Heidi Ganahl, who was trounced by Gov. Jared Polis (D-CO) in November’s election, launched her new weekly podcast, “Unleashed,” at Wide Open Saloon in Sedalia on Tuesday. Billed as “exposing what Is REALLY going on behind the curtain in Colorado,” Ganahl’s inaugural episode featured guests Danny Moore, her former running mate, Erin Lee, a “mad mom,” Gregory Carlson, former president of CU’s College Republicans, and Jimmy Sengenberger, a KNUS radio host and Gazette contributor.
Ganahl, a Republican, began the live broadcast by highlighting what she saw as the most pressing issues facing Colorado.
“The crime tsunami,” she said. “The teen suicide issue that is hurting our state so much. High-potency pot and its effect on our kids. The school madness, right Erin? Yes. How out of control spending and regulations are happening at the Capitol right now as we speak, right Brandi Bradley, who’s down there fighting like crazy for us. Obviously, we have more work to do. Crime is soaring. Our kids can’t read or write. They’re in a mental health crisis. Homeless camps are taking over our cities. [Interstate] 70 is a parking lot, so we can’t ski. And gas prices are through the roof, highest in the entire country right here in Colorado. Our state has dramatically changed in the last five years under Jared Polis and people like the destruction so much they voted for more of it.”
Ganahl blamed her nearly 20-point loss to incumbent Polis on a variety of factors.
“Republican turnout was dismal because our voters don’t think the elections are fair,” she said. “It doesn’t help when our slimy secretary of state sends 30,000 illegal immigrants ballot reminders.”
Ganahl also invoked the specter of globalist conspiracy figure George Soros. “Speaking of slimy, Polis and the George Soros group spent $3 million to beat me in the primary by running ads for my Republican opponent,” she claimed. “I had to spend every penny we had raised to fight back against this, which left us bruised and almost broke going into the general election. Well, guess what? That’s exactly what Jared Polis and the Democrats wanted. He then spent another $30 million in the general election with his groups over just four months. That’s what he had to spend against our scrappy $2 million that we had after the primary. The total spending was $33 million on his side with the Soros groups and his money and $3 million or so on our side. Polis bought himself another term.”
It wasn’t just spending, according to Ganahl, but the Democrat’s control of Colorado’s media that sabotaged her election. “You need to understand how it works,” she said. “9 News, The Denver Post, The Colorado Sun, Axios, Colorado Public Radio, The Pueblo Chieftain, The Durango Herald, the Grand Junction Sentinel — all under the thumb of Jared Polis. Did you see much critical about Jared Polis in any of those publications? No. … The media was complicit.”
Ganahl also singled out the Colorado Times Recorder‘s reporter who was present at the event.
Ganahl’s campaign was also thwarted by her own party, she claimed. “A feckless group of power players, consultants, and pundits that have caused us to lose for years here decided that we couldn’t win early on because I was too conservative,” she said. “Danny [Moore] and I were too far-right and we had too many views that aligned with conservative principles, strong principles, that we couldn’t win in Colorado. We were too grassroots for their taste, which is ironic since we were called establishment candidates. So they didn’t help. In fact, they walked away and actively worked against our campaign. Republicans worked against our campaigns. This includes many who ran in the primaries. My opponents bailed on helping us win the general election. Yes. Greg [Lopez] and Danielle [Neuschwanger], we asked them repeatedly to help us and they wouldn’t.”
Moore was surprised by the amount of work it takes to win a statewide political campaign against an incumbent. “I think the lie is that we have this well-oiled machine behind us, that the RNC was behind us, that the party was behind us,” he said. “That all we had to do was come out of the primary and jump into this well-oiled machine. There was no such thing. I was surprised at how much work, volunteers did, the long hours. How we had to go to every single place we went to. We would set up and tear down. We were the labor. I was really surprised at the lack of organization that existed here. I thought there would be more.”
