The 1950 Elections in Colorado

• Published date: 01 March 1951
• DOI: 10.1177/106591295100400107
• Author: Curtis Martin
• Date: 01 March 1951
• Subject Matter: Articles

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THE 1950 ELECTIONS IN COLORADO
CURTIS MARTIN
University of Colorado
Some degree of perspective is needed to understand the 1950 elections
in Colorado. A
brief review of the state’s political pattern will therefore
be given, beginning with 1940.
From 1940 to 1950 inclusive, six general elections were held in the
state of Colorado. During this period no one party dominated the politics
of Colorado. However, the Republicans won 4 of the 6 contests for the
governorship, 15 of the 24 contests for the national House of Representa,
tives, 3 of the 5 contests for the United States Senate, and 2 of the 3
presidential elections. Control of the lower house of the state assembly
was usually in the hands of the party winning the gubernatorial race, but
upon several occasions control of the state senate rested in the hands of
the party which was defeated in the struggle for the governorship.
Approximately a third of the voting strength in Colorado is concen-
trated in the city and county of Denver. One of the interesting aspects
of Colorado politics is the fact that in 4 of the 6 most recent elections,
the Denver voting district gave a majority of its votes to the candidate
of one party for governor, and to the candidate of the opposite party for
member of Congress. In the elections of 1940, 1942, and 1950, the Re-
publican candidate for governor carried the Denver area, yet in each of
these elections a Democratic congressman was chosen to represent the
district. In 1944 the order (but not the pattern) was reversed: the
Democratic candidate for governor carried Denver by a large majority,
and the Republican candidate for Congress won easily. Of the 6 elec-
tions, only in 2 (1946 and 1948) did Denver support the same party
for both governor and congressman.
During these years the rural areas, controlling about two-thirds of the
voting strength in the state, tended to vote more consistently (in any one
election year) for one party or the other; in other words, there was less
split,ticket voting in the rural areas than in the metropolitan area of
Denver. Of...