The Battle for Colorado Is the Battle for America

Mark Udall, the Democratic senator running for reelection in Colorado this fall, is a scion of a famous political family and the Platonic ideal of what a Western politician is supposed to look like. His father, Mo, was a longtime Arizona congressman and a 1976 Democratic presidential candidate; his cousin Tom is a senator in neighboring New Mexico. On a Wednesday afternoon in late September, Udall strode into Mickey’s Top Sirloin, a sports-themed steakhouse just off the highway in Denver, to meet the local contingent of Sportsmen for Udall, Democratic-leaning hunters and fishermen. Udall was decked out in a dress shirt, jeans, and cowboy boots. He left the bolo tie at home but brought along an identically dressed staffer, a sort of Mini-Me of regional political pandering.

Udall is tall and rangy, with thick gray hair and eyebrows that appear to be dusted with snow. He looks every bit the rugged, taciturn Coloradan: You imagine him somewhere up in the Rockies, praising the clean, crisp taste of Coors Banquet beer. Playing to type, Udall launched into a sermonette about how he’d recently finished hiking the last of the state’s 100 highest peaks. At the summit, he told the crowd, he gazed out across “the glory that is Colorado” and suddenly felt moved to ­“recommit myself to do everything possible to protect our special way of life.” ­Everyone nodded approvingly.