Colorado Politics

Colorado Democratic Party chair blames Cory Gardner for Brett Kavanaugh

Colorado Democrats have another thing they’d like to pin on incumbent Republican Cory Gardner, who’s in the way of their party’s U.S. Senate majority.

As the U.S. Supreme Court began its session Monday, Colorado state party chair Morgan Carroll put the responsibility on Gardner for Brett Kavanaugh, the Republican put on the high court last year despite a sexual assault allegation and other claims of misconduct.

“Almost a year to the day after Senator Gardner voted to put Brett Kavanaugh on the bench, the Supreme Court is kicking off a term that poses an immediate threat to our Colorado values,” Carroll said in a statement Monday. “Senator Gardner has not been honest about his commitment to protecting women’s reproductive freedom, DREAMers, and LGBTQ Coloradans’ civil rights — protections for all three are now at stake. His vote for Brett Kavanaugh cemented a far-right majority that could threaten our values and freedoms for decades to come, and that’s a record Senator Gardner won’t be able to defend as Coloradans prepare to vote him out next November.”

Kavanaugh picked up one Democratic vote, Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, on the way to a 50-48 vote.

Gardner helped drive home the confirmation for Neil Gorsuch, another Trump nominee, in April 2017, but the Democrats made no mention of the Coloradan and fellow conservative on the bench. Gorsuch replaced the late Justice Antonin Scalia, who died in February 2016, setting off a year-long partisan battle.

U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet, a Democrat, voted against both Trump picks, but he left his vote on Gorsuch as an unanswered question through most of the nomination process.

Gorsuch picked up three Democrats — Manchin with Sens. Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota and Joe Donnelly of Indiana — on the way to a 54-45 confirmation. 

Gardner’s campaign spokesman could not be reached immediately for comment after Carroll released a statement on Kavanaugh Monday afternoon. This story will be updated if the campaign chooses to respond.

 U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner, R-Colorado (right), meets with then-U.S. Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh in 2018.
Colorado Politics file
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