Over the weekend at the Douglas County Fair in Castle Rock, attendees had no shortage of activities to enjoy. From carnival rides to livestock shows and rodeo clowns, the fair provided the perfect opportunity for families to relax and momentarily forget about the stressors of everyday life, including the looming election.  

However, even at the County Fair, the political tension was palpable, with what many consider the biggest election of the century just three months away. Both the Douglas County Republican Party and Democratic Party had booths at the fair’s indoor arena, which also featured vendors selling t-shirts that read “Let’s Go Brandon” and “Make America Cowboy Again.”

Fairgoers were eager to share their thoughts on the upcoming election, discussing a wide range of opinions on federal, statewide, and local races across the political spectrum.   

Despite being named after Sen. Stephen Douglas, a Democrat, Douglas County leans slightly to the right, with 52.4% of voters supporting Republicans in the last election. Neighboring Jefferson, Denver, and Arapahoe counties, however, tend to lean blue, while Elbert County is one of the most right-leaning in the state. 

Cassidy Mealhow, a hairstylist from Elizabeth in Elbert County, said she wants to see former President Donald Trump back in office because she believes it will help reduce the inflation she has experienced since the pandemic.

“I think everyone’s just ready for things to get back to how they were,” she said. “I don’t know the exact numbers, but I think the statistics were when Trump was in office you had to make around $71,000 a year to be able to afford a home in Colorado or in the U.S. Now it’s like $121,000. I think. Costs and inflation is a big conversation that everyone’s talking about right now, so we’re ready for lower prices.”

Mealhow’s mother, Brenda Mealhow of Parker, is a small business owner. She noted that election years are always difficult for her business because economic uncertainty often makes people hesitant about spending money.   

“I’m a little nervous about it,” she said. 

When asked how Joe Biden stepping aside and being replaced by Kamala Harris might impact the election, Cassidy seemed skeptical. 

“I don’t really know what she’s done. We haven’t hardly seen her,” she said of the current vice president and presumptive Democratic Presidential candidate. “I don’t know what she has to show statistically for what she’s done when she was vice president. I’m hoping that Trump gets elected and we have him as our president, but as far as Kamala… yeah, no.”

Cassidy said she has been praying for the Trump family since the assassination attempt last month at a rally in Pennsylvania, which left one person dead and two others injured. 

“You can’t just choose to try to take someone out because you don’t like them,” she said. “The violence is getting out of hand, and I think there’s so much division right now. If we just taught kindness instead, I think it’d be completely different.”

Of the current president, who stepped out of the race due to concerns about his age and mental and physical fitness, she said: “I hope Biden can live the rest of his life in a great home because the man deserves it. Bless his heart. He could barely frickin’ walk.”

A Lone Tree resident, who wished to remain anonymous, said she believes the assassination attempt was all part of a divine plan to put Trump in office. 

“I think when it comes down to it, God has a master plan, and I think he’s already picked who he wants to run the country, and [the assassination] could have a little bit to do with it,” she said, adding that the top concern she’s heard from her community going into this election is immigration. 

Kyra Storojev of Parker was sporting a Harris 2024 t-shirt and said she felt “very optimistic” about the vice president’s chances at winning the election.

“I feel like she’s energized the base,” she said. “Look, they had a call and they broke Zoom. It was like hundreds of thousands of people getting on these calls just to get involved.”

Storojev said she was “100% for” Biden dropping out of the race. 

“He’s been a great president, but it’s time for him to just enjoy his golden years,” she said. 

While she condemned the violence at the Pennsylvania rally last month, Storojev didn’t think the assassination attempt has made much of an impact, either positive or negative, on Trump’s campaign.   

Storojev said she’s closely watching several Democratic candidates in state and local races, including Angela Thomas, who is running for Douglas County Commissioner George Teal, and Trisha Calvarese, who is running for Congressional District 4 against Lauren Boebert. 

“She has raised a lot of money in a short period of time, and she’s now in Washington D.C. raising a lot more, so I think she’s someone to really watch,” she said of Calvarese. “I think she might pull it off.” 

A Parker man and woman who chose to remain anonymous shared Storojev’s excitement for a potential Harris presidency. The man called Trump “the worst thing to ever happen to the United States,” adding that “he’s been a crook all his life”. 

The woman said Harris was a “great shift for the country given her experience and background,” and commended Biden’s “super courageous, wonderful, selfless” move to drop out of the election.

“I don’t think we were aware of what condition he was in until he had that debate,” she said. “I think Kamala just really re-energized the party more than I thought she would; everyone coalesced around her so quickly. I don’t think the Democrats wanted any more drama. It was like, we need to get behind a candidate and move forward, and that’s what we’re doing.”

The woman said the top issues on her mind are taxes, gun control, and LGBTQ rights. As the mother of two LGBTQ children, she said her eldest child has expressed concerns about their safety if Trump is reelected.

“They really did feel a sense of living in a dangerous country because of Trump,” she said. 

The two agreed that while the assassination attempt might have generated some sympathy for Trump, it wasn’t enough to significantly influence the election. “He’s still a tough sell,” the woman said, adding that Trump could have used the incident to unify people but chose not to.

“He started out saying he was going to be more about bringing the country together, and then in the span of like four sentences, that changed,” she said. “I think he could have really turned the tide, but he didn’t.”