Colorado’s Western Slope has been bone dry of late, but on Super Tuesday the state’s mountain counties were really feeling the Bern as big crowds of Democrats turned out for Bernie Sanders.

From the ski towns in Summit and Eagle counties west to the mining and drilling towns of Mesa and Garfield counties, the Vermont senator gobbled up delegates in the state’s rural west on his way to easily carrying the entire state by a margin of 58 to 40 percent.

Democratic Summit County Commissioner Dan Gibbs, a former state lawmaker, won a position as one of the delegates to the state assembly for Hillary Clinton. He called the turnout at the Summit County Senior Center “massive” compared to previous caucuses, estimating about 600 Democrats at the only caucus location in the county.

“There was a lot of passion on each side and excitement,” Gibbs said. “I have to say that Donald Trump is a great motivator. I think a lot of Democrats are really afraid to have him as a potential president and that’s driving a lot of people to be involved.”

Republicans in Summit County also met at one location — the Silverthorne Pavilion — and Republican Silverthorne Mayor Bruce Butler estimated the turnout at around 250. He said the state GOP decision not to take a traditional preference vote was not a major topic Tuesday.

Unofficially, he said Summit County Republicans preferred Marco Rubio, followed by Trump and Ted Cruz. Butler added he personally backs Rubio but didn’t get a doom-and-gloom vibe from Trump dominating the nation on Super Tuesday.

“I don’t think anybody was saying that they think the party is dead and done if Trump gets the nomination,” Butler said. “People are kind of resigned to it, although they still have their favorite.

“I personally supported Rubio because he gives the Republicans a good opportunity to reach some younger voters, maybe get some more of the women’s vote and to build some broader constituencies. He gives the Republican Party the ability to broaden its coalition nationally. The reality is it looks like it’s going to be Trump.”

Butler wasn’t surprised his younger, liberal-leaning ski county went for Sanders 419 to 276. But he also said disaffection with establishment candidates could hurt Clinton in Colorado in the general election, and he didn’t think the Republican Party would implode with Trump out front.

“Whatever happens happens and wounds heal and you move on,” he said of this summer’s GOP convention. “If a third-party candidate jumped in like Michael Bloomberg, I honestly think it would have more of an impact on Hillary, who looks like she’s going to be the Democratic nominee, than it would on the Republicans. That would be the interesting dynamic and it might well elect Trump.”

Gibbs just wants young voters to stay engaged post-Sanders.

“We felt like some of the Bernie folks were kind of Bernie or nothing … I really urge them to stay involved, to help shape the party and help be a voice for positions they feel really strongly about and just show up, not just for this caucus tonight,” Gibbs said. “We really encouraged these new people to stay involved and support who the Democratic nominee would be.”

In neighboring Eagle County, which went for Sander 623 to 344, Democratic precinct captain Debbie Marquez said the youth vote will drop off if Clinton wins the nomination, unlike the 2008 and 2012 elections, in which President Barack Obama continued to inspire young voters.

“I think we’ll lose them. My sense is that it won’t carry over,” Marquez predicted. “If I’m reading the youth vote properly, my sense is that the youth vote is coming out because it’s an anti-establishment vote, and anti-establishment is Trump and Sanders, so who is the youth vote going to go for if Trump and Clinton are candidates? I don’t know.”

At her caucus location in Edwards, Marquez said the votes went 95 to Sanders and 70 for Clinton, with a lot of high energy and spirited debate for and against both candidates. Asked if she thought Trump was a motivating factor that would massively inspire Hispanic voters, Marquez said that was quite likely regardless of the Republican nominee.

“The Hispanics will support the Democratic nominee whether it’s Trump or any of the other Republicans, it doesn’t matter, because of their stance on immigration and just their racial bias,” Marquez said. “Hispanics, I believe, will be very fired up to support the Democratic nominee. But we still have a lot of work to do.”

— davido@realvail.com