Two-thirds of House GOP Thank Insurrectionist Ron Hanks and Hanks Cements Frontrunner Status at 2nd GOP Forum
Denver, CO – GOP Senate frontrunner Ron Hanks is showing sizable support for his campaign rooted in the Big Lie from the Republican base and support from his fellow members in the Colorado House of Representatives.
Today, two-thirds of the Colorado Republican House caucus voted to thank state Representative and GOP Senate frontrunner Ron Hanks for attending the Jan. 6th insurrection.He also won the straw poll following the second GOP Senate forum on Saturday.
The GOP’s growing support for Ron Hanks and his conspiracy theories sends a clear message to Colorado voters that Republicans are focused on pushing an extreme agenda that serves Donald Trump and hurts Coloradans.
Read excerpts from Colorado Politics, the Denver Post, the Colorado Sun, and Colorado Times Recorder below:
Colorado Politics: Colorado lawmakers spar over voting rights resolution
Rep. Ron Hanks, a Cañon City Republican who is seeking the nomination to challenge Democratic U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet, drew criticism for joking about lynching and arguing that a constitutional provision that treated slaves as three-fifths of a human being wasn't "impugning anybody's humanity."
Hanks’ views on the 2020 elections, a centerpiece of his U.S. Senate campaign, were on full display on Tuesday.
After praising King and civil rights leaders from the 1960s, Hanks dove into “election integrity.” That featured a defense of people who, like Hanks, were in Washington, D.C. for the Jan. 6 but did not participate in the violent attack on the U.S. Capitol.
“I am a little offended for some of the people I met in Washington, D.C.,” Hanks said. “These people did nothing wrong. They were afraid for their country.”
Hanks also ran an unsuccessful amendment seeking a non-governmental audit of the 2020 election.
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Nico Delgado, the spokesman for the Colorado Democratic Party, said "two-thirds of the Republican House members voted to thank the U.S. Senate front-runner (Hanks), for being an insurrectionist. The GOP showed their true colors with this vote and it's all part of an extreme agenda that only serves Donald Trump and hurts Coloradans."
Two-thirds of Colorado House GOP members voted Tuesday in favor of formally thanking state Rep. Ron Hanks and those who joined him at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 at the U.S. Capitol.
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Hanks, a Fremont County Republican and candidate to challenge Democratic U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet in November, attended Trump’s rally on Jan. 6 and then marched to the U.S. Capitol, sparking a Colorado House Democrat to call for his removal early last year. He spoke well Tuesday of the people he met in D.C.
“They were such nice people, Mr. Speaker,” he said. “These people did nothing wrong. They were afraid for their country.”
The Republicans who voted for the amendment to support Hanks, which also called for the removal of dead people from voter rolls, were…
Fifteen backed a change that called into question Biden’s 2020 victory, supported Peters and asked county clerks in Colorado to stop using electronic voting systems, including ones made by Denver-based Dominion Voting Systems. Among the supporters of the amendment were state Rep. Dave Williams, R-Colorado Springs, who is running to represent Colorado’s 5th Congressional District, and state Rep. Ron Hanks, a Fremont County Republican running for U.S. Senate.
Sixteen Republican members in the House voted for an amendment thanking state Rep. Ron Hanks and “millions of others” who joined him to “peacefully assemble” on Jan. 6, 2021, when a violent mob attacked the U.S. Capitol. Williams and Hanks supported that amendment, as well. Hanks traveled to Washington, D.C., for the rally held by former President Donald Trump and that preceded the U.S. Capitol riot.
Hanks also brought an amendment that replaced the language reasserting the validity of the 2020 election with language requesting a full forensic audit of the 2020 and 2021 elections in Colorado and a review of the voter rolls.
In an informal straw poll taken at the Palmer Ridge High School auditorium Saturday, Republicans picked state Rep. Ron Hanks (R-Canon City) as their choice to challenge Michael Bennet for U.S. Senate.
Shortly before the audience that about 150 at the Republican forum had handed in their votes, they cheered Hanks after he restated his belief that Donald Trump won the 2020 election.
“A lot of people say the next election is the most important of our lifetime and it becomes kind of cliché,” Hanks said at the event, hosted by the Sunrise Republican Women. “I still contend the 2020 election was the most important election of our lifetime, and we had better work to fix it.”
Hanks points to baseless evidence of widespread fraud in the 2020 presidential election.
The remaining four Senate primary candidates at the event gave their ideas for repairing a system they believe to have been flawed for many years, whereas Hanks continued to emphasize what he believed caused the 2020 election to be rigged in favor of Joe Biden.
None of the other four candidates, Eli Bremer, Gino Campano, Deborah Flora and Peter Yu, went so far as to explicitly say that Trump lost. However, each stated that the country needs to restore election integrity.
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“Ron Hanks cemented his frontrunner status in the GOP Senate primary after winning the straw poll following their second forum,” read a portion of the Delgado’s statement. “The field of candidates are desperate for Trump’s endorsement, but only Hanks will claim that Trump won the 2020 election. This is proof that candidates will have to embrace the Big Lie since this is a message that clearly resonates with the Republican base.”
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