The GOP Eyes a Western Comeback

Big-name Republicans are trying to mount a rally in Joe O’Dea’s Colorado Senate bid.

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Joe O’Dea. (Photo by RJ Sangosti/MediaNews Group/Denver Post/ Getty Images.)

On Friday Mitch McConnell made good on a midsummer promise to boost moderate Republican Joe O’Dea in his bid for Senate. 

A McConnell-aligned super PAC’s modest contribution and campaign trail help from high-profile Republicans don’t guarantee O’Dea will best Democrat incumbent Michael Bennet. But the Senate majority leader’s involvement in the race signals national Republicans aren’t sleeping on Colorado as a potential pickup opportunity with a candidate who disavows former President Donald Trump and styles himself a Republican Joe Manchin.

The Senate Leadership Fund (SLF) poured $1.25 million on Friday into the American Policy Fund, another super PAC that has backed O’Dea since the primary. The contribution is the first major investment from national Republicans in the Colorado Senate race, despite repeated assurances from Senate GOP leaders that the cavalry would come to O’Dea’s aid this cycle.

 “I just want to assure everybody, we’re going to be all-in in Colorado,” McConnell reportedly told attendees at a D.C. fundraiser for O’Dea in July, according to Axios. “I wanted to dispel any notion that you may have that we’re not going to play in Colorado.”

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  1. Avatar photo
    David Hendrickson

    Joe O'Dea is perhaps the one Republican candidate I'm most excited about amongst potential battleground states. It's not that I'm moderate, I'm just very unimpressed by the quality of the other Republican candidates running in more competitive states than his, aside from Marco Rubio perhaps. I have some disagreements with Ted Budd as one of the Republicans who voted to contest the results of the 2020 election, but I think he's been an acceptable candidate.

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  2. Andrew W.

    As a Colorado voter, if I were in a time machine I would probably vote for O'Dea. He wants to style himself as the "Kyrsten Sinema" of Colorado--not beholden to a party. That's an idea that appeals to me especially give our current "independent mindset" senators who cast party line votes 97% of the time. But I just can't trust O'Dea on that. At the end of the day, I presume that he would be a vote for the GOP on some all sorts of crazy MAGA scams. He's done nothing to disabuse me of that concern.

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    1. Leonidas

      bennett’s voting record certainly does not indicate that he has any kind of independent streak that you are hoping for. he has voted with the democrats 98% of the time during his tenure in the senate. so at least you know what you’re getting.

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    DougAz

    Just to be clear. One hopes you do not include the depraved abominable Arizona Republicans in this analysis. They have no decency or morals.

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  4. Avatar photo
    CJ

    In late August I had the chance to hear from and interact with Joe O'Dea, Michael Bennet, and their gubernatorial counterparts Jared Polis and Heidi Ganahl (it was quite the event).

    Joe O'Dea is a snoozefest. That might sound like a winning approach in a "purple" state, and I certainly prefer it to Ganahl's outspoken lunacy, but Bennet seems reasonably well-respected (I saw signs for him even driving through rural areas) and I really doubt O'Dea has pulled much from his support base, and likely just pissed off hard-right nutters by disavowing Trump (which was the right thing to do IMHO).

    Most of those hard-right people will be going to the polls anyway and will vote for O'Dea regardless, but there's a pile of new people in Colorado every day and most of them are (like me!) moving to get away from increasingly ludicrous and authoritarian GOP-controlled governments in places like Florida. I've seen more temporary tags in the three months since I've moved to Colorado than I did in the 8 years I lived in Florida.

    I think if there's a state where the national conversation about abortion is going to really kill the GOP, it's places like this where people don't fear a state-level ban on abortion but DO fear that a GOP-controlled Congress would implement one, regardless of how moderate candidates pledge to be.

    And given the current state of the national GOP, I'm sure as hell not voting for Joe O'Dea.
    1) I have nothing against Michael Bennet at all, and
    2) I don't care how well McConnell resists Trump or controls his caucus; GOP control of the Senate will come with expectations from the party's increasingly psychotic primary base that I'm frightened that McConnell will have little choice but to acquiesce to.

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    The History Nerd

    His ability to make this close and how tight the races are in swing states that, considering the environment, might've been blowouts, shows that candidate recruitment still matter. Something both parties need to relearn is that when you're trying to win a Senate or House seat, you're not running a national race. It isn't important if your candidate fits the national mood of your party, it is has to be within the political center of gravity for that state or district.

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    1. Ryan Winger

      100% agree. The problem for Republicans here in CO is that the political center of gravity is generally too far from the center of gravity in the Republican Party, so there aren't plausible Republican candidates who could both win the nomination and win statewide in November. Republicans here need to do some serious self-reflecting...Given the past decade it's amazing that they haven't done so already.

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    Mark B

    Here in the south denver suburbs area I saw my first O’Dea add this week. I don’t think most of my coworkers know who he is.

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    1. Benprytherch

      Love how all the Colorado Dispatchers are announcing themselves here! I'm in Fort Collins, and I've had the same impression as everyone else... fewer ads, fewer mailers, fewer yard signs. I haven't noticed Bennett ads being more common than O'Dea ads, but I'm sure the proportions differ across media.

      Bennett's ads are all "O'Dea is lying when he says he doesn't want to outlaw abortion". O'Dea's are the usual "I'm not a Washington guy", along with "also I'm not some MAGA wacko" and "let me remind you about crime and inflation".

      This state has turned blue enough that I doubt it'll be close. We had a few glorious purple years but I suspect those are over when it comes to who we send to the Senate and who gets our electoral votes.

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    2. Avatar photo
      Kommisar89

      Down here in the 'Springs it's been a pretty quiet election cycle all the way around. You'd normally have expected to at least see lots of signs on the sides of the roads and such but there really isn't much. Maybe I haven't been paying attention but all that I've seen on TV so far are attack ads against O'Dea. I forget the exact numbers but out of a population of 6 million I think close to 4 million live in the Denver and Boulder metro areas which doesn't bode well for O'Dea or any other conservative candidate. Colorado has a lot of Independents like myself but it seems like many of those lean center-left.

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      1. Leonidas

        reporting from boulder: i've seen exactly zero o'dea lawn signs, which shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone. although i haven't that many bennett signs either, i must say. i've have seen quite a few in o'dea signs in ouray county, but there are more people within a stone's throw of my home in boulder than in all of ouray county.

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    3. Bruscar75

      I agree. I've seen a handful of O'Dea ads, but vastly more Bennett ads. I live and work in northern Colorado and have actually seen a few O'Dea signs as I drive around, although not many. However, I haven't seen any Bennett signs, which is sort of notable. I don't get the sense that Bennett has a lot of strong support, so there probably was an opportunity for O'Dea to up his profile months ago. But now it feels like too little to late.

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      1. Avatar photo
        Mark B

        Especially with ballots going out next week.

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