Colorado Republicans are trying to claw back into relevancy after devastating defeats in the past three elections driven by deep anti-Trump sentiment by unaffiliated voters. Having former President Donald Trump visit Aurora to tout his massive deportation agenda will only undermine Republican candidates in competitive races.

Aurora has been in the forefront of the presidential campaign debate since revelations emerged a Venezuelan gang has terrorized residents in squalid apartment buildings. Trump has characterized the entire city as dominated by these lawless gangs.

Meanwhile, he falsely alleges Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio have stolen and eaten family pets. 

Ever since his drubbing by Vice President Kamala Harris in their recent debate, he has doubled down on these false allegations and has now declared he will visit Springfield and Aurora.

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Ironically, the mayor of Aurora is Mike Coffman, who is effectively dealing with this gang problem without the incendiary rhetoric saying Aurora is a gang-controlled war zone. Coffman lost his Aurora-centric congressional seat in 2018 after five terms due to deep opposition to Trump in the competitive Sixth Congressional District.

There is a legitimate debate to be had regarding the failed immigration policies of President Joe Biden and Vice President Harris that led to a virtually open border. Cities and towns across the nation, including Denver and Aurora, have paid dearly for this massive increase in illegal immigrants. Harris cannot escape her own culpability in that failed policy fiasco.

Trump actually did stabilize the border during his presidency, especially with his “remain in Mexico” policy, which was immediately repealed by Biden and Harris when they took office in 2021.

But ever since the deeply unpopular and physically failing Biden was forced out of the presidential race by nervous Democrats, resulting in Harris winning the Democratic nomination without a primary fight, Trump has been incapable of a focused, disciplined campaign while Harris has taken a narrow but real lead in the polls.

Amazingly, Harris continues to run from her liberal, if not Democratic Socialist, record including on immigration where she now claims to favor building a wall and cracking down on illegal immigration.

Trump’s best, and really only, effective attack on Harris during the debate was during his closing statement when he said Harris had four years as vice president to enact her new agenda so why should voters think she could do so in another four years.

And that’s the danger for Colorado Republican candidates running in competitive state legislative and congressional elections. Given his performance since the debate, a Trump visit will not crystalize the failed immigration policies of Biden-Harris. He will probably only repeat falsehoods about Aurora and Springfield with an added dose of stolen-election conspiracy theories.

Biden was such a weak candidate that a poll earlier this year showed Trump within mid-single digits in Colorado. But a recent poll by Morning Consult shows Harris leading Trump by 15 points, 55-to-40. This stark reality is in the shadow of earlier defeats in the state.

Trump lost to Hillary Clinton in Colorado by four points in 2016. Trump’s approval rating in the 2018 midterm election in Colorado was consistently in the mid-30s while his disapproval in the mid-to-high-50s.

Dragged down by these numbers, Republicans lost every statewide election in 2018 and lost control of the Colorado state Senate after four years of a Republican majority.

U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner unseated Democratic incumbent U.S.  Sen. Mark Udall in 2014 but was swamped by John Hickenlooper in 2020, when Trump lost Colorado by 14 points to Biden.

Trump’s unpopularity deepened with unaffiliated voters in the 2022 midterm election after his false claims of the 2020 election being stolen from him and his irresponsible behavior during the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the United States Capitol by his supporters.

All this is aggravated by a dysfunctional, corrupt Colorado Republican Party leadership which has done virtually nothing for candidates other than pursue issues that repel unaffiliated voters. The former chairman, Dave Williams, was recently ousted by the Colorado Republican State Central Committee, but a judge will decide if newly elected Chair Eli Bremer will be able to serve after Williams has refused to leave.

This Democratic dominance has not been seen since the 1930s.

Fortunately, there are strong Republican candidates running effective campaigns that focus on the issues Coloradans care about. Senate Minority Leader Paul Lundeen and House Minority Leader Rose Pugliese are filling the void left by the state party in helping these candidates.

Republican legislators such as Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer and Rep. Lisa Frizell played critical roles in passing property tax reform legislation despite being so outnumbered.

Democrats have a veto-proof 46-to-19 majority in the House, and they have a Senate majority of 23-to-12, one vote short of a veto-proof, two-thirds majority.

Meanwhile, the deeply competitive 8th Congressional District is winnable for Republican State Rep. Gabe Evans. Grand Junction attorney Jeff Hurd is in a strong position to win the open 3rd Congressional District.

But all these Republican candidates in competitive races do not need the distraction of a presidential campaign visit that could aggravate deep opposition within unaffiliated voters, who now make up 48% of the Colorado electorate.

Dick Wadhams is a former Colorado Republican state chairman who worked for U.S. Sen. Bill Armstrong for nine years before managing campaigns for U.S. Sens. Hank Brown and Wayne Allard, Gov. Bill Owens, and U.S. Sen. John Thune of South Dakota.