Trump campaign volunteers and true believers had their batteries recharged by John Pence, nephew of the vice president, on Thursday at a thank you event held at the Wild Horse Saloon in Durango.

“We’re the party fighting for freedom, freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom for people who are trying to make things in America,” Pence told a crowd of about 80 who sat at tables in a U-shape around the saloon’s dance floor with few masks obscuring faces and social-distancing rules thrown out the window.

Pence said Democrats’ idea of freedom is usually government provision of some product or service.

“The Democrats’ agenda is based on government control,” he said. “When they talk about freedom, they usually mean something like free college or a free shot of whiskey when you walk in the door, but it’s just the bait they give you to give up your freedom for more government control.”

Emily Jo, who moved to Durango three years ago from San Diego, said freedom, especially Republican efforts to protect business freedoms from excessive government control drives her support for President Donald Trump.

“We don’t want socialism. People left other countries for this country because of socialism,” she said. “ We’re protecting freedom of speech, we’re the ones protecting the right to build a business from the ground up, we’re the ones protecting the right to have firearms and we’re not going to let (Democratic nominee Joe) Biden win and destroy this country.”

Ken Morris, a GOP volunteer from Red Mesa, has been volunteering for months knocking on doors and making phone calls. He was headed to a volunteer event Friday.

“I’m not sure what we’re going to be doing, but we’re doing whatever it takes,” he said. “The difference between Trump and Biden is day and night, freedom and destruction, capitalism and destruction, and Trump’s on the good side.”

Pence said last week volunteers have knocked on 139,000 doors throughout the state, and the Trump campaign has 12 field offices and 50 staff members assigned to Colorado in an attempt to flip Colorado Trump’s way Nov. 3.

In 2016, Hillary Clinton won Colorado and its nine Electoral College votes, beating Trump 48.2% to 43.3% with Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson earning 5.2% of the vote.

“People ask me all the time, ‘Can Trump win Colorado?’ And I can say directly from the Trump campaign, the answer is ‘yes,’” Pence said.

parmijo@durangoherald.com