In a tweet on Oct. 8, 2016, Senator Cory Gardener wrote, “I cannot and will not support someone who brags about degrading and assaulting women.” He urged that that Trump should “step aside, and allow Mike Pence to be the Republican party’s nominee. If he fails to do so, I [Gardner] will not vote for Hillary Clinton but will instead write-in my vote for Mike Pence.”
Since then, his positions have changed. It is a stark contrast to his statement in Jan. 2019 to the conservative news site the Independent Journal Review. In it, he endorsed the president for reelection, saying, “I know what Kamala Harris and I know what Bernie Sanders will do to Colorado, and that’s why I’ll be supporting the president.”
On Feb. 5, 2020, Senator Gardener stood before the Senate and replied to the clerk “not guilty” for both articles of impeachment. During his Senate floor speech and subsequent media interviews regarding his decision, he consistently dodged questions and repeated the same talking points like in his interview with Colorado Public Radio in which he said, “The question before the Senate in the impeachment trial was whether or not the president has the ability to investigate how taxpayer dollars are being spent and that is not something, a policy difference cannot be used for grounds of impeachment.”
These exchanges were encapsulated by Joe St. George of FOX 31’s interview with Senator Gardener in which he asked the senator why he was avoiding hosting a public town hall. Senator Gardener talked over St. George and claimed that a June speaking engagement in Fort Morgan qualified as a town hall.
According to an analysis by FiveThirtyEight, Senator Gardner has voted in line with the president’s position on legislation 89.5% of the time. He has voted in line with the Republican president despite the fact that he represents a state that went for Hillary Clinton in 2016 with 48.2% of the vote and a state where, in 2018, Democrats won all across the state including by flipping House District 6.
Senator Gardner is widely considered one of the most vulnerable senators up for reelection this November. The senator’s overall favorability rating is at 34 percent. Among Democrats, his approval rating is 8 percent and among independents, it is 31 percent. In a state that is only 28 percent Republican, he will need to attract those Democrat and Independent voters to win reelection. Gardner’s close relationship with the president is especially trying in Colorado, in which, according to a recent poll by market research company Morning Consult, 53 percent of voters disapproved of the president.
To further his reelection efforts, Senator Gardner is headlining a rally with President Trump in Colorado Springs on Feb. 20. Voters will find out if Garner’s close relationship with the president proves to be an advantage or a disadvantage on Nov. 3.
