Historically, the Montrose county seat has been a solid Republican stronghold. No Democratic Presidential candidate has won the seat since 1964, and no Democrat has ever garnered more than 40% of Montrose's vote. In fact, Montrose has been more Republican than Democrat since 1920, and has been so consistently since then. Interestingly, Montrose leaned Democratic from 1896 to 1916, with the exception of Alton B. Parker's 1904 landslide loss.