November 09, 2021 01:40 PM UTC

Nope, Try Again

• 5 Comments
• by: Colorado Pols

As we wrote in this space a few weeks ago, Colorado Republican candidates still can’t figure out how to talk about the “Big Lie” with a straightforward answer that actually addresses the central question within the question about the 2020 Presidential election: Was the 2020 Presidential election fair and accurate, or was it “stolen” from former President Donald Trump?

Some Republican candidates have started responding to this question by saying that they think the election in Colorado was fine, but it might have been fraudulent elsewhere. Or they’ll say, “Joe Biden won the election,” which is not really an answer at all. As Axios Denver reported today, these very obvious questions (that include very obvious answers) are still of critical importance to voters; Republican gubernatorial candidate Hiedi Heidi Ganahl is still struggling with how to respond:

The topics are quickly emerging as divergent litmus tests for party primary voters who want to see unyielding loyalty to Trump and independents who disfavor the ex-president…

…In Ganahl’s campaign launch and a recent interview with Axios, she refused to say whether she supports Trump. “I’d rather look forward than backward,” she told us, adding, “Donald Trump is not running; I am.”

She declined to say multiple times whether President Biden was legitimately elected or whether fraud colored the 2020 election because it was a “divisive question.”

And she would not specify whether she considered the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol an “insurrection,” or discuss the events at length.

She offered: “It was a bad day for our country.”

Ugh.

Ganahl had another shot today during an appearance on KNOW radio with Ross Kaminsky. Despite having lots of time to marinate on these topics, she’s still flailing away at pitch after pitch:

KAMINSKY: My question to you is not who won the election in 2020. My question is, what are you doing as a candidate to prepare for being bombarded with questions like that, questions about abortion, questions about January 6, and all of the gotcha questions …some fraction of which might be legit questions, but some aren’t.

GANAHL: Yeah, Ross. I think some days it feels like as Republicans we’re running against the media [awkward laugh]. No disrespect to you — I think you do a great job. But I want to talk about the things that the people of Colorado talk about as I’m out in the field. And that is: Our kids’ education, the mental health crisis, it’s the cost of living, and it’s crime. Those are the problems that the people of Colorado want solved, and they want to know how we’re going to solve those problems, and I’m going to try to keep my focus on.

KAMINSKY: So, if Jared Polis turns to you in a debate and says, ‘Heidi, who won the election in 2020,’ you will say what?

GANAHL: Joe Biden is our President and let’s do all we can to change that in 2024.

Nope!

You could argue as to what degree this response might be better or worse than how Ganahl handled these questions in August, but she’s not being graded on a sliding scale here. If you’re not talking about the legitimacy of the 2020 election, you’re doing it wrong.

If Ganahl — or any Colorado Republican candidate — wants to stop these questions, all they need to do is to provide a straightforward response about whether the 2020 election was legitimate. Refusing to answer is disqualifying for a candidate seeking public office in 2022.

Repeatedly refusing to answer the question is, well, repeatedly disqualifying.