8 0 691,848 671,152 45.80% 44.43% Start date November 5, 1996 | 0 0 671,152 99,629 44.43% 6.59% | |
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The 1996 United States presidential election in Colorado took place on November 7, 1996, as part of the 1996 United States presidential election. Voters chose 8 representatives, or electors to the Electoral College, who voted for President and Vice President.
Colorado was narrowly won by Republican Senator Bob Dole of Kansas over incumbent Democratic President Bill Clinton of Arkansas. Dole won with a plurality of 45.80% of the vote to Clinton's 44.43%, a margin of 1.37%. Billionaire businessman Ross Perot of Texas, running as the Reform Party candidate, finished in third with 6.59% of the popular vote.
Dole, from neighboring Kansas, performed most strongly in the eastern parts of Colorado bordering Kansas. Clinton maintained a strong showing statewide by dominating Denver, the state's capital and largest city, by a 62-30 margin, along with winning part of suburban Denver with a 51-39 victory in Adams County. Clinton also decisively won Boulder County, home to Boulder, by a 52-35 margin, as well as winning a substantial number of traditionally Democratic counties in the eastern and southern parts of the state. However Dole edged out Clinton statewide with strong victories in several highly populated counties. Dole narrowly won the suburban Denver counties of Jefferson County and Arapahoe County, and won a commanding 59-32 victory in conservative El Paso County, home to Colorado Springs. In a notable switch from 1992, Larimer County, home to Fort Collins, flipped from a narrow Clinton victory in 1992 to a narrow victory for Bob Dole in 1996.
Dole's slim victory in the state made Colorado one of only three states (along with Georgia and Montana) to flip from voting for Clinton in 1992 to voting against him in 1996, even as Clinton increased his national margin of victory by nearly 3 points.