Majorities hold unfavorable views of major parties and President Trump; believe Trump has gone too far on immigration enforcement, and worry about ICE wrongfully detaining people
DENVER — Coloradans’ views of politics are dire, as the latest Colorado Polling Institute survey shows majorities believe the political situation in the United States is in crisis and that they expect political violence in the country to get worse.
More than seven-in-10 respondents (72%) say the political situation in the United States is in crisis, while 25% believe it has some problems but is not in crisis, and a mere 3% say it is in pretty good shape. Responses were driven largely by partisanship, though voters across party lines (84% of Democrats, 78% of independents, and 49% of Republicans) concur that our political situation is in crisis.
Similarly, 65% of Colorado voters (73% of Democrats, 68% of independents, and 53% of Republicans) say they think political violence will get worse over the next few years, which exceeds findings in a recent natonal poll, where 54% hold that view.
“While Coloradans are not a very optimistic bunch these days, they are most pessimistic about the state of our national politics ,” asserted Lori Weigel, Principal of New Bridge Strategy (R). “Nearly two-thirds of Coloradans foresee worsening political violence in the future, which really underscores that they do not see this as a passing storm.”
The online poll of 622 likely 2026 Colorado voters was conducted Nov. 1-5 by the bipartisan team of Aspect Strategic (D) and New Bridge Strategy (R) and has a margin of error of +/- 3.93%. Thanks to a grant from the Rose Community Foundation, this poll includes an oversampling of Hispanic voters, allowing the survey to have a more statistically significant look at a slice of the electorate with growing importance to state and national politics. It is the eighth poll conducted by CPI since its founding in 2023, and our fifth statewide survey.
“Our current political climate is clearly turning Colorado voters off which makes progress harder for our state and country,” said CPI Founder and CEO David Carlson. “Insights like this — however difficult to swallow — delivered by a nonpartisan, independent organization are critical to helping leaders across our state understand the people they serve.”
POLITICAL PARTIES
Majorities hold both major parties in low regard. Nearly 6-in-10 had negative views of the Republican (58% unfavorable, 39% favorable) and the Democratic (57% unfavorable, 39% favorable) parties. Those numbers are consistent with findings in our March statewide poll.
Hispanic voters are more favorable toward Democrats (47% favorable, 46% unfavorable) than to Republicans (66% unfavorable, 27% favorable).
Looking more closely at views of the two major parties, just 67% of Harris voters hold a favorable view of the Democratic Party, compared to 85% of Trump voters who have a favorable view of the GOP.
Not surprisingly given the standing of the two major parties, more than three-in-four respondents (77%) say a third party is needed to adequately represent the American people. That is significantly more than three-in-five voters nationally who say the same.
Voters appear to favor a third party which will pursue a middle ground, with 50% of Colorado voters saying a more moderate third party is needed (59% among independents, 43% among Democrats, and 40% among Republicans), 16% saying a more liberal third party is needed (17% among independents, 27% among Democrats, and 1% among Republicans) , and 11% saying a more conservative third party is needed (7% among independents, 5% among Democrats, and 20% among Republicans).
“Both national parties face a skeptical Colorado electorate, but the challenges facing the parties look quite different when you look under the hood,” said Kevin Ingham, Principal of Aspect Strategic (D). “Negative views of the Democratic Party are driven in significant part by dissatisfaction from the party’s own base. Meanwhile, the GOP’s image is suffering more among Colorado’s middle-of-the-road voters due to the unpopularity of Donald Trump.”
A majority of Coloradans say they hold unfavorable views of President Trump (59% unfavorable, 39% favorable), with very little change from our March survey (58% unfavorable, 40% favorable). The view of Trump among Hispanics in the most recent poll is considerably worse (66% unfavorable, 31% favorable).
IMMIGRATION
When it comes to deporting immigrants living in the country illegally, views are unchanged since our March survey: A majority of Colorado voters believe President Trump has gone too far (54%), compared to about right (25%) and not far enough (19%).
Those responses are driven by partisanship as majorities of Democrats (90%) and independents (57%) say the president has gone too far. Among Republicans, a plurality (46%) say he’s been about right, and four-in-10 (41%) say he has not gone far enough.
Among Hispanic voters, nearly six-in-10 (59%) say the President has gone too far. Hispanics are also more likely to have had a personal experience with ICE, with more reporting that they know someone who has been detained by ICE (14% among Hispanics vs. 8% overall) or have seen ICE in their community (15% among Hispanics vs. 13% overall).
And the vast majority of voters (64% overall and 73% among Hispanics) are concerned about ICE detaining people who should not be detained.
INFORMATION
Three-in-five Coloradans (60%) say they are interested in news and seek it out, three-in-10 (32%) say they do not seek it out, but that it finds them, and just 8% say they are not interested.
Notably, three-in-five (64% disagree, 36% disagree) reject the idea that it’s easy to find unbiased information about what is happening in politics, which is comparable to our findings from November of 2024 (63% disagree, 37% disagree).
Television is the top source of news: 60% say they watch Colorado and local TV news, 39% say they watch national news broadcasts, and 37% say they watch cable news.
Roughly one-in-four respondents say they receive information from newspapers: 25% from Colorado local newspapers and news websites and 27% from national newspapers and news websites.
Facebook (31%) is the top source for information received by social media, followed by Youtube (29%), and Instagram (22%).
INNOVATION
More than one-in-five (22%) voters say they interact with AI sites like Chat GPT, Claude and Gemini at least once a day. And of the 60% of Coloradans who use AI sites, more say say they use them for personal tasks (41%) than work tasks (23%) while 36% say they use it equally for both.
OTHER FINDINGS
- When it comes to the ownership of the Colorado Rockies Major League Baseball Team, voters support seeing the team sold (35%) as opposed to continuing with current owners (9%). A majority (56%) do not know enough to have an opinion.
- Coloradans are almost twice as likely to view sports betting as a bad thing for society (33%) than a good thing (17%), though half (50%) are neutral on the issue.