In an unpredictable political year and on the heels of his upset win in last month’s primary, Republican Darryl Glenn is counting on the same mix of straight talk and shoe leather that propelled him from underdog status to U.S. Senate nominee to help him topple Democratic U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet.

It’ll be a tough climb.

Glenn, an El Paso County commissioner who has never before run for statewide office, faces hurdles raising money, mending rifts in a restless and divided Republican Party and persuading Colorado voters to get behind a Senate candidate who could be among the most conservative in living memory.

That’s one reason the Colorado Republican Party organized a Front Range “unity tour” last weekend featuring U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner and many of the state’s top elected Republicans, as well as two of Glenn’s former primary rivals, Jack Graham and Ryan Frazier.

At six stops from Fort Collins to Pueblo on Saturday, Gardner reminded supporters they’d helped him “fire Harry Reid,” when he defeated U.S. Sen. Mark Udall in the last election and Republicans took over the majority in the Senate. He urged Republicans to repeat the feat this year by helping Glenn win.

Before Gardner ousted Udall, it had been 36 years since an incumbent senator in Colorado lost a bid for reelection, when Republican Bill Armstrong unseated Democrat Floyd Haskell in 1978 on the eve of the Reagan revolution. In addition, Bennet has the good fortune to be on the ballot in a presidential election year, when Democratic-leaning voters tend to turn out in much higher numbers than they did in the last election.

It’s not Bennet’s only advantage.

For one thing, the incumbent is sitting on a massive financial war chest. The Democrat reported raising $1.65 million and had $5.7 million on hand in the most recent, pre-primary FEC report, and that was after spending more than $1 million on a ubiquitous television advertising campaign in May and June.

Glenn has raised a total of $156,000 through early June, including a $16,500 loan. Bennet, of course, has had a nearly six-year head start but has hauled in a total of $11.1 million in this cycle.

In the three weeks between the pre-primary filing deadline and the end of the quarter, Bennet raised another $1 million and has $6.1 million on hand, according to the campaign’s FEC report. By press time, the Glenn campaign hadn’t said what its 2nd quarter total was.

If national Republicans decide to pour resources into the race – Bennet is, after all, the only incumbent swing-state Democratic senator up for re-election this year – Glenn should be able to keep pace, if not catch up entirely. The jury is still out on that, as the National Republican Senatorial Committee has so far ignored Glenn’s primary win. Several ultra-conservative organizations and politicians, however, have thrown their weight behind Glenn, including former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and the Senate Conservatives Fund, which spent roughly $500,000 to support Glenn in the waning days of the primary.

It’s that kind of support that could be golden in a Republican primary but – Democrats hope – leaden in a general election.

Glenn likes to call himself an “unapologetic Christian, constitutional conservative, pro-life, Second Amendment-loving American,” and Democrats appear to be happy to second at least some elements of the description. (It’s a different approach than Gardner took when he ran against Udall, tossing aside his previously avid support for the personhood amendment as soon as he got in the race.)

A GOP strategist who managed a string of statewide Republican wins in recent decades cautioned Glenn against treating the electorate the same in a general election as he did in the primary.

“You look at the people who have won in Colorado over the years – Hank Brown, Wayne Allard, Bill Owens, Cory Gardner, Ben Campbell,” said former state Republican Party Chairman Dick Wadhams, who managed Graham to a second-place finish behind Glenn in the Senate primary. “There’s a certain thread that runs through all those Republicans, but they were conservatives who could appeal to a very purple state. It’s not new that Colorado is competitive. It’s never been a Republican state.”

Wadhams said he believed Graham fit that tradition but that he would support Glenn without reservations. (Graham has said the same, giving Glenn a ringing endorsement on primary night and following it up with wholehearted support on the unity tour.)

“Listen, Darryl won fair and square. He’s a great candidate, and you cannot take anything away from him,” Wadhams said. “He’s a good man. I will enthusiastically cast my vote for him in November.”

But he had some advice.

“I do think he needs to step back and take a look – a general election in Colorado is much different than a primary, and I do think he needs to take a hard look at that. Knowing Darryl, I think he will. He clearly thought a lot about this primary. He was able to win a big victory. But winning a primary, as we’ve seen over and over again in Republican politics, is different than winning a general election,” Wadhams said.

While he declined to offer specific advice on which issues to target – “He’s got to figure that out, but he’s a smart guy,” Wadhams said – the veteran Colorado campaign manager said there was a narrow path for Glenn to win.

“He’s gotta figure out what issues are out there where unaffiliated voters still don’t understand about the Bennet record. He’s got to find those issues and appeal to those voters. Sen. Bennet is a strong incumbent, but he’s not invulnerable. Darryl’s got to create a strong contrast with Bennet, but that contrast has to appeal to more than Republicans. He’s got to find that way, or he won’t be in the game,” he said.

“It’s tough,” Wadhams added. “There’s no such thing as winning an easy election in Colorado for a Republican.”

Asked whether he planned to chart a less solidly conservative course in the next four months, however, Glenn brushed off the suggestion.

“What I’ve seen over the years is people what they call pivoting towards the center,” he told The Colorado Statesman “I think people who do that lose. Your message from day one should be able to resonate across all party lines, and that’s our message.”

Glenn pointed out that he’s been running on three main issues since he launched his campaign a year and a half ago, and he argued that his position on each appeals to voters across the board.

The first, he said, is national security “and making sure our men and women that raise they hands to defend this nation are given the tools, the training and the equipment to do their job.”

The second is energy independence. “We support all forms of energy, but we do need to have a serious discussion bout the impact of energy policy in this state,” he said, adding, “Some of the positions Michael Bennet has taken are essentially hurting families – they’re losing jobs, there’s a war on coal going on right now. We should explore all energy alternatives.”

And the third focus, he said, is fiscal responsibility. “I’m calling for all members of the congressional delegation to join me trying to have a balanced budget passed – recognizing we have to live within our means and make some tough decisions in order to address our $19 trillion debt.”

“If you deal with issues that are impacting people’s lives, then it transcends party lines,” Glenn said.

Wadhams noted that Glenn brings something potent to the race.

“He’ll be a great debater against Bennet. He’ll be able to stand to-to-toe against Bennet,” Wadhams said, grinning at the possibility. “We had 20 debates, and I will tell you, he’s a good debater. He’s already got some raw political talent that will serve him well in the general election. If he can find a way to appeal, to be competitive with unaffiliated voters against Michael Bennet, that’s the whole key.”

– ernest@coloradostatesman.com