GOP Colorado governor hopeful puts election denier on ticket
Jul 18, 2022, 3:00 AM | Updated: 3:08 pm
Heidi Ganahl celebrates during a watch party celebrating her Republican primary win for gubernatorial candidacy on Tuesday, June 28, 2022 in Sedalia, Colo. (AAron Ontiveroz/The Denver Post via AP)
(AAron Ontiveroz/The Denver Post via AP)
DENVER (AP) — Colorado’s Republican nominee for governor, Heidi Ganahl, on Monday selected as her running mate a Navy veteran who has claimed President Joe Biden was not legitimately elected president in 2020.
Danny Moore lost a previous position due to his stance on the presidential election. His fellow commissioners on the state’s independent congressional redistricting commission voted him out of his chairmanship role last year after Facebook posts surfaced in which he claimed Biden was “elected by the Democrat steal.”
Moore’s language echoed false claims by President Donald Trump and his supporters that mass voter fraud threw the election to Biden, something Trump’s own Department of Justice said was not true.
Multiple election deniers lost Republican primaries in Colorado last month, including Greg Lopez, a former suburban Denver mayor who challenged Ganahl for the nomination for governor. A member of the Colorado University Board of Regents, Ganahl has not previously emphasized election denial during her campaign, refusing to answer questions about whether Biden was legitimately elected and instead focusing on economic and safety issues.
She continued to do so in announcing her selection of Moore as her lieutenant governor candidate.
“Danny is a wonderful addition to our winning team,” Ganahl said in a release. “We share a common vision to lower Colorado’s soaring cost of living, gas prices, crime rates, and a commitment to making our children the priority.”
Election deniers have won Republican primaries to oversee elections in states such as Alabama, New Mexico and Nevada, and a prominent election denier won the party’s nomination to become governor in Pennsylvania, where he would appoint the state’s top election official if he wins in the fall.
In Colorado, the lieutenant governor position is mainly a ceremonial role. That person becomes the chief executive when the governor leaves the state or if the governor becomes incapacitated or dies in office.
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