AURORA | This week, Aurora’s 6th Congressional District incumbent Mike Coffman introduced legislation that would make it easier for foreign investors to travel between the U.S. and their home countries.
Peter Lee, a longtime Aurora resident who also serves on the board of the Aurora Chamber of Commerce, said the idea for that law came out of ongoing conversations between Coffman and Koreans in Aurora.
Coffman’s campaign is part of a larger Republican effort to reach out to diverse voters. The Republican National Committee hired Aurora Ogg last September to help Coffman and other Colorado Republican candidates connect with Asians in the state.
That outreach seems to be working. “This time around, Coffman is attending most of the Asian functions,” Lee said compared to Coffman’s reelection campaign in 2012. “He’s always been friendly, but lately, he really wants to hear from the community.”
Nearly 6 percent of the 6th Congressional District is Asian, while a little over 20 percent is Latino and 9 percent is black. It’s the most diverse district in Colorado and one of the most competitive House races in the country, evenly divided among Democrat, Republican, and independent voters.
“A Republican candidate who can make inroads and who can do well among the Asian population in a close race is a real plus as they’ve been tending to vote Democrat,” said Norman Provizer, a political science professor with Metropolitan State University of Denver.
Democratic challenger Andrew Romanoff has made gains with the state’s Latino leaders. In early July, his campaign published an endorsement letter signed by nearly 50 Colorado Latino business leaders, activists as well as former and current legislators.
Robin Waterman, executive director of the Aurora Community Connection family resource center, said she was impressed when Romanoff attended a recent celebration dinner for Spanish-speaking families who participated in a pilot English language-learning and tutoring program. Romanoff spoke to the group fluently in Spanish.
Provizer said the two candidates are taking part in a variation of old-fashioned U.S. politics. “If you think about traditional politics, one of the ways an ethnic group knew it made it, was that you were important enough politically that somebody from your group was placed on the campaign ticket,” he said.
The CD-6 race is an example of what elections could soon look like all over the United States, as minority voting blocs continue to grow.
“The voting population in (CD-6) is still majority white. But if you have some division there, it’s the other groups that really matter, and it’s those groups that are voting,” he said.