Democrats are trying to elevate a controversial GOP primary candidate to a House seat being vacated by Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colorado), hoping to flip her in November.
A Democratic-aligned super PAC and Democratic candidate Adam Frisch’s campaign ran ads in the GOP primary for Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District, or praising hardline Republican candidate Ron Hanks as “very conservative” and linking him to former -President Trump, or increasing scrutiny on establishment-backed Jeff Hurd.
The moves come as Democrats view Hanks, an election denier, as the weakest of the candidates heading into November and their best chance of winning a red seat.
“It’s no surprise that Democrats desperately want Ron Hanks to be their nominee because he would be a certain loser to Adam Frisch. I have no doubts,” explained former state Republican Party chairman Dick Wadhams.
Hurd, Hanks and Stephen Varela, a member of the Colorado State Board of Education, are considered the leading contenders among a handful of candidates vying for the Republican nomination in western Colorado’s congressional district. They are running for the seat because Boebert chose to run in a different district this cycle.
Rocky Mountain Values PAC, a liberal group, started showing ads last month using clips of Hanks talking about his stance on immigration, with the ad’s narrator saying that “Ron Hanks and Donald Trump are very conservative.” The ad also notes that both candidates have been endorsed by the Colorado Republican Party.
Meanwhile, Frisch’s campaign more recently ran an ad about Hurdclaiming that the candidate was “hiding”, “dodging Republican debates” and refusing to say his position on various issues such as abortion, the Second Amendment and who he voted for in recent election cycles.
The strategy is apparently to elevate Hanks in the primaries and make him look like the most attractive conservative candidate, while hurting Hurd’s chances. Democrats hope Hanks’ controversial stances on issues such as the 2020 election, which he claims were stolen, will turn off moderate Republicans and unaffiliated voters in November.
This led the Congressional Leadership Fund (CLF), a super PAC aligned with the Republican Party leadership, to display a last-minute ad on his own hitting Hanks.
“Why are liberals supporting Ron Hanks? They know they can count on him,” says the narrator of the 30-second ad, referring to ads from the Democrat-aligned super PAC. The ad claims Hanks had an “anti-gun agenda” and “abandoned Trump.”
It’s an approach Democrats have used in the past, both in Colorado and elsewhere in the country. Democrats sought to elevate Hanks during the 2022 Colorado Senate Republican primary, when he was running against front-runner Joe O’Dea.
O’Dea went on to win the Republican Party primary, later losing to Senator Michael Bennet (D-Colorado) in the general election. However, Hanks notably won the 3rd Congressional District during the primaries.
Zack Roday, a partner at Ascent who managed O’Dea’s Senate campaign, said the tactic forced them to change their advertising in the final stretch of the Republican primary.
“This is the only play for CLF and others,” Roday said.
“With Joe O’Dea in 2022, we increased our spending and instead of, unfortunately, making a stark contrast to Michael Bennet in the final days of the June primaries, we had to make a contrast to Ron Hanks,” he added.
Republicans have argued that it is hypocritical for the Democratic Party to call itself “pro-democracy” while elevating someone who disputes the results of the 2020 election and attended Trump’s rally in Washington, D.C., on the day of the Capitol riot.
Still, some members of the Republican Party have mixed opinions about whether that could jeopardize the seat for them in November.
“I think it’s a very dirty tactic,” said Jon Kelly, chairman of the Pitkin County Republican Party. “I think it really undermines any of the Democrats’ claims…when Democrats claim that certain candidates are extremists.”
Pueblo County Republican Party Chair Michelle Gray, who like other county GOP chairs remains neutral in the primary, expressed concern that Democratic involvement in the Republican primary could hurt the GOP’s chances of keeping the seat in November.
“If a voter here in Pueblo had a candidate in mind and changed their mind based on these Democratic pamphlets that are being put out, yes … I believe that could affect the outcome of the race,” she said.
Both the super PAC and Frisch’s campaign advocated intervening in the Republican primary.
Amber Miller, spokeswoman for the Rocky Mountain Values PAC, said the super PAC got involved this cycle to clarify Republican picks in the district.
Rocky Mountain Values PAC “is run by Coloradans, who are very focused on defeating extreme Colorado Republicans, right, and ensuring that voters in [the 3rd Congressional District] we know the truth about who the two leading Republican candidates are for this open congressional seat,” she said.
She noted that it was important for them to convey where the candidates stood on the issues or whether they refused to say.
Frisch’s campaign, however, explained that it got involved in the Republican primary as a way to combat the attacks Frisch was receiving from both candidates.
“There are two Republican candidates who can win the Republican primary,” Frisch campaign manager Camilo Vilaseca said in a statement. “Ron Hanks is endorsed by the Republican Party and is very extremist. Jeff Hurd is funded by out-of-state corporate interests, but continues to hide what he believes. I’m tired of Adam taking pictures of the two of them. As far as I’m concerned, the general elections have already begun.”
Vilaseca said the ads demonstrate why both GOP candidates “are the wrong choice” for Colorado’s 3rd District.
“Regardless of Tuesday’s result, it is crucial that CD-3 voters know who they are voting for,” she added.
The congressional district, which includes the Western Slope and nearly half the state, has voted Republican in recent years. Before that, it oscillated between Democrats and Republicans. Trump won the district in 2020 by 8 points.
Although the seat is favorable to Republicans, the party cannot take it for granted. The nonpartisan election pollster Cook Political Report classifies the seat as “lean Republican.”
Asked about some of the accusations in the super PAC’s announcement regarding its participation in debates and its coverage of issues, Hurd argued that “the fact that [Democrats are] engaged in the primaries and repeating some of the talking points that other Republicans in the primaries are making, it just shows they are nervous about me in the general election.”
“I was the one who had the political courage to enter the race when the odds seemed long,” he added. “And so I don’t really get a lot of credit from other competitors telling me what events I should be in and what events I shouldn’t be in, seeing as there are dozens and dozens of events that I’ve been a part of well before they arrived. on the run.”
Valera, a member of the Colorado State Board of Education, also criticized Democratic interference, explaining that he left the Democratic Party before becoming a Republican because of “a lot of these types of dirty tactics and policies.”
Hanks suggested he had no problem with Rocky Mountain Values running ads under his name.
“I’m glad they’re not lying about me. Now the Republicans, on the other hand, are lying about me. Isn’t that an ironic change? Hanks said, alluding to the CLF announcement.
Hanks downplayed Republican concern about his candidacy. He stated that he attended the rally in Washington, D.C., on January 6, 2021, and did not believe that President Biden had won the last election.
With little public polling conducted during the race, it is unclear to what extent the announcements will impact either candidate. Some Republicans, like Dolores County Republican Party Chairman John Funk, say they see no problem with the law, saying it is protected by the First Amendment.
But Funk worries that voters may not be savvy enough to understand the ads.
“The concern is that we have an electorate that doesn’t know the facts,” Funk said.
This story originally appeared on thehill.com read the full story
