Mischa Smith, the newly elected chair of the El Paso County Democratic Party, brings plenty of campaign experience to the position in a county whose electorate hasn’t been voting for Republicans in the same dominant numbers as it did for decades.

The 32-year-old, who grew up in the Security/Widefield area south of Colorado Springs, got her start in politics as a “super volunteer” for Barack Obama’s campaign in 2008, when she says she knocked on more than 1,000 doors. Smith was an intern on the 2012 Obama campaign and then worked as an organizer for Hillary Clinton in 2016. In 2018, she traveled the country as part of Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg’s advance team.

Smith returned to Colorado in 2020 to work on Democratic U.S. Senate nominee John Hickenlooper’s campaign as deputy political director, and after he took office, she worked as the senator’s state scheduler and as outreach manager for his El Paso County office.

After Smith ran for the open House District 17 seat last year – she lost the primary to Regina English, who went on to win election in November – she says she decided to run for county party leadership and was elected to a two-year term as chair.

Our interview with Smith has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

Colorado Politics: How did you decide to run for party chair?

Mischa Smith: I ran for office and I had a really rough situation as far as finding support in the party – not just because I was in a primary, but I felt like I had never experienced such ageism or sexism or racism, as I had from our own party than when I ran. I talked a lot about that with John (Mikos, the previous El Paso County Democratic chair), and he said, if you want to see these changes, that has to come from you getting involved. So, after much reluctance on my part, I decided I needed to be the change I wanted to see, and so I decided to run.

CP: What kind of changes do you feel the party needs to make?

Smith: We have to be better for fundraising so that we can fight for the seats that we want. We will never get the resources that people in Denver get, so we have to make some of those ourselves. We have to bring in younger people. I think the statistics show when younger people vote, our folks traditionally win. And so getting those younger people involved in voting is really important to us, as well as kind of making voting sexy again, and also making registering for your party sexy again.

CS: It’s a trend that Coloradans aren’t affiliating with either major party nearly to the extent that they used to. How do you change that, and why does that matter whether people are registered as a Democrat if they vote for Democrats?

Smith: I can’t speak for statewide, but I can speak for Colorado Springs. In Colorado Springs, people are weaponizing the fact that the unaffiliated don’t vote enough with you to matter. That’s not true. Statistically, we are about even, with the unaffiliates going either way in our elections. Obviously, that differs in different places in the county. But when you’re looking at voter registration, unaffiliateds that vote with us are half and half, and in younger voters, I think it’s 18 to 35, we are doing just as well as the Republicans are for registrations. So, I think that matters, because when it comes time to drawing lines, when it comes time to redistricting, when it comes to these issues, they’re looking at the voter registration for how they should draw these lines, and to be fair and equitable, you can’t tell that from an unaffiliated voter.

CS: So, what do you say to a young person who has registered unaffiliated to urge them to register as a Democrat?

Smith: I think there’s a lot of miseducation – as somebody who grew up in El Paso County, I think a lot of people are just voting how their parents vote and not realizing, maybe that’s not what I am. So I like to ask them values questions. ‘Do you believe in a woman’s right to choose? Do you believe that climate change is a real and dangerous, threat?’ Then we might have more in common than you think.

A lot of young people are just not pleased with what they’re seeing from either party, so I use those opportunities to say, ‘What are we not doing? How can we speak more to you, how can we be better allies?’

CS: What do they say?

Smith: I hear from a lot of young people who want us to be more progressive and want a lot more ‘walking the talk.’ A lot of them want to feel like we’re not talking at them, like we’re not making decisions for a generation that we’re not a part of.

CS: How have things changed in El Paso County since you worked on the first Obama campaign there in 2008? (Republican gubernatorial nominee) Heidi Ganahl got just barely over 50% of the vote there last year – in a county where statewide Republicans used to be able to count on getting over 60% every election.

Smith: You can feel it, I think we’re on the cusp of something really exciting. In 2008, I remember knocking on doors and people were, like, terrified to tell us they were Democrats. Now, there’s a lot more out there who are proud. I do feel like we are on the cusp of a big change. If you’re following the numbers, in 10 years, everything should be winnable. You’re also seeing the Republicans’ last stand, right? They don’t want to lose El Paso County, and I think that they know what’s coming.

CS: Do you think the changes are more due to demographics, that El Paso County is beginning to look more like a metro area suburban county like Jefferson County or Arapahoe county, which used to be Republican strongholds but are now fairly solidly Democratic counties? Or is it that folks who’ve been there a long time are more open to voting for Democrats?

Smith: I’m essentially a native, right? And I love that my county has so many Never-Trumpers – I respect so many of the Republicans that I know here for being Never-Trumpers and for learning from the 2016 debacle, as I will call it. So, I think it’s both. Yes, we are benefiting from demographics, but also folks here are taking a stand against hate, taking a stand against this sickness. We did that in a big way in 2020, when we shifted the most, from Trump to Biden. That means that our county is changing inside and outside.

CS: What do you think the Democrats need to do in the next two years in El Paso County to demonstrate that those recent performances haven’t been flukes?

Smith: We are measuring our success in a lot of different ways. We do believe that there is not one but two county commission districts that we are deserving of after redistricting. They have to at least be fair fights, but we think we can take them if we break that stronghold. That’ll be the first time in more than 50 years. I think we’re going to be more competitive in county races. I don’t know that CD 5 is winnable just yet. I think we’re getting more and more competitive, but for some reason, Doug Lamborn always seems to slip under the radar because he’s not bad enough. It’s a work in progress. But we’re really excited by candidates that are excited about that race, and we’ll see how we can keep pushing that needle forward.

CS: We saw some surprises in the mayoral race, with with Yemi Mobolade, the unaffiliated candidate, coming out ahead of Wayne Williams and Sallie Clarke, the two Republicans battling it out for a spot in the runoff. Is he a candidate the Democrats will be supporting in the next month?

Smith: I’m not going to speak for everybody, I know a lot of Dems would’ve preferred a Dem, Yemi spoke to our folks, he wanted our votes. Yemi had conversations with us and was willing to find a middle ground where we could collaborate. And I think the difference between a Yemi and a Sallie or a Wayne is that Yemi has made the first step to work with us, Wayne showed up at one or two of our events, and I’ll give him credit for that. I believe Sally did as well before I was chair, but Yemi is actually reaching out to our folks and wants our support.

CS: Will the party be involved in the runoff?

Smith: That’s to be determined. We’re going to have conversations as a party to see where you want to be, but I know a lot of people in the party, myself included, will be involved in that race.

CS: The Republicans in El Paso County have certainly had a lot of drama in the last couple of years. Does that make it easier for you to do your job, or does national-level partisanship swamp that?

Smith: I think there’s a lot of miseducation. There’s a lot of people that still think the Republicans have their values. I think part of our job that’s becoming easier is to show that we truly are the big-tent party, and to say, ‘There is a space for you here if your party looks unrecognizable now.’ The disarray in the Republican Party, especially in El Paso County, has gone under the radar a bit, right, because they’re putting up stronger candidates in some races. So, I can’t say that it’s all the party, but I can say that part of my job in this next two years is to show people if they don’t recognize their party, we want them to consider joining ours.