Senator Barack Obama won the vote count in Estes Park by a wide margin in last week's presidential primaries.

Estes Park,  a longtime stronghold of the religious ”right”, showed a different color in last week’s presidential primaries with almost half of the 800 total caucus attendees (Republican and Democrat) voting YES for the Illinois Senator Barack Obama in the caucuses held on Feb. 5th.

Exactly 802 of the approximate 6,000 Estes Valley residents participated in the recent presidential caucus with Democratic participants (570) outnumbering their Republican counterparts (232) by a wide margin.  Of the 570 Democratic caucus attendees in Estes, 392 voted for Senator Obama as their presidential candidate which is approximately 69% of the local Democratic vote and 49% of the total valley vote from both parties.  Independents were not included in these state caucuses but nationwide, Obama has been winning the independent vote by a wide margin as well over his Republican and Democratic adversaries.

The gap between participation levels of the two parties was higher in Estes Park than at the county level where 8,630 Democrats participated in caucuses across Larimer County as compared to 5,556 Republicans.  Statewide in Colorado, the numbers were closer to a  2-1 margin as nearly 120,000 Democrats and 62,000 Republicans caucused last Tuesday night in what has historically been a more Republican dominated state.

In Larimer County, Senator Barack Obama received 62% of the total Democratic votes (6,192) while Senator Clinton received just 38% of the county total with 2,403 votes.

The Republican presidential caucuses in Estes Park gave the Mormon Mitt Romney the most votes with 137 (60%).    The current Republican front runner John McCain received just 36 votes, which is 4% of the  Estes Park total for all candidates.  Mitt Romney was the top choice across Larimer County for the Republicans where he received a total of 3,288 votes or 59% of the total for the "blue" party. 

Former evangelical minister and presidential candidate Mike Huckabee received just 33 votes in Estes Park for approximately 4% of the total local vote.  Perhaps most of our local evangelicals were busy in church last Tuesday night, possibly praying for the world to end soon rather than suffer through a “liberal presidency”?

                                   Barack and Michelle Obama with their two daughters