Ron Hanks Stood with Colorado’s Top Election Deniers in support of Tina Peters
Last week, insurrectionist and GOP Senate candidate Ron Hanks joined Colorado’s top election deniers and top Trump ally John Eastman to show support for Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters after she was arrested.
Hanks criticized Secretary of State Jena Griswold for requesting money to ensure her safety, even though Griswold has received numerous threats thanks to Ron Hanks, Donald Trump, and the Big Lie. Insurrectionist and Mike Lindell ally Shawn Smith threatened Griswold and said, “if you’re involved in election fraud then you deserve to hang. Sometimes the old ways are the best ways.”
Peters’ arrest amplified the growing election conspiracy movement inside of the Colorado GOP. Hanks’ election conspiracy theories have been at the center of the GOP Senate primary and now with Peters’ candidacy for Secretary of State, it will continue to be the main focus for Colorado Republicans.
Read excerpts below from 9News Denver and the Colorado Sun:
When Hanks spoke, he brought up Griswold's request for security money.
"A secretary of state who thinks she is so entitled to private security. It's $120,000," he said. "It passed. It'll be more next year."
Hanks told the crowd he is working on election integrity and talked about a couple of bills at the state Capitol that would drastically change how Colorado conducts elections. He knows they do not have a chance.
"We will prepare the battle space for the next session, and when we hit the majority, they can pull these bills out of archive," said Hanks.
Speakers included state representative and U.S. Senate candidate Ron Hanks, who was at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and who invokes the Big Lie at every campaign stop; John Eastman, the former University of Colorado Boulder visiting scholar and Donald Trump’s top legal adviser on how to steal the 2020 election; FEC United’s founder Joe Oltmann, who is most infamous for calling for some reporters and politicians, including Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, to be hanged; My Pillow Guy pal Shawn Smith, who responded to chants from the crowd to lock up Secretary of State Jena Griswold by saying that though he believed in due process, “if you’re involved in election fraud then you deserve to hang. Sometimes the old ways are the best ways.”
That’s a lot of lynching talk, but apparently those are the kinds of people that Hanks and Peters, um, hang around with.
…
I don’t know what kind of chance Hanks has, but he has been winning a series of Republican straw votes, which isn’t that surprising given that a majority of Republicans, according to all the polls, say they believe in the Big Lie that Joe Biden stole the election.
…
And before you try to put it down to fringe Republicans, remember that a majority of Colorado House Republicans voted for an amendment commending Hanks for going to the Capitol on Jan. 6.
###