Decisive

Will Cornelius/CPR News Gerard Torrez (L) and Angel Merlos with the Libre Initiative Action was out knocking on doors and leaving literature for Republicans in ...

“At the end of the day, I think if either parties are doing their job, it just helps our democracy. “I’m not going to sit here and pretend to speak for all Colorado Latinos,” she said at a coffee shop in Pueblo. And abortion also made the list for the first time, with 74 percent of Latino voters saying it should remain legal, whatever their own personal beliefs on the issue. That would represent a huge swing in the vote; some [reports](https://latino.ucla.edu/research/2020-latino-ballot-split/) and exit polls from two years ago showed 70 percent of Latinos supported Colorado’s Democratic Senate candidate John Hickenlooper. And there are a lot of places I don’t see a lot of people that look like me,” she explained. All six of the Democrats running statewide this year are white. And that possibility excites Thornton Democrat Shantell Hernandez, who moved to the area to be around other Latinos. Democrats have also been very active in making their case to the voters of CO-8. “We will make sure voters know their far-right record of trying to ban abortion, siding with wealthy corporations, and opposing a pathway to citizenship which hurts all Coloradans.” Libre is focused on Thorton because it's in CO-8, the state's newest congressional district which is considered a toss-up race. So we’re seeing, ‘You know what, I’m going to give the conservative vote a chance,’” he said. Election day is still two months away and most of the voters who answered their doors aren’t paying too much attention yet.