As part of our weekly roundup of articles about political extremism in Colorado, the Colorado Times Recorder is featuring Ari Armstrong’s write-up on Jared Polis’s support for Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s nomination lead the Department of Health and Human Services — despite Kennedy’s history of promoting vaccine conspiracy theories. On the docket this week, we have Erik Maulbetsch’s reporting on Dave Williams appearing at a fundraiser with a trio who continue to deny the results of the 2020 election and Logan Davis’s reflection on the Christian Nationalist background of Trump’s nominee to lead the Department of Defense. Alslo included is Westword’s Hannah Metzger on Rep. Brianna Titone, an openly transgender lawmaker, who says she had to leave her name off a bill supporting same-sex marriage to get Republican support in the state Senate.
Polis, RFK, and Health-Related Conspiracy Mongering
Colorado Governor Jared Polis raised eyebrows this week with his praise of Trump’s nominee to lead the Department of Health and Human Services. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Kennedy, who ran an independent campaign for the presidency before he ultimately endorsed Trump, is a well-documented vaccine skeptic. Kennedy has promoted anti-vaccine propaganda in places like Samoa prompting a decrease in vaccine use that led to a deadly measles epidemic in the country.
Colorado GOP Chair Joining Election Deniers for Party Fundraiser
Colorado GOP Chair Dave Williams continues his streak of election denialism as he headlined an event this week with three other election conspiracists, including podcaster Joe Oltmann.
Pete Hegseth and I Know the Same Christian Nationalists
President-elect Donald Trump has nominated Pete Hegseth, a FOX News host, to lead the Department of Defense. Hegseth has links to ultra-conservative Christian organizations and has espoused Christian nationalist beliefs. Logan Davis, a columnist at Colorado Times Recorder, grew up in the same Nashville neighborhoods and in the same Calvinist communities as Hegseth and has written about the culture of Christian nationalism within these communities.
Westword: Trans Colorado Legislator Says She Had to Leave Her Name Off Gay Marriage Bill to Get Republican Support
Amendment J, which removed a definition of marriage as only being between a man and woman from Colorado’s constitution, overwhelmingly passed this year, but according to one of the legislators who worked on that initiative, it almost didn’t make it on the ballot. Brianna Titone (D-Arvada), Colorado’s first openly transgender state legislator, says that some Republicans in the Colorado State Senate wouldn’t vote for the bill unless Titone took her name off the amendment as a primary sponsor. Although the Senate minority leader denies this, Titone’s statement has been backed up by other state senators and legislators.
