GOP Senate Candidates are Anti-Choice and Wrong for Colorado
The Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe confirms what a majority of Coloradans already know – if elected, Republicans will stop at nothing to take away a woman’s right to choose. Both candidates have made it clear that they are more focused on restricting abortion access than helping working families get ahead.
“Ron Hanks and Joe O’Dea are enemies of abortion rights – and their anti-choice views go against the majority of Coloradans and disqualifies them from serving in the U.S. Senate.” – Colorado Democratic Party spokesperson Nico Delgado
Candidates on abortion:
Ron Hanks:
Sponsored an extreme bill to abolish all abortion access in Colorado.
Opposes all abortions including in cases of rape, incest, and when a mother’s life is at risk.
Labeled himself as a “defende[r] of the unborn” in his campaign launch video.
Joe O’Dea:
Opposes Colorado’s law that guarantees the right to choose.
Would’ve voted to confirm all of the Supreme Court Justices nominated by Trump and Bush.
GOP Senate Candidates Too Far Right on Guns
GOP Senate candidates Ron Hanks and Joe O’Dea are both too far right on guns and they offer no promise of supporting gun safety legislation to help prevent future tragedies caused by gun violence.
Both candidates said that they would oppose the bipartisan Senate framework on new gun regulations which enhance background checks and allow states to enact red flag laws.
“Colorado’s last spineless Republican senator was a puppet for the NRA and a rubber stamp for the far-right Republican agenda. Coloradans will reject any Republican who will take millions from the gun lobby and oppose common sense background checks.” – Colorado Democratic Party spokesperson Nico Delgado
Candidates on the Second Amendment:
Ron Hanks
Claimed that he defended the Second Amendment and blew up a copy machine with a semi-automatic rifle in a campaign launch video.
Sponsored bills to repeal a ban on magazines and allow anyone 21 and older to carry a firearm without a permit.
Endorsed by the Gun Owners of America
Joe O’Dea
Said that “we don’t need more [gun control] laws.”
Opposed the bipartisan gun safety law that passed the Senate with 15 Republican votes.
Said he’s an “advocate” for the Second Amendment and used crime as a reason why people should practice their Second Amendment right.
Backed by the NRA’s Colorado affiliate group.
Lawsuit Alleged GOP Senate Candidate and CEO Joe O’Dea Discriminated Against Workers
“Johnson claimed she was told that the company ‘need(ed) to get rid of these old sick people’”
GOP Senate candidate Joe O’Dea’s treatment of workers at his business Concrete Express is being scrutinized as he calls himself “The Boss” and touts his business in campaign ads.
A lawsuit, that has not been previously reported, from former Concrete Express employee Barbara Johnson alleges that O’Dea discriminated against workers based on age and disability. According to the lawsuit, O’Dea “asked the General Superintendent if the ‘old guys were a liability’ and then became determined to “make [elderly workers] disappear.”
O’Dea then allegedly targeted Johnson after she was diagnosed with cancer and terminated her employment. Johnson claimed O’Dea went further and blocked her from receiving unemployment benefits.
O’Dea claims that he’ll defend workers, however this disturbing report from Colorado Newsline raises serious questions about his true record and sends a clear message to voters that he won’t be a voice for working people.
Republican U.S. Senate candidate Joe O’Dea’s construction company last year settled a lawsuit brought by a former employee who alleged a pattern of age and disability discrimination, federal court records show.
Barbara Johnson of Loveland, who worked as a human resources manager for O’Dea’s Concrete Express Inc. for five years beginning in 2011, sued the company in U.S. District Court of Colorado in 2019.
Johnson alleged that she had her bonuses reduced and faced a hostile work environment following a cancer diagnosis in 2014. She further accused O’Dea and other CEI executives of dissuading employees from filing workers’ compensation claims and terminating older employees, a pattern she said she was pressured into facilitating in her role as HR manager prior to being fired in December 2015.
…
O’Dea, a first-time candidate, has made his private-sector experience a centerpiece of his pitch to Colorado voters ahead of the June 28 Republican primary, in which he faces far-right state Rep. Ron Hanks, and a potential general-election matchup against incumbent Democratic U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet in November. “He’s not a politician — people call him ‘The Boss,’” boasts one O’Dea campaign ad.
In her lawsuit, Johnson alleged that when she raised the issue of potentially illegal terminations of older workers to CEI leadership, O’Dea not only ignored her concerns but said the firings served to bring down the company’s insurance premiums.
“O’Dea asked the General Superintendent if the ‘old guys were a liability.’ The General Superintendent replied, ‘Yes,’” Johnson’s lawsuit alleged. “O’Dea told the General Superintendent to take care of it and ‘make it disappear.’ Johnson told O’Dea that she did not want to participate in the illegal activities but O’Dea made Johnson process the terminations.”
Read more in Colorado Newsline.
Majority of GOP Grassroots Voters Back Insurrectionist Ron Hanks
Hanks takes top spot on Republican primary ballot for Senate
Insurrectionist and U.S. Senate candidate Ron Hanks cleared a field of several well funded candidates and won with 38.96% of the delegate vote. Election denial was at the center of the Colorado GOP’s chaotic state assembly where Hanks, along with other election conspiracy theory candidates, rode that wave to victory.
Hanks and wealthy CEO Joe O’Dea, who petitioned on to the ballot via signatures, will be the only two Republican candidates for Senate. The primary will take place on June 28th.
Watch CBS Denver’s reporting on the GOP state assembly below:
Read more in the Associated Press, Vice News, Denver Post, Colorado Sun, Colorado Politics, Colorado Newsline, CPR News, Axios Denver, CBS Denver, KRDO Colorado Springs
What They’re Saying:
Jesse Paul, Colorado Sun: “The thread that carried across the 2022 Colorado Republican state assembly was election denialism, from calls to abandon electronic voting for delegates, to the candidates selected and the party platform that was adopted. #copolitics”
Nick Riccardi, AP: “Skepticism about the election/’election integrity’ has been the biggest applause line for just about everyone at the CO GOP Assembly”
Quentin Young, Colorado Newsline: “Now there is no doubt. The election-denial faction of the Colorado Republican Party has the most momentum. Conspiracist candidates are in the lead. Moderating forces in the party establishment have lost control of the narrative. What does this mean for the state?”
Trish Zornio, Colorado Sun Columnist: The @cologop is in complete shambles. Their “best” candidates for Secretary of State, U.S. Senate and Gov are extreme conspiracy theorists who deny 2020 election results. It’s embarrassing, and bad for democracy.
Heidi Beedle, Colorado Times Recorder: “I’m not at all surprised that Ron Hanks won. This has largely been a one-issue primary for the Republicans. Ron Hanks has been leading the charge on that in Colorado. The fact that it is overwhelmingly nonsense from grifters and bad actors shouldn’t be concerning, right?”
Sara Loflin, Progress Now Colorado: “‘Colorado Republicans are once again indisputably the party of Donald Trump, Ron Hanks, and Tina Peters. Hanks and Peters can no longer be dismissed as ‘fringe’ when they represent the views of a majority of Republicans’”
MORE: Read what Coloradans are saying about Hanks in letters to the editor in Mountain Jackpot, CS Indy, Longmont Times Call, and the Greeley Tribune.