Colorado Republican wins 2020 election denier Ron Hanks for Senate seat

O Dea beat state Rep. Ron Hanks, a 2020 election denier who opposes abortion without exception, for the right to face Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet in November.

A construction company CEO, O Dea, overcame nearly $4 million in spending by Democratic Colorado, a group that meddled in the primary by questioning his conservative credentials while signal-boosting right-wing positions taken by Hanks, who participated in the Jan. 6 rally that preceded the 2021 attack on the Capitol. According to AdImpact, O Dea spent $1.4 million on ads. Hanks spent nothing.

Democrats have used the same tactics in other Republican primaries to create more favorable matchups. Colorado — once a purple state, has gone deep blue in recent years, with Sen. Cory Gardner's loss to Democrat John Hickenlooper, a former governor, giving the GOP a decisive statewide blow in 2020. National Republicans have talked up the state as a sleeper pickup opportunity in November if a large wave of midterm voters revolted against President Joe Biden and Democrats beyond the traditional battlegrounds.

O Dea ran as a more mainstream Republican, emphasizing issues like jobs, inflation and national debt on his campaign website. He is well known in the Colorado Legislature for his focus on election issues that perpetuate former President Donald Trump's lies and debunked claims that a second term was stolen from him in 2020. In a video to kick off his campaign, Hanks shot at an electronic copier dressed up as a Dominion voting machine.

Hanks has maintained a strict opposition to abortion without exceptions. Abortion in Colorado is legal under a Democratic bill passed this year to get ahead of the anticipated reversal of Roe v. Wade.

If we were to get conservatives, key word, conservatives, not Republicans - conservatives - in the state house and state Senate, we have the chance to define what Colorado wants, Hanks said when he was asked about abortion last month in a GOP debate. It is not coming from U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and this leftist progressive cabal that does not believe life begins at conception. O Dea supports exceptions in cases of rape, incest and certain health circumstances, and he does not favor abortion bans early in pregnancy.

The country is not 100% pro-life, it is not 100% pro-choice, O Dea said last month at the same debate. That is where I am. Like several other Republicans seeking high office this year, Hanks has acknowledged participating in a Jan. 6 rally that preceded the deadly 2021 attack on the Capitol, aimed at disrupting the certification of Biden's Electoral College victory over Trump. Hanks wrote about his experiences on the day, drawing a distinction between the protest he joined and the violent breach of the Capitol, which he has said he did not enter.

O Dea accepted the results of the last presidential election.

He told Colorado Public Radio that I ve been consistent with my message. Biden is a lousy president. I am not looking backwards at what happened. Working Americans here in Colorado, and across the country, are looking forward. We are making sure we get control over this inflation. It is reducing the price of gas. Bennet, like Hickenlooper, started the general election as the favorite, as he started with an unsuccessful presidential campaign in 2020. The seat is rated as Democratic by the Cook Political Report.