A broad coalition of progressive organizations vowed today to maintain pressure on U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner (R-CO) to face constituents at a town hall meeting while Gardner is in Colorado during the current two-week Congressional recess.
In a joint news conference, the groups also called on Gardner to reject President Donald Trump’s proposed budget cuts to an array of federal programs relating to the environment, education, labor, health, and more.
“By cutting agencies and programs that working families rely on, while calling for increases in military spending, President Trump is clearly showing that his populist economic leanings were an election sham,” said Andy Jacob, Political Director for SEIU Local 105, which represents 7,000 families in the metro area. “We ask President Trump to reject this budget and stand with working families.”
Other speakers also called on Gardner to fight Trump’s proposed cuts.
“A 31 percent cut in the EPA sends a clear signal to the people of this state that the priorities of this administration are not to protect families and their health,” said Maria Handley, Generation Latino, which focuses on issues facing young Latinos in Colorado. “We all deserve better. Latinos, too.”
“Here we are again,” said ProgressNow Colorado political director Alan Franklin. “A congressional recess. Sen. Cory Gardner is back in Colorado but refuses to host an in-person town hall meeting. Coloradans are tired of it, and his approval ratings, lower than even Donald Trump’s in the state, are the proof.”
Groups represented on the conference call, targeting Gardner, included SEIU Local 105, the Colorado AFL-CIO, Colorado Education Association, Conservation Colorado, Colorado Consumer Health Initiative, Mi Familia Vota, Generation Latino, One Colorado, NARAL Pro-Choice Colorado Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountain, and ProgressNow Colorado.
Listen to comments by all the participants on the call here:
