Donald Trump does especially well within his own party in Colorado, where he is seen as “inspiring” (72 percent of Republicans say so) and exciting, even as a majority 56 percent of Republicans see him as risky. Republicans who see him as risky are voting for him nonetheless. While this may be due partly to the pull of partisanship and the desire to oppose Clinton, it is also the case that a sizable number of Republicans – 72 percent – are looking for “big changes” to the politics and economy of the United States overall, and so are willing to make the tradeoff in order to get the change that they desire – as 91 percent feel Trump would change Washington – and who they feel can fix the economy, which 86 percent of Republicans also feel Trump can do.

Clinton does very well with Democrats on being competent and responsible – more than eight in ten Colorado Democrats say so about her. She does less well on being “exciting:” less than half (40 percent) describe her this way. When Clinton supporters who do not find her exciting were asked specifically why not, the top answers were that they wanted Bernie Sanders as the nominee (31 percent) and that they feel she is too close to politics as usual (27 percent), which was also an issue for Sanders supporters in the primaries. There may still be some work ahead for Clinton – despite strong overall support among Democrats – in rallying those voters who did not support her in the primaries, if that excitement in turn has any bearing on turnout down the road.