2022 is set to be a year of opportunity for Colorado Republicans. There’s a giant deficit in the Democrats’ performance in Colorado. With over a decade of single-party control at the state level, working-class Coloradans have suffered. They’re ready to try something new.
Republicans are promising better solutions for the future of the state we love in a proposal called the Commitment to Colorado (www.commitment2colorado.com). Our “Big 3” issues are exactly what voters are talking about: making Colorado affordable, prioritizing public safety and expanding educational choice.
On Monday, Republicans gathered at a gas station to highlight the $1.50 increase in price per gallon since November. Families can’t afford to pay $20 more per tank to drive to work and go to school. Democrats tried to distract from inflation by talking about air quality, but they clearly didn’t read the memo.
Conserving our environment is also in the Republican commitment to Colorado. We believe in clean air and clean water. We care about the earth. Our solutions promote healthy, active living. The difference between us and Democrats in this regard is that our environmental solutions don’t require us to stomp down innovation and the industries that built Colorado in the process. Stomping these out is a particular specialty of Colorado Democrats that’s backfiring on them.
Denver’s air quality ranked No. 1 for the worst air in the world last week, highlighting the failure of the Democrat leadership in California to manage forests. Colorado’s Democrat Gov. Jared Polis similarly failed to manage our forests last year. The mudslides closing I-70 illustrate a small piece of the lasting damage.
Colorado has fallen to 30th in education and 34th in cost of living. When a state slips, swing voters ask who’s in charge. The answer: the Democrats. This is a key reason Colorado Republicans are poised for a comeback; it’s time to try something new. It’s time to restore balance. It’s time to elect candidates who will reverse the fees and taxes the Democrats increase every year at the Capitol, despite what voters say at the ballot box.
It’s time to elect candidates who will make safe streets for our families a priority. Defunding and demoralizing the police doesn’t work.
In a period of six hours last weekend, nine people were shot and two killed in Denver. Since early 2020, 150 Aurora police officers have resigned. Republican City Council candidates aren’t skipping Democrat doors this year because voters across the spectrum share our concerns and are ready for a change.
Your political party doesn’t matter when you hear gun shots in your neighborhood at night: you just want someone to keep your family safe. Your political party doesn’t matter when you’re getting priced out of the life you choose in the state you love: you just want someone to fight for small-business owners, innovation, and a lower cost of living.
And your political party doesn’t matter when your kids are kept out of school or when a record number of their friends are failing in math and reading. You just want someone to provide more educational options for children; a system that works for your family instead of against you.
These are the solutions voters are asking for, and it’s what Colorado Republicans have promised to deliver in our Commitment to Colorado. Already, the commitment is flipping voters back to the Republican Party because they see better solutions for our future and principled leadership they can trust.
As Republicans, we will create more options in education. We will work for safe streets for all our families. And we will decrease prices and increase hope. This is how Republicans will have a historic comeback in 2022.
Counter: Morgan Carroll
Colorado has trended blue over the past few election cycles because of the simple fact that Democrats care about solving problems and Democrats deliver. Whether it’s full-day kindergarten for Colorado kids, saving people money on health care, making our tax code fairer for working people, combating climate change by conserving Colorado’s public lands and environment, or supporting small businesses and entrepreneurs, Colorado voters have seen for themselves that when they elect Democrats, they get results for the people.
Last year, when our country first faced the unprecedented public health crisis of COVID-19, Colorado Democrats like Gov. Jared Polis and leaders in the General Assembly sprang into action. In the absence of leadership at the federal level, where we saw former President Donald Trump tell the states that we were on our own, it was Democrats that stepped up to keep our communities safe from this deadly virus while also providing relief for families and small businesses.
Thanks to President Joe Biden and Colorado’s congressional Democrats, Congress delivered to revitalize our economy through the incredibly popular and successful American Rescue Plan.
I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the crucial role Colorado’s Sen. Michael Bennet had to play in that legislation. Thanks to Sen. Bennet, who’s been fighting for an expanded child tax credit since 2015, struggling families are seeing a tax cut while also seeing money in their pocket to take care of their kids through the American Rescue Plan.
Simply put, when our state and our country has needed leadership, Colorado Democrats have stepped up and delivered for the people.
But where have Colorado Republicans been? When they weren’t blocking COVID relief or voting no on the American Rescue Plan, they were pushing tax cuts for the rich, waging their culture war, introducing bills to make it harder for Coloradans to vote, fighting to take money out of public schools for voucher programs, or worse yet, being anti-democracy by spreading Trump’s ‘Big Lie’, trying to undermine elections.
When given the opportunity by local media outlets, the Colorado Republican Party chair has repeatedly refused to condemn Trump’s election conspiracies. Colorado Republicans have even taken a page out of Trump’s playbook by starting an organized effort to close their primary elections so only party insiders can decide who their nominees will be — going against the will of voters who wanted unaffiliated voters to be involved in the process. Talk about anti-democracy.
Why aren’t Colorado Republicans poised for a comeback? Simply put, they’re more interested in holding power than doing right by the people and they haven’t learned from their mistakes.
Instead of returning to their traditional values, Republicans have doubled down on divisive rhetoric and policies, obstruction, disinformation, and punishing common-sense Republicans like Liz Cheney and Cole Wist — all while digging up failed, tone-deaf talking points that prioritize the wealthy and big business and ignore Colorado working families.
As if to make our point for us, Colorado Republicans recently rolled out their 2022 messaging agenda at a gas station. On a day when the effects of climate change could literally be felt through poor air quality and record high temperatures, Colorado Republicans made zero mention of climate change in their prepared remarks. By choosing to unveil their supposed platform next to a dinosaur mascot at a gas station, they told us all we need to know.
Given Democrats’ record of delivering for Colorado families through cutting health care costs, expanding access to affordable housing, supporting small businesses, and protecting our natural environment, I believe Colorado voters will see a clear contrast, and will vote to leave the fractured, anti-democracy Colorado Republican Party in the past in 2022.
Kristi Burton Brown is the chairperson of the Colorado Republican Party and a constitutional law attorney. Morgan Carroll is the chairperson of the Colorado Democratic Party and is a former Colorado Senate president.
This content was originally published here.
