The record six Republican presidential hopefuls who took the stage at this year’s Western Conservative Summit in Denver are only the tip of the iceberg.

Political strategist Dick Morris predicted that Colorado will play an even more crucial role in next year’s presidential contest than it did in 2012, when state voters were besieged with national candidates and campaign ads.

That’s because Colorado is more of a swing state than ever. At a time when the Electoral College map favors Democrats, Colorado is one of a handful of states, along with Kentucky, West Virginia and Wisconsin, where Republicans have improved their numbers since President Obama was elected, he said.

“We have got to win the election of 2016 by the same margin with which we won the election of 2004,” said Morris. “It has to be, in effect, a wipe-out for us to be able to do that. And that’s daunting, that’s difficult, and that’s something that absolutely the epicenter of that movement is right here in Colorado.”

“There are only four states in America basically that have become more Republican over the last few years, and Colorado leads the list,” Morris said.

In other words, get ready for another 16 months of national candidates, starting with those who appeared at the three-day conservative confab that wrapped up Sunday at the Colorado Convention Center.

Headlining the sixth annual summit, sponsored by the Centennial Institute and Colorado Christian University, was Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, who trails only former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush in national polls, and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, who ranks fourth among contenders in the crowded GOP field.

Nipping at their heels are fellow WCS speakers Mike Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor; former Texas Gov. Rick Perry; ex-Hewlett Packard CEO Carly Fiorina; and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum. Rafael Cruz spoke as a surrogate for his son, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz.

For the second year in a row, Carson won the WCS straw poll, picking up 224 of the 871 votes cast. Fiorina, propelled by a star-making speech, placed second with 201 votes, followed by Walker with 192 votes.

In Morris’s opinion, nominating a newbie would be a mistake. Morris, who once again closed the summit with an election analysis, urged Republicans to send a battle-tested candidate against likely Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.

“Look, the important thing to do here is to make sure you nominate the best candidate you can against the toughest opponent you’ve ever had,” Morris said. “For all of those negatives that she has, focus on one fact: She’s still standing. She’s still alive. She’s still polling fairly well.”

“That’s how tough an opponent she is. That’s how good she is at slipping a punch. That’s how good she is at misrepresenting her record to clean it up. And you better send a top-flight challenger to meet her and to beat her,” he said.

Same with the Colorado Senate race, he said.

Morris described the Nevada and Colorado Senate seats as the two most likely to flip from Democrat to Republican, but warned that GOP voters could snatch defeat from the jaws of victory by sending an untested nominee against Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet.

“He won by the narrowest of margins because he faced one of the worst campaigns run by an opponent in recent history,” said Morris of the 2010 Colorado Senate race, in which Bennet defeated Republican Ken Buck, who’s now a congressman.

“I would just caution those who look at voting for an ingénue to run. They make mistakes like Buck made. And they end up with results that are similar,” Morris said. “The whole control of the Senate may again come down to Colorado.”

Who would Morris nominate? Someone like Republican Sen. Cory Gardner, who defeated Democratic incumbent Mark Udall in 2014.

“It was here [at the summit] where I first met Cory Gardner when he was running for Congress,” Morris said. “To take on Michael Bennet, you need to find a Cory Gardner around here.”

Not everyone agreed with Morris’s analysis. In his Saturday night speech, Carson said he sees his lack of political experience – he has never run for public office – as an advantage. His campaign recently notched 200,000 donations, he said, and “no one else even comes close to that.”

“Even though the professional pundits say, ‘You can’t do it because you’re not a politician,’ I would say, ‘I can do it because I’m not a politician,'” Carson said to cheers at the Bellco Theatre. “Nor do I ever want to be one.”

Other candidates took the opposite tack, stressing their experience and accomplishments in public office or, in Fiorina’s case, as head of a Fortune 100 company.

During his 14 years as governor, Perry said that Texas gained jobs and population while reducing greenhouse gas emissions by offering incentives for power plants to switch to natural gas.

There wasn’t much support for Colorado’s regulated marijuana market among the candidates, although Perry drew applause when he said Coloradans “have the right to be wrong” on legalized pot.

Fiorina recounted that she was offered medicinal marijuana by her doctor during her battle with cancer, but said she refused, much to her doctor’s relief.

“His response was, ‘Good, because we don’t understand the marijuana of today,'” she said.

“I do, in general, support states’ rights, and the voters of Colorado have made their decision,” Fiorina continued. “I would also very quickly add: I think legalization of marijuana is a really bad idea. I think we are misleading young people when we tell them that smoking pot is like drinking a beer. It is not.”

If anyone knows how to win a grueling election battle, it’s Walker, who overcame a highly charged recall effort mounted by Wisconsin’s powerful public-sector labor unions soon after he was elected governor in 2010, then turned around and won a second term.

“When they came in with all those protesters, they were trying to intimidate us. That’s what they do – at the state, at the federal, at the local level,” Walker said. “Well, I’m proud to tell you tonight that we were not intimidated.”

“Instead of backing down, we stood up and took the power out of the hands of the big-government, special interests and put it firmly in the hands of the hardworking taxpayers,” said Walker.

At least 15 Republicans have announced or are expected to announce their candidacies for the GOP’s presidential nomination. Meanwhile, the Democratic field looks more like “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,” with Clinton holding a commanding lead over announced and potential candidates Vice President Joe Biden, former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and former Virginia Sen. Jim Webb.

For what it’s worth, Webb was the choice of summit conservatives, besting Clinton in the Democratic presidential straw poll by 83 to 48 votes, with Sanders close behind at 42 votes.

While the national candidates received top billing, the event also featured appearances from top Colorado Republicans such as Buck and Gardner.

Colorado Senate President Bill Cadman didn’t have the last word, but he arguably had the best line of the weekend during his introduction to Walker’s speech.

“In America, anyone can run for president. We found that out,” Cadman said to laughter and applause. “In the Republican Party, everyone can run for president. We’re finding that out.”

– valrichardson17@gmail.com