Joe O’Dea, a Republican Senate nominee in Colorado, is running as far away from the GOP as he can in a new television advertisement airing statewide.
“Everyone in Washington votes the party line. Joe won’t. He doesn’t care about partisanship. He’ll represent Colorado,” a voter says, looking straight at the camera. That’s followed by O’Dea, who closes the 30-second biography spot by declaring: “I’m not focused on political parties. I’ll do what’s right for our country.”
In other words, even with President Joe Biden’s job approval ratings cratering and the GOP projected to make big gains in the midterm elections, running as a Republican in deep-blue Colorado is an uphill battle.
At the same time, the ad from the O’Dea campaign demonstrates why Democrats are concerned about incumbent Sen. Michael Bennet (D-CO).
O’Dea’s independent message and appealing, blue-collar image — the construction company chief executive officer is mounting his first bid for public office — is exactly the sort of approach that could make a Republican dangerous in the general election in a cycle in which Democrats, broadly, are on their heels.
It's no wonder Democrats meddled in the Colorado GOP Senate primary on behalf of Ron Hanks, the candidate aligned with former President Donald Trump.
Hanks, ultimately defeated by O’Dea, was at the United States Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and has been a promoter of Trump’s unsupported claims that the 2020 presidential election was stolen.
“Joe O’Dea is a work horse who won’t be controlled by a political party,” O’Dea campaign manager Zack Roday said in a statement. “Michael Bennet is Joe Biden’s senator who does bipartisanship like he does fly fishing — only every once in a while during an election season.”
Roday was referring to a recent Bennet campaign advertisement in which the senator is seen fly-fishing. Axiosreported Bennet obtained a one-day fishing license for the purpose of filming the spot.
Bennet is no stranger to tough elections. He won his first Senate campaign in 2010, a Republican wave year.
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