LIZ MAIR: Who Speaks for the Mountain West?

The Mountain West, long a second (or third) thought to the favorite-son, vote-rich Rust Belt states, is stepping, however lightly, into the limelight. Several Mountain West Democrats have jumped into the presidential race (from Colorado, former Gov. John Hickenlooper and Senator Michael Bennet) or are readying themselves to do so (Gov. Steve Bullock of Montana, and perhaps others). The Democratic Party has hopes that Arizona, which as John McCain used to observe is about the only state where mothers cannot in good faith tell their kids they can grow up to be president, will move into the Democratic column next year.

Not ceding any ground, President Trump’s re-election campaign has decreed that a trio of Mountain West blue states — Colorado, Nevada and New Mexico — are “flippable” in 2020.

It’s happy news for the region, which has become tired of being an afterthought for presidential campaigns thanks to its lower population levels and voters who seem to have a natural aversion to the way the rest of the country thinks. But it’s not clear that either party is naturally well placed to appeal to voters in the area, even if it’s nice that they purport to care.

I moved here a quarter century ago out of a love for the Front Range and the desire to be left alone. That seems to be a common attitude, but one which doesn’t play nice with national politics — or with our new neighbors formerly of California.