All of the eight Colorado Republican candidates for U.S. Senate who participated in the 9News debate Tuesday evening will support Donald Trump if he wins the party’s presidential nomination this year, and two of the candidates would serve in the chamber as rare-species, pro-choice Republican members.

Those were two of the main takeaways pundits and political campaigns flogged in the immediate aftermath of the breakneck hour-long event held in Denver. The debate featured the top eight of nearly a dozen official candidates running to replace incumbent Democrat Michael Bennet.

“I’m pro-life, but I would not impose my beliefs on others. Women should have the right to choose,” said El Paso County Commissioner Peg Littleton. “And I should know. I’m the only woman up here,” she added with a smile.

“I believe in the sanctity of life,” said former Colorado State University Athletic Director Jack Graham, a registered Democrat up until last year. “But I also believe in defending individual freedoms and liberties.”

He also said he supports Planned Parenthood and praised the organization for “delivering some very good services,” including life-saving education on and treatment for sexually transmitted diseases.

It was a stunning stretch of state politics broadcast video.

Although Colorado is a solidly pro-choice state, Republican elected officials are perhaps even more solidly pro-life. So it isn’t uncommon to see Republicans running for statewide offices soft-pedal their views on abortion in the general election season. But it’s the opposite during the primary season, especially in a packed field where relatively small bands of conservative activist voters can make or break a candidacy.

Indeed, Tuesday’s debate comes just four days before the state party assembly is scheduled to be held in Colorado Springs, where some 6,000 party faithful will gather to choose 27 of Colorado’s 34 delegates to the Republican National Convention in Cleveland this July and also vote for candidates in the U.S. Senate race.

Graham’s views on abortion and Planned Parenthood won’t be popular among the assembly crowd. But he may be temporarily inoculated from conservative backlash because he is one of the four candidates at the debate who has elected to petition directly onto the June 28 primary ballot. He was the first candidate in the race to submit his petition signatures to the secretary of state’s office last week.

Candidates who, like Graham, choose not to go through the assembly voting process have to deliver 10,500 valid signatures of support to the secretary of state’s office from Republican voters, including 1,500 from each of the state’s seven congressional districts.

Littleton, on the other hand, may have buried her candidacy. She will be stumping for votes Saturday at the assembly, where she needs to win 30 percent delegate support against at least seven rival candidates. Almost all of those candidates are hardline social conservatives, including frontrunner state Sen. Tim Neville, a staunch gun-rights advocate who the Colorado Springs Gazette this week argued is too radical to win in the general election.

In the debate, Neville stayed above the fray. He wore a cheshire cat’s grin throughout and delivered brief casual responses to questions.

When moderator Kyle Clark pressed him to explain why he felt the need to blast a copy of the Gazette editorial full of holes with a semi-automatic rifle at a shooting range — an undertaking Neville documented for his Twitter followers — the senator smiled.

“I thought it added a light touch, a way to prove the value of the Second Amendment,” he said. “Among all of the candidates on this stage, I’ve proved my electability. I won my Senate seat in a competitive district.”

In his closing remarks, Neville added that he had defeated “an entrenched Democrat.”

Party establishment favorite Jon Keyser, a former state representative and Air Force intelligence officer who was tapped for counter-terrorism missions and won a bronze star, also did well Tuesday night.

He blasted rival candidate Robert Blaha, a Colorado Springs business leader and former candidate for Congress who made headlines recently for knocking 34-year-old Keyser as a “kid” perhaps not properly prepared to navigate the legislative levers of the Senate.

“When you discount my service, you discount the service of all the men and women who have served in the military,” Keyser said. “While you were writing books about leadership, I was being a leader.”

Former Aurora City Council member Ryan Frazier, a Navy veteran and sometime political consultant for 9News, seemed best suited to the debate format. He spoke in paragraphs that moved beyond talking points.

On how to fight the threat posed by the Islamic State, he said the U.S. should start by building a coalition of partners and then strike strategically to weaken the group’s identity and image abroad.

“We need to take territory,” he said. “You take territory and eliminate the (self-proclaimed ISIS) caliphate.”

He also pushed back against the assertion made by presidential candidate Ted Cruz that the government should “secure and patrol” muslim neighborhoods in the United States.

“I don’t agree,” he said. “We must be vigilant, but we celebrate diversity. Whether the nominee is Donald Trump or Ted Cruz, I’m not going to be looking to the president to lead. I’m going to lead myself.”

Frazier said he agreed with former presidential candidate U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, who argued that the government had overreached in its counter-terrorism surveillance programs.

“I believe in greater accountability and oversight of the federal government,” Frazier said. “I believe we have to protect our civil liberties. It’s our role in the Senate to serve as a check and balance.”

On immigration, Frazier said he was against mass deportation and sounded like he might even support a path to citizenship for undocumented residents.

“Let’s enforce our laws. Let’s start with securing our borders,” he said. “Let’s fix our visa system for people who want to work here… Let them pay back-taxes.”

Two of the candidates — Graham and Jerry Natividad, a successful business owner who has worked in Republican politics for decades — argued that Senate Republicans, including Colorado’s junior Senator Cory Gardner, were making a mistake in refusing to hold hearings for Obama Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland.

“We’re picking a fight we’ve already won,” said Graham. “We have the majority in the Senate. We don’t have to confirm any nominee … To refuse to hold hearings is obstructionist. It’s bad judgment.”

“I agree with Jack,” said Natividad. “Go through the process. Vote the nomination up or down. Let’s not be obstructionist.”

El Paso County Commissioner Darryl Glenn struggled in debate but his obvious passion might suit the assembly stage better than the debate stage. He will be seeking votes Saturday in Colorado Springs alongside Littleton, Natividad and Neville.

It may be weeks yet until the secretary of state finishes vetting petition signatures submitted by the other candidates.

— john@coloradostatesman.com