos 36.08% 1,149 54.19% 1,726 7.69% 245 0.82% 26 0.16% 5 1.07% 34 -18.12% -577
Pueblo 34.60% 17,402 57.24% 28,791 6.71% 3,374 0.75% 376 0.32% 159 0.40% 199 -22.64% -11,389
Lake 29.53% 728 54.28% 1,338 11.12% 274 2.31% 57 1.54% 38 1.22% 30 -24.75% -610
San Miguel 28.18% 773 55.96% 1,535 8.42% 231 4.23% 116 1.79% 49 1.42% 39 -27.78% -762
Las Animas 31.53% 1,905 59.76% 3,611 7.07% 427 0.55% 33 0.50% 30 0.60% 36 -28.24% -1,706
Pitkin 28.19% 1,969 56.54% 3,949 7.66% 535 5.23% 365 1.85% 129 0.54% 38 -28.35% -1,980
Denver 30.04% 58,529 61.76% 120,312 4.51% 8,777 1.76% 3,423 1.09% 2,117 0.85% 1,656 -31.71% -61,783
Costilla 20.29% 333 71.18% 1,168 6.83% 112 1.28% 21 0.30% 5 0.12% 2 -50.88% -835

References
  1. Dave Leip's Atlas of United States Presidential Election Results - 1996 Colorado Results
  2. Sullivan, Robert David; ‘How the Red and Blue Map Evolved Over the Past Century’; America Magazine in The National Catholic Review; June 29, 2016
  3. Our Campaigns; CO US President, November 05, 1996
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