He touted a sweeping public lands bill he coauthored, a national suicide prevention hotline he launched and various federal goodies he secured for Colorado. She said Trump does not care about the American people and has tried to distract people from the issue. The election caps a four-year push by Democrats in Colorado, a state that was once known for its status as an evenly divided partisan battleground but has become reliably Democratic under Trump.
Gardner, 46, has been something of the last of his kind, a relic of a barely red-leaning state in which rural and urban areas had equal sway. Gardner noted on the campaign trail that he was the only statewide elected official not from the fast-growing Denver metropolitan area. But Washington Democrats saw the well-known former petroleum geologist-turned-brewpub-magnate as the safest bet against Gardner, a champion fundraiser and famously agile and on-message politician.
He is also one of the only Republican senators running in a state Trump lost. Polls through the summer and fall have consistently shown Hickenlooper comfortably ahead in the race. Neither candidate made obvious missteps and both stayed on message. Gardner touted his bipartisan accomplishments in Congress, as Hickenlooper worked to tie him to the president and pledged to bring change to Washington. He says he voted for Hickenlooper but says he would have given Gardner a second look, had he not supported things like the confirmation of Justice Amy Coney Barrett so close to the election.
Democratic political strategist Craig Hughes of Hilltop Public Solutions believes Gardner also gambled away the potential support of some unaffiliated voters by not distancing himself from Trump. Pace worked with Gardner in the state legislature and Hickenlooper during his time as governor.
He thinks the timing was as good for Hickenlooper as it was bad for Gardner. That doesn't mean that it was perfect, but he didn't make a lot of mistakes.
Hickenlooper has lots of name recognition in the state and a lot of history. He served two terms as mayor of Denver, two terms as governor, and spent five months last year in the presidential race. The series of unforced errors earned the candidate negative headlines and left political observers scratching their heads. Gardner and his allies saw an opening. But this is , the year of a global pandemic that has killed hundreds of thousands of Americans, the year of a stark economic downturn, the year of racial and civil unrest.
The Affordable Care Act, once vilified, was in vogue again. Gardner caught a small break in August when his Great American Outdoors Act, a significant public lands bill, was signed into law by the president. Delivered Fridays. Thanks for signing up! Check your inbox for a welcome email.
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