Rocky Mountain Voice

Tag: 2026 Elections

The SAVE Act’s strangest gift: it is making Democrats talk like noncitizen voting is real
Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, National, Top Stories

The SAVE Act’s strangest gift: it is making Democrats talk like noncitizen voting is real

By C. J. Garbo | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice For years, the Right has argued something simple: elections should be provably secure, not merely “trusted” by tradition, good intentions, or bureaucratic assurances. If only citizens may vote in federal elections, then citizen-only voting should be easy to verify, hard to fake, and consistently enforced. Enter the SAVE Act and its successor branding, the “SAVE America Act.” Its core idea is straightforward: require documentary proof of citizenship at registration, and in the newer version, pair that with a photo ID standard for voting. The Left’s reaction has been immediate and near-uniform: not “sure, citizenship verification is fine,” but “this is Jim Crow,” “voter suppression,” “a solution in search of a problem,” an...
Before he was a congressional candidate, Manny Rutinel was calling animal agriculture “horrific”
Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

Before he was a congressional candidate, Manny Rutinel was calling animal agriculture “horrific”

By Jen Schumann | Rocky Mountain Voice Manny Rutinel spent the better part of six years calling animal agriculture a "horrific, exploitive industry." Rutinel entered the legislature through an appointment in 2023 when Rep. Dafna Michaelson Jenet resigned from the District 32 seat. Less than two years later, he was filing paperwork for Congress. He's the money leader in a Democratic primary that national strategists are watching closely. Federal Election Commission filings put him at $2.5 million raised—almost as much as Republican incumbent Rep. Gabe Evans. Cook Political Report has it as a toss-up. The seat flipped once already—it could flip again, and the House majority may well come down to it. Evans runs cattle on the side. Has for years. Back at the...
Riley Gaines Warns Conservative Infighting Could Hand Power Back to the Radical Left
Fox News, Approved, Commentary, National

Riley Gaines Warns Conservative Infighting Could Hand Power Back to the Radical Left

By: Riley Gaines | Commentary, Fox News Despite our solid advantage in the political arena, some on the right seem to have already forgotten who the real adversary is. That's a major mistake The week before the 2025 election, the Democratic Party’s undisputed leader, New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, got a bit sidetracked while campaigning on the trail for the radical Zohran Mamdani in New York City.  After simply pointing out how destructive the new radical left is shaping up to be, as many did, she decided to rage-tweet at me for my well-known stance that men shouldn’t be in women’s sports. Her claim was essentially that if I just swam faster in college, I would have beaten the man I was swimming against. https://twitter....
Denver Mayor Accused Of Raiding Election Funds To Fill Budget Gap
Local, Approved, denvergazette.com

Denver Mayor Accused Of Raiding Election Funds To Fill Budget Gap

By Deborah Grigsby | The Denver Gazette Denver Clerk and Recorder Paul López earlier asked the "Vibrant Denver Bond" committee for $43 million for new storage space to secure the city’s election equipment and historical documents, some dating as far back as the 1800s. What he got from Mayor Mike Johnston was an order to slash $4 million from the department's budget. During a July 28 Denver City Council meeting, District 7 Councilwoman Flor Alvidrez had sought an amendment to include the elections facility proposal in the $950 million bond package, which will go to voters this November. The amendment failed. Lòpez told The Denver Gazette that, in his 18-year career as a Denver elected official, “this is the first time, and the only time, the mayor has actually tried to raid i...
Daniel: Colorado’s political ruling class has turned common sense upside down
Rocky Mountain Voice, Approved, Commentary, State, Top Stories

Daniel: Colorado’s political ruling class has turned common sense upside down

By Bobbie Daniel | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice There was a time when Colorado ran on common sense. We valued hard work, local control, and the idea that if you played by the rules, you’d get a fair shake. But somewhere along the way, the folks running this state traded those values for political theater and personal ambition. Today, agriculture, coal mining, oil and gas, small businesses, and law enforcement — the very things that help keep our state running — are treated like the enemy. The latest example proves just how upside‑down things have gotten: the Attorney General of Colorado is suing a Mesa County deputy… for doing his job. Now, I don’t know about you, but where I come from, you don’t punish the people who keep you safe. Yet here we are — living in a state wh...
Daniel: Colorado’s Budget Crisis Wasn’t an Accident — It Was a Choice
Rocky Mountain Voice, Approved, Commentary, State, Top Stories

Daniel: Colorado’s Budget Crisis Wasn’t an Accident — It Was a Choice

By Bobbie Daniel | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice Colorado’s budget isn’t just strained — it’s revealing the true priorities of our state’s leadership. While seniors and disabled veterans wait to see if Colorado will uphold a constitutionally guaranteed property tax exemption, Governor Polis was busy polling Coloradans about spending $28 million on a pedestrian bridge in downtown Denver. The result? Over 87,000 people participated in just five days — 93.9% voted “no” and only 3.8% said yes. That kind of public input is rare in state spending these days. If more of our budget decisions had that level of transparency, we might not be staring at another billion-dollar deficit. The crisis we’re in today wasn’t caused by bad luck or global economics. It was the result of del...
Cunningham: GOP moderates are learning the wrong lessons from 2024—and risk losing everything in 2026
Approved, Commentary, National, Red State

Cunningham: GOP moderates are learning the wrong lessons from 2024—and risk losing everything in 2026

By Joe Cunningham  | Redstate, Commentary This column really has two audiences. The first is moderate Republicans who are getting in the way of major fiscal reforms necessary to correct decades of financial irresponsibility. The second is Republican leadership who, in all honesty, are in a tough position trying to herd a bunch of unruly cats with personality disorders ranging from extreme anxiety to a desire to fight everything that moves.  Throughout this entire chaotic budget fight over the One Big Beautiful Bill, a dangerous delusion has begun creeping back into the Republican Party, especially among the moderate class and some in GOP leadership. It’s this belief they are getting once again that they won’t be able to win and stay in power if they don’t moderate on s...
Statewide and congressional contests heat up early as candidates line up for 2026
Approved, Colorado Politics, State

Statewide and congressional contests heat up early as candidates line up for 2026

By Ernest Luning | Colorado Politics Colorado's political world is in as close to a lull as it's likely to get this cycle — six months past the 2024 general election, days after the end of this year's regular legislative session, and with just over a year to go until voters begin casting primary ballots. Major candidates for the state's most prominent and competitive 2026 contests have already emerged, but many are about to get more company. Like at the beginning of a fundraising quarter, the immediate aftermath of the General Assembly's 120 day session is prime calendar real estate to launch campaigns for higher offices, for a couple of reasons: State lawmakers finally again have some control over their schedule and can turn their attention to campaigning, while other hopefuls ca...
Polls show Republican momentum, Democrat doubts as Colorado’s 2026 battle lines form
Approved, Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

Polls show Republican momentum, Democrat doubts as Colorado’s 2026 battle lines form

By RMV Staff | Rocky Mountain Voice Unaffiliated voters now make up nearly half of Colorado’s electorate – and both parties are fighting to find a winning message. With the 2026 midterms on the horizon, several new polls offer an early glimpse into Colorado's shifting political terrain. A recent survey of 987 likely Colorado Republican primary voters, conducted by Pulse Opinion Research for the Road to Red Initiative from March 14–19, offers a snapshot of voter sentiment heading into the 2026 midterms. Among these voters, optimism runs high. Fifty-nine percent say the country is headed in the right direction – and 69% give Trump strong marks for his time in office. The Republican advantage extends beyond Trump himself. If voters were casting ballots in congressional races to...
Can the America-First movement win in Colorado? Heidi Ganahl and Rasmussen pollster break down Colorado’s GOP identity crisis
Approved, Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

Can the America-First movement win in Colorado? Heidi Ganahl and Rasmussen pollster break down Colorado’s GOP identity crisis

By Rocky Mountain Voice Staff With Colorado’s 2026 elections on the horizon, Republicans are once again asking the question: What kind of candidate can actually win statewide? On the latest episode of Unleashed, Rocky Mountain Voice founder Heidi Ganahl sat down with Mark Mitchell, head pollster for Rasmussen Reports, to dig into exclusive polling data—and the identity crisis facing Colorado’s GOP. [Click here to listen or watch the full episode on YouTube or Rumble.] “This is one of the biggest quandaries,” Mitchell said. “How do you unpack this very particular issue in Colorado?” A Party Divided The polling, commissioned by Ganahl’s Road to Red project, looked at likely Republican primary voters in Colorado. But in a state where unaffiliated voters outnumber both parties, ...