A linguistic pattern has emerged among Colorado GOP candidates who say our state’s 2020 election was legitimate but refuse to denounce the baseless accusation that the presidential election was stolen by Biden.
Instead of revealing if they think the presidential election was fair, they simply say they can’t “speak” for “other states.”
In multiple interviews, GOP gubernatorial candidate Heidi Ganahl has refused to answer whether she thinks last year’s presidential election was legitimate, instead repeating, “I can’t speak for the election integrity of other states.” She then adds, “But I can speak for Colorado and I would not be running if I did not think I could win here.”
Ganahl dropped the same talking point most recently on KFKA’s morning show Nov. 30: “I can’t speak for the election integrity of other states, but I can speak for our state, and I wouldn’t be running if I didn’t think I could win here.”
Another Republican gubernatorial candidate, former Parker Mayor Greg Lopez, used a similar phrase in an interview this week.
“I can’t speak for other states,” Lopez was quoted as saying. “I don’t know what happened in those other states,” Lopez said. “All I know is what I saw — that everybody saw — with the videos of suitcases coming out from underneath tables, you know, and hearing some of those things. There’s enough out there from different sources and different cameras. The thing that gives me pause for serious concern. Did we, as a nation in every single state, protect the election process integrity? And I think that’s a valid question to be asking. … And who knows if we’ll ever find out what actually occurred? I mean, people are still questioning and debating what happened with the Kennedy assassination, what happened with other major situations, right?”
The first Colorado Republican to use the “other states” line in reference to the presidential election appears to be U.S. Rep. Ken Buck (R-CO).
“It is so important that people have confidence in their election, that people understand that — I can’t speak for other states — in Colorado, we are doing it the right way and we have confidence in our election results,” Buck said in December of 2020. Buck has since indicated some faith in the U.S. election process, but how much is not clear.
RELATED: A List of Colorado Republicans Who Believe the 2020 Election Was Stolen — and Some Who Don’t
U.S. Senate candidate Eli Bremer, a Republican running to unseat Democrat Michael Bennet, has taken a similar stance, withou using the same phrase about other states, saying he “[believes] that in Colorado the results that were reported are correct.” But he has neglected to comment on the national election.
