A Colorado political strategist says he expects Republican voters to rally around President Donald Trump if the Senate acquits him of the two articles of impeachment approved by the House.
But even if rank-and-file members of the GOP put extra energy — and money — into Trump’s campaign, the president is unlikely to win a majority in Colorado, Ryan Lynch said.
Lynch is the president of a Denver-based political strategy firm and a former executive director of the Colorado Republican Party.
Trump lost Colorado by 5 percent in 2016 and that margin is too big to reverse without a surge of unaffiliated voters to the president’s side, he said.
But it could help Republican U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner, who's in one of the tightest reelection battles in the country.
“I think the most substantial impact will be energizing the Republican base, getting folks out there to volunteer, to donate, which may not impact the presidential race in the state, but may have a substantial impact on other races within Colorado, up to and including Sen. Cory Gardner's reelection," Lynch said.
Republicans that he's talked to have stayed with Trump through his administration’s many controversies, and there’s no evidence they’ll change their minds now.
“Every single Republican member of Congress voted against both articles of impeachment. That shows me that despite some political objections that our members of Congress might have with the White House they still refuse to vote with the Democrats on that issue," Lynch said.
“Likewise in Colorado ... I've known several Republicans, prominent and otherwise, who did not support the president in the primary in 2016, and even had pretty vocal reservations against him in the general, but I haven't heard a single one of them come out in favor of impeachment," Lynch continued. "So that kind of tells me that Republicans as a whole are circling the wagons around the president."
One of those Republicans is Herman Yutecht of Hudson, Colorado, about 30 miles northeast of Denver. Yutecht said he’ll stick with Trump.
“I support the president,” Yutecht said. “Those Democrats haven’t gotten over him beating Hillary. It’s been that way since Day One.”
Yutecht watched a lot of the impeachment on television.
“It wasn’t fair," he said. "I wish they would just drop it and be done with it and move on."
