It's one of those surprising facts. The one Dem was elected with Dick Lamm in the 70's. Rogers and Buckley were Republicans elected in the 90's, but Buckley died young, in office, of heart problems or something, and Rogers had a falling-out with Bl.Owens and then lost a congressional primary.
Denver mayor Wellington Webb was one of the few black majors of major white-majority cities.
So they have a strong post-racial history.
Michigan and Pennsylvania .... yeesh. Too much bad blood from the John Streets and Kwame Kilpatricks of the world.
Michigan elected a Black Dem to statewide office before Colorado. Richard Austin from Detroit who had lost — by only 108 votes (!) — to John Conyers in the ‘64 Dem primary for the newly-created Black 1st district, and then tried to become the first Black Mayor of Detroit in ‘69 (losing to Roman Gribbs, the last White Mayor, by only 7,000 votes, 1%), and then managed to win the Secretary of State’s office in 1970 (at that point, the office had been controlled by the Dems for some time). He was reelected in ‘74, tried to move up to the Senate in ‘76, but lost the Dem primary to the ex-RINO Congressman Don Riegle, and continued to win the Sec of State’s office for the next 18 years. 81, and well past his prime, he got swept out of office by now-Congresswoman Candice Miller in ‘94. Austin is nearly forgotten today, but one wonders how much different he would’ve been had he either beaten Conyers in ‘64 or stopped the monstrous Coleman Young before he laid Detroit to waste.