Four Republican state lawmakers told attendees at a gathering of conservative leaders on Friday they doubt their party can win statewide races, noting that Colorado’s electorate has been shifting toward Democrats but adding they see an opening in several pockets.

State Sens. Barbara Kirkmeyer of Brighton and Lisa Frizell of Castle Rock, Rep. Anthony Hartsook of Parker, and House Minority Leader Jarvis Caldwell of Colorado Springs took part in the Western Conservative Summit, which took place at Colorado Christian University.

The conservative summit returned this year after a two-year hiatus.

The lawmakers were asked whether they had worries about the November election, when Colorado voters will choose a new governor and other statewide offices.

Caldwell said he believes Republicans had built some momentum in Colorado after Charlie Kirk’s assassination in Utah last September but added he is discouraged by what he described as “dismal” GOP turnout in the election two months later.

He pressed Republicans to show up at the ballot box, saying, “Republicans have got to quit being lazy and they need to hear it.”

He added that complaints about money in politics miss a more basic problem: “We’re not even showing up to vote as Republicans, and it’s free and it’s your civic duty.”

Kirkmeyer, who lost the Republican gubernatorial primary to ministry leader Victor Marx in June, said she, too, isn’t optimistic about the statewide contests, which she expects will favor Democrats.

Instead, she said, she is more hopeful about local races and several ballot measures, including the proposal to require student athletes to play on teams matching their biological sex and another one that would create a constitutional right to hunt and fish.

Kirkmeyer said frustration among parents and grandparents — regardless of party — could give Republicans an opening.

“They’re ticked off over all of this, and that’s where I think we have some optimism,” she said.

She added that if GOP lawmakers “glom on to that” energy, focus on their districts and microtarget voters, they could win some races and prevent either chamber from slipping into a super minority, which she called “tremendously bad.”

Democrats currently hold majorities in both the House and the Senate in Colorado. To secure a supermajority, they need just one more seat in each chamber.

Kirkmeyer, who grew up in Jefferson County, said she has watched parts of Colorado shift from red to purple to blue. She argued that the internet — especially social media — is a major driver of that change.

She said social media has made it easy for people to speak anonymously, spread hateful comments and circulate misleading information. With the rise of artificial intelligence, she added, it has become even harder to know what is real.

“This is where everyone is getting their news,” she said. “This is where everyone is trying to understand what’s going on in Colorado, in our nation and in our world and you don’t even know if it’s true.”

Frizell pointed to the influx of people from other states moving to Colorado and “bringing their politics with them.”

Caldwell countered that some of the state’s political shift stems from the Republican Party itself.

“People in the Republican Party in Colorado, they would fight over who was the captain of the Titanic after it hit the iceberg and it’s already going down. They’re still fighting over who’s in control instead of taking charge to begin with to avoid the iceberg,” he said.

Kirkmeyer agreed, saying both parties have “gotten very polarizing.”