Denver, CO — In case you missed it, Republican U.S. Senate nominee Joe O’Dea was discussed by LA Times columnist Mark Z. Barabak who analyzed the risk Democrats face in the U.S. Senate race in Colorado.
Read the full article here. See the highlights below:
State of the Race:
Democrat Michael Bennet, the state’s amiable U.S. senator, should be waltzing to reelection … But strategists on both sides say the race is far from over, even if it leans Bennet’s direction.
Democrat Meddling
Democrats did their best to put the Senate race out of Republican reach. The party and its allies spent millions in the primary promoting GOP state [Rep.] Ron Hanks ... in hopes of landing him as Bennet’s opponent.
The strategy, which worked elsewhere, fell flat in Colorado.
Instead, Republicans chose Joe O’Dea, 60, a fourth-generation Coloradan who got rich building a construction company and calls himself “a Republican Joe Manchin” who is willing to “work with reasonable people on both sides of the aisle.”
“I’ll vote my conscience, I’ll make tough choices, I’ll ruffle some feathers,” he said after winning the primary. “No political party will own me.”
Joe O'Dea
O’Dea rejects much of what has become GOP orthodoxy. He dismisses Trump’s lie about the 2020 election being stolen, opposes repeal of the Affordable Care Act and says he supports abortion rights “early in the pregnancy” and later in cases involving rape, incest or to save a woman’s life.
Like most Republicans, he would prefer to campaign against Biden and the scourges of crime and inflation, which have cratered the president’s approval rating here in Colorado as elsewhere.
That’s the weight hanging around Bennet’s neck.
Michael Bennet
If the 57-year-old senator were summed up in a word, it would be inoffensive; even political opponents say Bennet’s a nice guy. Another word would be unexceptional.
...
But he also hasn’t racked up any huge legislative victories. He ran a forgettable 2020 campaign for president and unlike some previous Colorado senators, hasn’t carved much of a national reputation.
Learn more about O'Dea's campaign here.
Original source can be found here
