TAMPA — For GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney to win Colorado, the campaign needs his wife.

In a speech on the opening night of the Republican National Convention, Ann Romney did what Colorado Republican women said they needed her to do: humanize her husband, her family and her life.

The wife of the GOP nominee not so much romanticized her life but talked about it in a real way — something that will undoubtedly appeal to women, not just Republican women.

This is not coincidental.

"I read somewhere that Mitt and I have a 'storybook marriage,' " Ann Romney said. "Well, in the storybooks I read, there were never long, long, rainy winter afternoons in a house with five boys screaming at

once. And those storybooks never seemed to have chapters called MS or breast cancer. A storybook marriage? No, not at all. What Mitt Romney and I have is a real marriage."

In Colorado, where the presidential contest will probably be extremely close, it's a demographics game. Both camps will vie for Latino and young voters.

Both are already aggressively courting women.

This means both sides will brandish wives and strong female leaders to talk about the bread-and-butter issues politicos think suburban voters worry about: education, debt, family, children and safety.

"As these voters go, so goes the statewide election in Colorado," said state GOP campaign veteran Dick Wadhams. "I think in 2012, these voters are the ones who have not made up their minds yet; they want to vote for an alternative to President Obama."

Like every other voting bloc, however, women are not united.

An ABC News/Washington Post poll out earlier this week shows Romney overwhelmingly beating Obama among married women, 55 percent to 40 percent.

But Obama still leads among all women, 49 percent to 43 percent, because, overwhelmingly, unmarried women like him, 57 percent to 32 percent, according to the poll.

Katy Atkinson, a Denver political consultant who represents Republican clients in Colorado, said that Ann Romney's task was to show sides of her husband that he, as one more comfortable with spreadsheets than relationships, is unable to convey.

"She can sing his praises in a way he can't himself," Atkinson said.

Atkinson said the narrative Ann Romney has begun to tell on the campaign trail — details about her life with her husband and his effort to help her through her struggle with multiple sclerosis — can help humanize the man.

Former state Sen. Nancy Spence, a Republican from Centennial, agreed.

"I think she's incredible — she is not only beautiful, she raised five boys," she said. "When she talked about her secret to getting through Costco, it was great. She loves Costco. I love Costco. All working women with families love Costco."

Allison Sherry: 202-662-8907, asherry@denverpost.com or twitter.com/allisonsherry

Chuck Plunkett contributed to this story.