In Colorado, a GOP rarity: An abortion rights candidate

DENVER (AP) — Joe O’Dea stood earlier than a whole lot of social conservatives and uttered phrases they had been unaccustomed to listening to from a Republican U.S. Senate candidate: “I do know my place on abortion isn’t the identical as all of yours.”

O’Dea, a businessman who has spoken publicly about his assist for abortion rights, instructed the group that he backs a ban on late-term abortions and authorities funding of abortions. However, he mentioned, the choice to terminate a being pregnant within the preliminary months is “between an individual and their God.”

On different points, O’Dea seems like a typical conservative. He needs to chop again authorities regulation and broaden oil and fuel manufacturing, and he opposes gun restrictions. However his assist for abortion rights stands out in a Republican Occasion by which opposition to the process has grow to be a bedrock precept.

His high rival in Tuesday’s major is state Rep. Ron Hanks, who opposes abortion in all circumstances. The 2 are competing to tackle Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet, who gained his first Senate race in 2010 by hammering his GOP challenger over opposition to abortion rights.

Republican voter Carla Davis, who describes herself as “100% pro-life,” thinks O’Dea shall be a stronger candidate within the normal election towards Bennet in a state that has voted down initiatives to restrict or ban abortion 4 instances since 2008.

“You’ve acquired to concede on small issues to make issues work,” mentioned Davis, a 60-year-old advertising and marketing government who attended a latest O’Dea occasion.

Nonetheless, if O’Dea does win the Republican major, it would partly be attributable to a monetary benefit slightly than a strategic selection by GOP voters. He has spent greater than $600,000 of his personal cash on his Senate run, whereas Hanks’ marketing campaign has raised lower than $60,000.

Hanks, who mentioned he marched to the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 however didn’t enter the constructing throughout the rebellion, mentioned O’Dea’s views don’t align with these of most Republican major voters.

“His coverage positions would put him to the left of Mitt Romney,” Hanks mentioned in an interview. “The message isn’t Republican, it’s not conservative, it’s not pro-life.”

Hanks has gotten some assist from a Democratic group that sees him as a neater opponent for Bennet. The group spent $800,000 on adverts designed to tout his candidacy within the GOP major, warning that he’s “too conservative” for backing an entire abortion ban and letting anybody carry firearms in public.

Conservatives concern one thing related would occur if Hanks is the nominee. “Reasonably than speaking in regards to the financial system, slightly than speaking about inflation, you’ll be speaking about abortion,” mentioned Mario Nicolais, a lawyer and activist who left the Republican Occasion partly over criticism he acquired after backing a poll measure to ban abortions at 22 weeks — the critics needed abortion banned utterly.

To Nicolais, that demonstrates how inflexible some Republicans are of their opposition to abortion rights, a part of what has marginalized them within the state. The 22-week ban failed on the polls in November 2020, simply as voters rejected different initiatives to restrict or ban abortion in 2008, 2010 and 2014.

Colorado in 1967 turned the primary state to loosen restrictions on abortion, six years earlier than the U.S. Supreme Court docket choice within the case of Roe v. Wade assured the fitting to an abortion nationally in 1973. This yr, the Democratic-controlled legislature handed a legislation guaranteeing full entry to abortion within the state even the Supreme Court docket overturns Roe. A leaked draft opinion from the excessive courtroom signifies that might occur by the point the courtroom’s time period ends this month, across the identical time as Colorado’s Tuesday major.

Bennet’s marketing campaign has cited that looming choice as a purpose for Colorado voters to be cautious of the GOP.

“Each Republican candidates are too far proper for our state,” spokesperson Georgina Beven mentioned in a press release. “Coloradans have an excellent deeper sense of urgency now to elect pro-choice candidates this November, and Michael will all the time be dedicated to defending ladies’s reproductive rights within the US Senate.”

If O’Dea had been to be elected, he would be part of Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski as the one Republican senators who publicly assist Roe v. Wade.

Nonetheless, the state is house to a core group of robust opponents of abortion rights, together with many non secular teams alarmed on the prospect of not having a like-minded candidate on the Senate poll within the fall.

“The dignity of each particular person — born and pre-born — needs to be unassailable and non-negotiable,” mentioned Paul J. Batura, a spokesperson for the non secular group Give attention to the Household, which isn’t concerned within the major. “Come November, Coloradoans and voters in all places deserve the chance to precise their pro-life convictions on the poll field.”

The most important conservative occasion within the state is the Western Conservative Summit, sponsored by Colorado Christian College. It was there, in an unlimited resort close to Denver Worldwide Airport, that O’Dea acquired a well mannered reception from the group, which was largely quiet whereas he briefly mentioned abortion. Hanks, who preceded him, was greeted with roars when he outlined his unyielding stance on the problem.

“After we combat for all times, we don’t combat for all times a few of the time, we combat for all of it,” Hanks mentioned. “As a result of all people deserves a birthday.”

O’Dea jabbed at Hanks, a former Military intelligence officer who unsuccessfully ran for Congress in California in 2010. Hanks mentioned he opposed abortion, however his marketing campaign literature mentioned he held “a measured and slender window for medical consultants.” That caveat led O’Dea to accuse Hanks of “having his finger within the wind.” Hanks, in an interview, mentioned he modified place as a result of enhancements in medical know-how make it simpler to avoid wasting a mom’s life in case of problems.

However most of O’Dea’s speech didn’t contain abortion, a problem that he says he by no means hears about from voters. Most voters, O’Dea mentioned in an interview, are fearful about inflation and crime, two points he’s hit relentlessly on the marketing campaign path.

A political novice, O’Dea has donated to each Democrats and Republicans up to now. He gave $500 to Bennet in 2010. O’Dea mentioned that he made most of his donations to Democrats when he chaired a development business group that paid to attend marketing campaign fundraisers and that he’ll ask for his a reimbursement on the controversy stage.

O’Dea says he voted twice for Donald Trump however that he has no opinion on whether or not the previous president ought to run once more and volunteered that he appreciated Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a possible Trump rival in 2024′s GOP major. O’Dea mentioned he supported Trump’s nominees to the Supreme Court docket, who’re among the many justices who seem to again overturning Roe, and noticed no contradiction between that and his views on abortion.

“I’m not operating on social points,” O’Dea mentioned, “and other people aren’t speaking about social points, besides reporters and Ron Hanks.”