For Kevin Ward, tuning out politics would be the easy choice. He lives in the mountains in Snowmass, Colorado, in Pitkin County near Aspen, a place he’s called home for 20 years. He said actively seeking out news is a choice.
“The temptation is, your life is so surrounded by beauty and animals and neighbors who are good neighbors that everyone says, ‘Just don’t, don’t be so informed. Don’t let your head explode. What’s happening to the Ukrainians is over there. Just enjoy the paradise.’”
But Ward, a Democrat and retired attorney and Apple executive said he cares about the world around him. His father worked for the State Department and Ward grew up in Iran and graduated from high school there.
Voters in rural Colorado have a worldview all their own, according to John Carruth, an insurance agent and voter in Fort Morgan.
“Rural residents are just more conservative by nature because of the agriculture and dirty hands and work boots,” Carruth said. “Rural values are a little bit different just based on experience, lifestyle, where you live, how you live, how you make money — all that stuff is a little different in rural.”
At the same time, it would be a mistake to stereotype all rural voters as made from that conservative mold. Carruth himself is a lifelong Democrat, though he hails from a very red part of the state. He said his politics sometimes lead to amusing interactions in his social circle but rural neighborliness tends to win out over political animosity.
“A lot of my friends call me a libtard, that type of thing, being one of a handful of Democrats in Morgan County,” he joked. “What’s interesting is typically you can have very civil discussions on stuff. I mean, one of my very good friends is a very staunch Republican. I enjoy debating him on policy issues.”
Hours from the big city, the politics may look different, but rural perspectives will have an important influence on some key races in Colorado this year, notably in Colorado’s 8th congressional district, which spans from the Denver suburbs deep into rural Weld County, and which is considered one of the most competitive congressional races in the country.
CPR News spoke to rural voters across the state to hear their perspectives on the politics of the moment.
Caleb Measner, a conservative voter from Weld county
Caleb Measner lives in Evans, near Greeley, an area that could be described as rural adjacent. He’s 27 and works in construction, and he voted for Trump twice, but does not like the direction the country is heading.
“Seems like we have kind of a ruling class that doesn’t have to follow any of the rules anymore, and we just all kind of face the brunt of it, and I just don’t think that’s any way we’re supposed to live. That’s not the values our country was created on,” he said.
He said he views Democratic and Republican politicians as the same side of the coin preaching opposing messages but beholden to the class above them.
“I just think it’s unfortunate that every election we have these days, it seems that it’s voting for the lesser of two evils when you’re talking about the leader of one of the biggest countries in the world. And it’d be nice if we could get someone good,” he said.
John Iannone, an independent voter from Strasburg
John Iannone, a data center engineer and farmer in Strasburg, Colorado, on the Eastern Plains, is an unaffiliated voter who hasn’t yet made up his mind about who he’ll vote for, both in the primaries and the general election in November.
“I like to vote for candidates, not parties,” Iannone said. “I don’t want to be affiliated with anyone really, especially Trump, because I kind of agree with some of his positions, but I also agree he’s a bit of a jerk.”
Even so, Iannone reluctantly voted for Donald Trump in 2024.
“I don’t think I really had a good choice in the last presidential election,” he said. “I considered not voting for the president, but I hate leaving a blank on the ballot.”’
He said he was drawn in by the promises that candidate Trump made in the run up to the election, like stemming inflation. But a year and a half into Trump’s second term, he hasn’t seen any meaningful progress on those promises.
“I just went grocery shopping, and I could tell you firsthand, inflation’s not doing much better,” he said, adding that he’s been burned by a lot of the administration’s policies.
“I’m furious that we’re in Iran in another war when they promised we weren’t going to be in a war. I think that was an awful decision,” he said. “The tariffs cost me a fortune. I was really upset about that.”
A voter in Colorado’s 4th congressional district, Iannone said he didn’t care for Representative Lauren Boebert long before President Trump turned against the congresswoman.
“Trump’s personal opinions don’t really mean anything to me,” Iannone said. “He tends to dislike people on a whim. I’m not super crazy about Lauren. I think she’s a little too far to the right. I tend to lean more towards centrist beliefs, and I’m not crazy about her personality.”
When he decides who to vote for this year, he’ll be evaluating who will fight for policies that could help his farming community.
“Small towns don’t get the same support that Denver gets,” he said.
Tom Dunlop, an unaffiliated voter from Garfield county
Dunlop is retired, has lived in the Roaring Fork Valley for 50 years, and worked in environmental public health for his entire adult life.
“I am fond of support of the environment and the sustainability of our natural resources,” he said.
Dunlop said he normally votes for Democratic candidates but considers himself more of a centrist. He’s also concerned about water resources, and wants different parts of the state to work together collaboratively. He’s also worried about the state of democracy.
“The top issues for me are all going to be around the environment and also the financial stability, the political stability, the lack of drama in a system that we deal with every day, the damage that’s doing to all of us. I’m 81 and I’ve seen a lot of ups and downs in politics, seeing the damages being done to every day, the drama that is played out, that is starting to wear on all of us, trying to overcome that and to look to our younger people to be the leaders and give them positive examples,” he said.
Randy Frahm, a Republican voter from Brush
Like many other voters this year, Randy Frahm is concerned about the U.S. immigration system. He thinks illegal immigration has gotten out of control.
“If you’re going to become an American citizen, you’ve got to follow the right channel because they screen people,” he said. “We don’t want criminals here.”
Frahm said he doesn’t like seeing public resources used to help immigrants while the struggles of American citizens go unaddressed.
“We got our own vets that are out on the street begging for money,” he said. “But we can bring all these immigrants over?”
Frahm also waded into the culture war, saying he’s not comfortable with contemporary gender ideology or LGBTQ culture. And while he wouldn’t disclose who he planned to vote for in the primary, he did volunteer that he still likes Congresswoman Lauren Boebert.
“She wears her gun,” he said. “She uses her constitutional rights.”
Trump earned his support in the last election, and he stands by that vote.
“Trump did a lot to clean up what the Democrats have tore up,” he said. “Yeah, he’s done some things that are questionable, but who hasn’t?”
Katie Barber, a Democratic voter in Strasburg
Katie Barber, a recent college graduate, said she was raised in a deeply conservative household in Strasburg. But ever since the COVID pandemic, she’s become the “liberal black sheep” of the family.
“It was the hypocrisy of Roe v. Wade getting overturned,” Barber said. “It’s like ‘My body, my choice.’ And with COVID, I personally got vaccinated, but not a lot of people in my community did., which is fine. That’s up to you. And masks, I think it’s the smart choice to wear a mask, but that’s not what you want to do. Cool beans. Same thing with abortion. You can have your own moral perspective on it, but again, it’s your choice. And then masks happened, the conservatives were very much, ‘My body, my choice.’ And it was like, ‘OK, make it make sense.’”
Barber, who identifies as a Christian, is working at vacation bible school this summer and plans to start law school in the fall. In the upcoming elections, she plans to vote a straight Democratic ballot.
“When it comes to specific issues, I read what it is, but other than that, I mainly just do blue all the way down,” she said.
Affordability, education and immigration are her biggest concerns, and she said she’s been deeply disturbed by the actions of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and nervous about the state of American Democracy.
“But I think especially now with the gas prices and what’s happening in the Middle East, a lot of people are opening their eyes to maybe what they thought they voted for isn’t actually what they voted for,” Barber said. “So hopefully midterms we’ll see a big change, but we’ll just have to wait and see.”
Jordan Hedberg, unaffiliated voter from Westcliffe
Jordan Hedberg is a newspaper publisher in Westcliffe who said his politics change depending on the scale of impact.
“At the federal level, I’m libertarian,” Hedberg said. “At the state level, I’m more conservative — I want to see more fiscal responsibility. As we get to the regional level, I really do care about my neighboring communities, so I’m more liberal. And then when you’re getting into local, I’ll fix somebody’s tire without charging them. So that’s what you’re starting to get into more of a community mindset where the transactions don’t matter.”
But Hedberg said that though his politics remain variable, he would no longer consider voting for Republican candidates.
“I don’t even know what they stand for anymore,” Hedberg said. “Now if you’re on a Republican ticket, even if you’re my only choice, I’m not voting for you.”
At the state level, Hedberg said his top policy priority is smarter management of the state budget, which he said is perpetually too shortsighted.
“People like to talk about the budget constantly, but they never talk about, ‘Hey, are we planning for the future? When we build a road in 20 years, will we have the funds to fix that road?’” he said. “That’s why you can find yourselves in these crazy situations where you’re a billion dollars short.”
When it comes to immigration, Hedberg said he’s a fan of smart, liberal policy.
“We’re a nation of immigrants,” he said. “We’re all much better off when people are allowed to come and work here and become part of this community. That’s how it’s always been in the United States.”
John Murphy, an unaffiliated voter from Wellington
John Murphy said he tends to lean Republican at the ballot box, but he hews toward the center on the issues. He’s concerned about an open border and uncontrolled immigration. He doesn’t like to see public funds used on immigrants while local communities struggle. But that doesn’t mean he wants to see immigrants swept up in mass deportations.
“Most of them are already here and that’s OK,” he said. “Because when you look way, way back, we’re immigrants too.”
He’s also moderate when it comes to his views on women’s reproductive rights.
“I think it’s up to the women to decide,” he said. “It’s not up to anybody else. It’s not up to us. It’s not up to the government. It’s up to them.”
Murphy is planning to vote in next week’s primary election, but hasn’t yet chosen his candidates.
He voted for Trump in the last election. As a retired diesel mechanic, he liked the president’s promises to eliminate taxes on his social security benefits. While the president has not directly delivered on that promise, his One Big Beautiful Bill did include tax deductions for seniors that mean many will not have to pay taxes on their retirement checks. But Murphy said he would have liked to see more positive action on the issue.
Meagan Agnew, Republican voter in Westcliffe
One of hemp farmer Meagan Agnew’s biggest concerns about politics these days revolves around election security. She said she does not trust Colorado’s system of mail-in voting.
“If we can’t be confident that our vote counts, then we’ve kind of lost the plot,” Agnew said.
As an example, she pointed to the recent mayoral primary in Los Angeles, where it took election officials more than a week to finish counting mail-in ballots, and shifting vote counts sparked conspiracy theories on the right that ballots were being mishandled and the election was rigged. Those claims have not been backed up with any evidence. Unlike in Colorado, Los Angeles’ mail-in ballot system allows voters to mail their ballots on Election Day, creating unavoidable delays in totalling votes.
Agnew said she supports the president but acknowledged feeling the pain of stubbornly high prices for fuel and other necessities in his second term.
“It was supposed to be a short-term pain, but the longer things drag on, the worse it’s going to get,” Agnew said. “People are really feeling the pain we are too, considering where we live and how much you have to drive to get anywhere. And our gas is significantly higher than down the mountain, so groceries are still high. Everything is expensive right now.”
Agnew said she is planning to vote both in the primary this month and in the general election in November, and those issues could affect how she casts her ballot. She hasn’t yet made any decisions about which candidates to support, but she’ll likely stick to Republicans, who have been delivering on a key campaign promise: putting the squeeze on undocumented immigration.
“I voted for Trump because I voted for mass deportations,” she said. “I believe that we have to have order, we have to have law and order, otherwise, we’re a third-world country.”
She said she wants to see the country put its own citizens first.
“Having veterans on the street who can’t afford housing, can’t afford to live, that needs to be our priority,” she said. “We have so many problems and if your house isn’t in order, you can’t be worried about other people’s houses. So I feel like we’ve got to secure our situation first before we can worry about letting other people in. It’s got to be us first.”
Becca Hall, unaffiliated voter from Carbondale
Becca Hall teaches remotely for Jefferson County Public Schools. She said she’s unaffiliated but left leaning. Her top issues are human rights and the environment
That includes “continued action on part of the state towards mitigating climate change, making sure places like NCAR and NREL are continuing to be funded for the important work they do nationally and internationally,” she said.
Hall said she moved to Carbondale from Lakewood a few years ago and has been fortunate to avoid some of the cost of living pressures.
“I’ve transitioned to working from home, so there’s a lot of benefits to that in terms of daily expenses like gas that I don’t necessarily feel the pinch of as keenly,” she said.
Editor’s note: The spelling of a name in this story has been corrected.
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