Media outlets have labeled Lori Saine, a Republican running to represent Colorado’s new congressional district, a “conservative firebrand,” an epithet that she seemed to embrace during an appearance on a conservative podcast earlier this month.
“All the newspapers, The Denver Post in particular, acknowledged that I am a conservative firebrand,” Saine said on The Chuck & Julie Show. “Fantastic! That’s exactly what I want people to know about me.”
During the interview, Saine flaunted her record of repeated media controversy.
“I kind of jokingly say, ‘You should look and see who the media hates the most, and that’s probably the person you want to vote for,’” she said. “Because the media is really kind of a shadow government now, that really is helping the socialist-communist party.”
“The Chuck & Julie Show” is a political podcast hosted by Colorado GOP executive committee member Chuck Bonniwell, as well as former Fox 31 reporter Julie Hayden, who is also Bonniwell’s wife. The couple began hosting the podcast last year after KNUS radio canceled the show in late 2019.
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Lori Saine served as a Colorado state legislator from 2013 to 2020, as well as being elected as a Weld County Commissioner in 2020. Her political career has been fraught with controversy: in 2019, she claimed that during Reconstruction, “whites and blacks alike were in nearly equal numbers lynched for the crime of being Republican.”
Shortly following the 2020 election, Saine convened a hearing to investigate election fraud, despite no evidence of fraud.
Saine’s campaign webpage claims that “socialist-communist” policies are being pushed by U.S. President Joe Biden, as well as other prominent Democrats.
Chief among Saine’s “socialist-communist” enemies is state Rep. Yadira Caraveo (D-Thornton), who has also announced her candidacy for the new congressional seat, awarded to Colorado after the 2020 Census.
“[I also want people to know] that I’m targeting Yadira Caraveo, who’s probably one of the most left-wing dangerous socialist-communist legislators in the Capitol,” Saine said. “And she is absolutely going to be a squad member, she is absolutely going to throw more government, more taxes down our throat, and that’s exactly the opposite of what people want right now.”
Saine continued, “I am hopeful, Chuck and Julie, that we have a great awakening in so many different ways in this country. And it sounds like it’s catching fire — freedom is catching fire across this land.”
The term “great awakening” is also a fundamental part of the QAnon conspiracy theory. Proponents believe that the great awakening is a climactic moment during which U.S. citizens will “wake up” en masse to the actions of “the cabal,” purported to secretly control the U.S. government. According to the theory, this will be shortly followed by mass arrests of the cabal’s members — usually including prominent Democrats such as Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi.
Bonniwell interviewed Saine on her congressional platform, asking whether she planned to run on the Commitment to Colorado, unveiled by the Colorado GOP in August. The 10-point contract purported a new platform for Colorado Republicans, including affordability and environmental conservation.
Saine, however, seemed to be unaware of the GOP contract.
“Well, I’m not too familiar with what the Commitment to Colorado is,” Saine said. “It sounds not like something I’m going to run on.”
Hayden laughed, before explaining the Commitment to Colorado to Saine: “Kristi Burton Brown had a news conference, she had these 10 commitments. Chuck hates them. I mean, they don’t mean anything. … [You] just never heard of it, which shows how effective they must be.”
Another topic of the interview was campaign finance. According to Bonniwell, establishment conservatives are failing to live up to conservative values.
“All the money in the Republicans … all hate conservatives, all hate conservative values, all hate anyone who stands up for liberty,” Bonniwell said. “And so you’ll be facing opponents who are going to be incredibly well funded by Republicans, in order to go to Washington and be part of the 13 that got the Biden infrastructure bill passed.”
Bonniwell later asked: “Well, how are you going to raise money? That’s always a tough one for a true conservative.”
“No, it’s not,” Saine answered. “Do what you say you’re gonna do, you actually do raise money. I’ve been raising quite a bit. People are very excited to have me in, we raised $25,000 our first day, and every day since has been a pretty large number.”
Ultimately, Saine was hopeful about her chances of winning the Republican primary.
“I think this is the year for Republicans, and I think this is the year for the conservatives,” she said.
Saine did not respond to a request for further comment. This article will be updated with any response received.
View the full interview here (starts at 31:00).
