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How Red State Colorado Turned Purple, Then — Maybe — Blue

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President Franklin Roosevelt, pictured getting drought information first-hand in his car as he talked with farmer Will Duerr and his family in Julesburg, Colo. on Sept. 3, 1936. Roosevelt won the state in the 1932 and 1936 presidential elections. (AP)
President Franklin Roosevelt, pictured getting drought information first-hand in his car as he talked with farmer Will Duerr and his family in Julesburg, Colo. on Sept. 3, 1936. Roosevelt won the state in the 1932 and 1936 presidential elections. (AP)

Colorado did not become a state until 100 years after the Declaration of Independence. But it has played a major role in American history; after all, it was the state that inspired Katherine Lee Bates to write "America The Beautiful" in 1893. It has also proved to be a presidential battleground, a surprising change from a state that was first believed to be a solid Republican stronghold.

Here & Now’s Jeremy Hobson reports on how Colorado’s history of frontier independence and boom-and-bust economies have helped shape American politics.

Guests

Elisa Phelps, director of collections and library division at History Colorado Center. The center tweets @HistoryColorado.

Tom Cronin, professor of American institutions and leadership at Colorado College and co-author of the book “Colorado Politics and Policy: Governing a Purple State.” The college tweets @ColoradoCollege.

Seth Masket, professor of political science at the University of Denver. He tweets @smotus.

This segment aired on October 25, 2016.

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Jeremy Hobson Former Co-Host, Here & Now
Before coming to WBUR to co-host Here & Now, Jeremy Hobson hosted the Marketplace Morning Report, a daily business news program with an audience of more than six million.

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