Colorado Republican gubernatorial nominee Heidi Ganahl on Monday announced that her pick for lieutenant governor is Danny Moore, the Centennial business owner and Navy veteran who was removed as chairman of the state’s Independent Congressional Redistricting Commission after controversial social media posts questioning the results of the 2020 presidential election came to light.

“Danny is a wonderful addition to our winning team,” Ganahl said in a written statement. “We share a common vision to lower Colorado’s soaring cost of living, gas prices, crime rates, and a commitment to making our children the priority.”

The GOP ticket will face Democratic Gov. Jared Polis and his running mate, Lt. Gov. Dianne Primavera, a former state lawmaker, in November.

Ganahl, an at-large member of the University of Colorado Board of Regents, won the Republican nomination over former Parker Mayor Greg Lopez in the June 28 primary.

A 24-year Navy veteran with decades of experience in the aerospace and defense industries, Moore owns and runs defense contractors DeNOVO Solutions and Thornberry Consulting. He received the Meritorious Service Medal and National Security Agency Director Distinguished Service Medal and was the first Black man to achieve the rank of Cryptologic Technician Technical Master Chief, Ganahl’s campaign said.

“As a retired Navy Veteran and a successful small business entrepreneur with nearly 40 years of leadership experience, I will be mission-focused and deliver what is best for Colorado,” Moore said in a written statement. “It is critical that we do better, and we will.”

After being selected in early 2021 to sit on the state’s 12-member congressional redistricting commission as a representative of the 6th Congressional District, Moore was named chairman. But days later, he was removed in a unanimous vote of his fellow commissioners after inflammatory social media posts were unearthed by The Gazette and other news outlets.

Among the posts that sparked outrage and precipitated his ouster were remarks calling the 2020 election “the Democrat steal” and defending the use of the phrase “Chinese virus” to describe COVID-19, saying the wording was “not racist at all”.

Moore and his defenders pushed back, calling the posts expressions of his First Amendment rights and blasting media coverage as a racists effort to “smear” him.

Ganahl and Moore plan to make their first joint public appearance on Wednesday in Aurora.