In a much-anticipated speech Saturday at the Western Conservative Summit in Denver, Daryl Glenn vowed to win two electoral victories this fall that many pundits are already writing off as long shots. He said he would unseat Democratic U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet and win Democratic-leaning swing-state Colorado for Donald Trump.

In conversation with The Colorado Statesman and in the speech he gave to thousands of summit attendees, Glenn said people had underestimated him before and that he was ready to put in the kind of hard work it will take to win one election battleground neighborhood after another and to bring unity to bitter Republicans reeling from the bruising primary season and to members of the larger angry and divided voting public.

Glenn also strove to put to rest buzz that he – Colorado’s black Republican U.S. Senate candidate – had avoided appearing on stage with Trump on Friday at the summit.

Glenn’s campaign staffers quickly cut in to answer questions that touched on why their candidate failed to make it to the long-planned, enormous conservative gathering on the day when Trump and Sarah Palin gave speeches to launch the three-day event – even despite Palin’s request to summit organizers that she appear on stage with Glenn.

“The timing just didn’t work. We weren’t able to get there,” said a Glenn staffer, leaning into a walking conversation.

“Yeah, we literally just got here,” said Glenn, laughing. He made sure to say again for the record that he supports the Trump candidacy – but it was the kind of endorsement Trump has been drawing from a lot of hard core movement conservatives like Glenn.

“Trump is the nominee, you know,” Glenn said. “He’s the nominee. Everybody should understand that he’s the nominee right now.

“I did get a chance to see him, and say hi,” he added. “But, you know, everybody on our team is just focused on our race.”

Glenn participated Friday afternoon in a “Colorblind Conservatives” summit panel. He had come fresh off a luncheon for the Trump Victory committee hosted by former Denver Broncos head coach Mike Shanahan. Trump and Palin were star attractions at the small high-dollar affair, which they attended after delivering their keynote morning speeches at the summit.

Glenn is a typically fiery speaker. But in his own summit speech the next day (it runs from 3:51:00 to 4:08:00 in the video below), he used a soft touch to address concerns intensified by the Trump candidacy – concerns fueling protests around the country, including outside the Colorado Convention Center where the summit was being held – that the Republican party trades on racist sentiment to fire up its shrinking and overwhelmingly white voter base in an increasingly culturally diverse United States.

“While I might not agree with everything Trump says, I proudly stand with Donald Trump,” Glenn said, moving back and forth on the stage.

“Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson, they don’t speak for me. They don’t speak for all black people. We need to show the fact that when you start thinking about freedom and liberty and personal responsibility and opportunity to achieve the American dream, the Republican party is the best party to do that.”

It’s no secret that Glenn is a fan of Ted Cruz, Trump’s main primary election rival, nor that Cruz charged up the Glenn campaign in June by traveling to Colorado to deliver a crucial endorsement that came just as voters were receiving primary election ballots.

“I just want to be very clear, because I tried to get up here (Friday morning),” Glenn continued. “My schedule has been out there. I’ve been busy. But I really wanted to get up here and stand on the stage with Mr. Trump. I want to be very clear. He is our nominee. He got the votes and he is going to be our nominee and we need to come together as a party because – guess what ladies and gentlemen -the alternative is unacceptable.

“I think about what’s going on in the world today,” Glenn said. “We need to come together. It’s my job and I take a personal responsibility to deliver Colorado for Donald Trump, because we have got to do this.

“I’m asking you all to do one simple thing. On one hand put Mr. Trump and all the frustration – that he’s not your guy and all the things he has said. On the other, I want you to put the Supreme Court, and if you’re concerned about religious liberty, the Second Amendment, I’m calling on you to stand with me and stand with Donald Trump and let’s win this election. We must come together. We must come together,” he said.

Glenn has been methodical in his campaign, and its success so far has given him confidence in a historically stormy election season.

Glenn set up a campaign booth at the Western Conservative Summit last year, before many people were thinking seriously about the U.S. Senate race.

“We were here when it wasn’t as popular to be here,” he said. “We had the booth. It just shows you we started hard. We’ve been working this for a long time – grassroots campaign, man – and we’re intending to do the same thing now (in the general election), getting outside, seeing people.

“The primary campaign was a challenge,” he said. “It’s a constant challenge, but the strategy is still the same. Campaigns are about people… wherever we got to go, we go.”

– john@coloradostatesman.com