After Dustup, Sen. Cory Gardner Now Backs Trump
DENVER (AP) - Republican Sen. Cory Gardner has decided to back Donald Trump's presidential campaign, ending months of silence on the divisive presidential race and taking a risk with his own political future in a swing state where Trump has had major difficulties.
Gardner first said he supports Trump on Friday during a fundraiser for GOP Senate nominee Darryl Glenn in Colorado Springs.
"I'm voting Republican up and down the ticket," Gardner told the crowd in comments first reported by The Gazette. "A Republican president will make the difference, even a Republican president named Donald Trump."
On Tuesday, Gardner reiterated that position in a statement. "No good Republican could ever support Hillary Clinton for president," Gardner said, adding it was critical to defeat the Democratic nominee and expand GOP majorities in the House and Senate.
Gardner didn't mention Trump by name in his statement. The fresh-faced, 41-year-old senator was elected in 2014 with a promise to shake up Washington and stand up to President Obama.
His more optimistic conservatism notably conflicts with Trump's harder-edged, populist approach, and Gardner had pointedly withheld his endorsement from the reality show star after Trump clinched the GOP nomination in May.
Gardner even engaged in a Twitter war with Trump in April after the developer slammed Colorado for its complex nominating process, which was won by Texas Sen. Ted Cruz.
Clinton and her allies have scaled back advertising in Colorado recently, a sign the once-prominent battleground state is less in contention during this election.
Colorado's increasingly affluent and college-educated electorate is a poor fit for Trump's message of a nation in decline and Gardner runs a risk of alienating moderate voters with his stance. However, Gardner also ran the risk of alienating his Republican base if he remained neutral on the presidential contest.
Gardner is not up for re-election until 2020.
- By NICHOLAS RICCARDI, AP Writer
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