Colorado GOP Gov Candidates Jumpstart a Chaotic Primary with Debate Filled with Conspiracy Theories and Far-Right Talking Points

Unsurprisingly, Colorado’s messy GOP primary race for governor kicked off with a messy debate, where a crowded field of fringe candidates pushed their favorite right-wing talking points and conspiracy theories.

On the anniversary of the January 6th, a deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol sparked by the GOP’s Big Lie that the election was stolen, candidates like Greg Lopez continued to push election fraud conspiracies, saying “we still don’t know” and “I don’t know if we’ll ever know” if the election was stolen. Lopez then went on to compare knowing if the election was stolen to knowing who killed John F. Kennedy.

Fellow candidate Danielle Neuschwanger continued to peddle conspiracy theories and blatant racism, calling COVID-19 the “China virus” that “escaped the Wuhan lab.” Neuschwanger also indicated that the only way to work with Democrats is to treat them like hostages.

Missing from the stage was Heidi Ganahl. Her absence means Coloradans still don’t have answers to where she stands on COVID, education, public safety, and whether she thinks the election was stolen. The debate provided the rest of the field a prime opportunity to edge Ganahl out of the race, but they were too busy spouting out inflammatory comments to get applause lines to use it.

“In their first opportunity to tell Coloradans why they’re running for governor, each and every candidate in the GOP field failed miserably to outline how they’d address the needs of Coloradans,” said DGA Senior Communications Advisor Christina Amestoy. “Instead of using facts, the field spouted off incendiary applause lines to rile up their base. With the lies, conspiracies, and extremism, last night’s debate looked like a page pulled from Donald Trump’s playbook — a playbook that is flat-out wrong for Colorado.”