Republican incumbent Marc Catlin defeated Democratic candidate Seth Cagin in a landslide victory of 65% to 35% in the race for the Colorado House of Representatives, according to final unofficial results from the Colorado Secretary of State’s Office.
In Montezuma County, Catlin surged ahead with 64% of the votes.
“It’s been a real awkward campaign,” Catlin said.
With the coronavirus pandemic surging across Colorado, the Republican incumbent has not campaigned as much in-person as a normal election year. And Catlin is “not much of a digital person,” he said.
The signs cropping up for Catlin across House of Representatives District 58, which encompasses Montrose County, Montezuma County, San Miguel County and Dolores County in Southwest Colorado, were a good indication for a renewed term in the Colorado House of Representatives.
“If they do trust me enough to send me, I will do everything I can for them – it’s not a role I take lightly,” Catlin said in a phone interview with The Journal before the election.
“When you walk up those steps (to the Capitol in Denver), and you’re not thinking about home, you’re not the right guy for the job,” Catlin said.
Catlin was first elected to the state House by a committee of Republican leaders in 2017. He was selected to replace then-Rep Don Coram, R-Montrose, who was chosen to serve the rest of Sen. Ellen Roberts’ term until 2018.
He was reelected to a full two-year term in a statewide vote in 2018.
Catlin’s opponent, Cagin, also ran against him in 2018. The Democratic candidate said he knocked on more than 8,000 doors that year, campaigning door to door for nine months. But under the coronavirus pandemic, it was not possible to knock on doors this year, Cagin said.
He ran a digital campaign, but decided the race was not worth a lot of time or money this year, he said.
“The results are very close to the results two years ago,” Cagin said.
In the 2018 general election, Catlin won with about 63% of the votes. Cagin secured 37% of the votes, according to results posted by the Colorado Secretary of State’s Office.
“The district’s 60-40 partisan makeup is very clear, and the lesson I’ve taken away from my two races is that it is all-but-impossible to change partisan minds,” Cagin posted to Facebook Wednesday morning.
The Democrat said he spent a lot of time and energy on talking with Republican voters in 2018 about issues that heavily impact people in Southwest Colorado, such as drought, teacher shortages and affordable health care. He proposed policies that reach across the aisle to solve these important issues, Cagin said.
But at the end of the day, Republicans “just couldn’t vote for me,” he said.
“Americans are locked into two tribes living in separate realities,” Cagin wrote about the current divide between political parties. But Americans have to continue to try and find common ground to “tackle the enormous problems we face as a society,” he wrote.
Catlin said his policy priorities address urgent issues in Southwest Colorado for Republicans and Democrats, such as being proactive in preventing wildfires, protecting Colorado’s water and watersheds during drought and directing more funding toward mental health resources in rural areas.
“When I go to Denver, I represent everyone, not just Republicans and farmers,” Catlin said.
ehayes@the-journal.com
