When we reported the early morning results from the 2026 General Election in Archuleta County, it appeared that voters in Pagosa Springs had slid over into the ‘blue’ column, with the majority of local votes in statewide races going to Democratic Party candidates.
Apparently, those early tallies did not tell the full story.
As additional votes were counted, it became clear that Archuleta County did not support Democrats, generally.
But in a couple of the statewide races, the community voted ‘blue’. Which has very rarely been the case in years past. And even in the races where Republicans won the local vote, the margin of victory was rather slim.
Here are a few of the current (but not final) tallies for some of the statewide offices, from Archuleta County.
Total ballots counted: 7,175 (61% of active voters in the county)
U.S. Senator: John Hickenlooper (D) 3,405 votes (48.7%); Mark Baisley (R) 3.363 votes (48.1%);
U.S. House 3rd Congressional District: Jeff Hurd (R) 3,500 votes (50.4%); Dwayne Romero (D) 3,278 (47.2%)
Colorado Governor: Phil Weiser (D) 3,357 (48.3%); Victor Marx (R) 3,294 (47.4%)
Colorado Secretary of State: James Wiley (R) 3,382 (49.2%); Amanda Gonzalez (D) 3,291 (47.9%)
Colorado Attorney General: Michael Allen (R) 3,580 (51,9%); Jena Griswold (D) 3,319 (48.1%)
State Representative District 59: Naomi Riess (R) 3,502 (51.5%); Katie Stewart (D) 3,301 (48.5%)
As of Thursday, November 5, the weekly Pagosa Springs SUN was reporting the following info:
With 6,468 ballots counted as of press time Wednesday, the following were the vote totals for the three local ballot issues:
Archuleta County’s Ballot Issue 1A had 4,231 in favor (68.70 percent) and 1,928 against (31.30 percent).
Archuleta School District’s Ballot Issue 5A had 2,989 in favor (50.73 percent) and 2,903 against (49.27 percent).
Upper San Juan Health Service District’s Ballot Issue 7B had 4,681 in favor (78.61 percent) and 1,247 against (21.39 percent).
Bill Hudson began sharing his opinions in the Pagosa Daily Post in 2004 and can't seem to break the habit. He claims that, in Pagosa Springs, opinions are like pickup trucks: everybody has one.