Joe O’Dea Would Hurt Colorado Latinos
“[O’Dea] is just another anti-immigrant Republican who supports harmful policies that will hurt Colorado’s Latinos.”
GOP Senate candidate Joe O’Dea is under fire for his ignorant claims about Colorado’s Latino and Hispanic communities. Former state Representative Bri Buentello slammed O’Dea for attempting to win over Latinos by using his wife’s ethnicity as justification for his support for Tom Cotton and Ron DeSantis.
Buentello was in the crowd with her family while O’Dea arrogantly claimed that he didn’t need a Hispanic outreach program and flubbed the word “Chicano” and said “Chiquito.” O’Dea tried to recover by saying “Latinos in Denver, Chicanos down here. I understand it,” to which Buentello fired back and writes: “If O’Dea truly ‘understands it,’ he would be able to pronounce ‘Chicanos’ without staff coming to his rescue; he would also know that many Chicanos, Hispanics, and Latinos live in Denver, Pueblo, Greeley and all across the state.”
Buentello argues that O’Dea “was blatantly trying to have it both ways by paying lip service to the Latino community and our values while praising DeSantis for ostensibly kidnapping and trafficking Venezuelan asylum seekers for a political stunt and backing Trump’s border wall.”
Read more below:
Colorado Newsline: Joe O’Dea thinks he understands Latinos, but he doesn’t
Does O’Dea understand, or even just care, about Latino communities and our values, or is he just saying whatever he can to get elected?
It would be an understatement to say he seemed overconfident when he proclaimed that he “didn’t need a Hispanic outreach program.” Then O’Dea tried to soften the blow by saying his wife’s heritage and employees would suffice as his outreach.
However, O’Dea may be shocked to discover that there are over 1.2 million Latinos in Colorado — and if he’s serious about winning, he should try spending time with Colorado Latinos and focus on having a robust outreach program instead of trying to prove that he’s something he’s not.
The crowd began to murmur at this embarrassing answer. Then a visibly flustered O’Dea stumbled and referenced “Chiquitos” as he tried to talk about “Chicanos,” which riled up the crowd.
“Latinos in Denver, Chicanos down here. I understand it,” he blurted as he tried to recover.
If O’Dea truly “understands it,” he would be able to pronounce “Chicanos” without staff coming to his rescue; he would also know that many Chicanos, Hispanics, and Latinos live in Denver, Pueblo, Greeley and all across the state.
It seemed like he was blatantly trying to have it both ways by paying lip service to the Latino community and our values while praising DeSantis for ostensibly kidnapping and trafficking Venezuelan asylum seekers for a political stunt and backing Trump’s border wall.
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His staunch support for a reckless and costly Trump policy makes him untrustworthy.
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O’Dea hopes that by using his wife’s Mexican heritage, Latino and Hispanic voters will trust him.
But it takes much more than just being married to the granddaughter of Mexican immigrants to win over the trust of Latino and Hispanic communities across Colorado. Once voters look beyond who O’Dea is married to and his staged acts to appear likable, they will see that he is just another anti-immigrant Republican who supports harmful policies that will hurt Colorado’s Latinos.
Read more in Colorado Newsline.