As the June 30 primary approaches, incumbent U.S. Senator John Hickenlooper is facing sharp criticism for skipping at least seven scheduled debates and forums with progressive challenger Julie Gonzales, mirroring the "Cardboard Cory" evasion tactics of the 2020 election.
by Chase Woodruff, Colorado Newsline
When he took the stage at DemFest, the Colorado Democratic Party’s June 6 gathering at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, state party chair Shad Murib was full of praise for “one of our fantastic candidates for United States Senate, Julie Gonzales.”
Murib called Gonzales, an eight-year veteran of the state Senate, an “unbelievable champion” on some of the issues most important to Democratic voters.
“Of course,” Murib went on, “this primary between her and Sen. John Hickenlooper is bringing all facets of our coalition together to have an important conversation about the future of the Democratic Party.”
There has not, in fact, been much of a conversation — at least not between the candidates themselves. The incumbent Hickenlooper, the race’s heavy favorite, declined the invitation to DemFest’s Senate candidate forum, the latest in a long list of forums and debates he has chosen to skip this year.
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That includes at least seven events proposed by Democrats, media outlets and advocacy groups in the final weeks before Colorado holds its primary elections on June 30, according to a list provided by Gonzales’ campaign, which representatives for Hickenlooper did not dispute.
Barring a last-minute reversal from Hickenlooper, Coloradans will cast their votes in the U.S. Senate primary in less than two weeks without the candidates ever having shared a stage to discuss their many differences on policy and style. The closest they’ve come to a face-to-face dialogue were separate, 20-minute remote appearances during a “discussion” hosted by Indivisible Durango in February.
“I think that his advisors are telling him, ‘You don’t have to,’ and I think that misreads the moment,” Gonzales said in an interview last week. “I think that misreads the anguish, the frustration, and the rage that everyday Coloradans are feeling about a politics that either takes them for granted, or doesn’t take them into account — and just thinks that if you get blasted with a bunch of TV ads and a bunch of mailers, that’s going to be enough.”
Jess Cohen, a spokesperson for Hickenlooper, rejected claims Hickenlooper has been absent from the campaign trail, saying he has “organized grassroots events, attended candidate forums, joined protests and rallies, completed a dozen interviews and questionnaires, held roundtables, and walked picket lines.”
His campaign did not respond to multiple attempts to ask follow-up questions, including about which forums he attended. This story will be updated if Newsline receives an additional response from Hickenlooper.
“When Hickenlooper hasn’t been fighting Trump in Washington, he has been all across the state meeting with voters, discussing how we’re fighting back against Trump’s corruption, protecting Colorado’s public lands and tackling the cost of living emergency to lower costs for Coloradans,” Cohen said.
“Sen. Hickenlooper should’ve been here today,” Gonzales told a small crowd at DemFest, where her time onstage became a “fireside chat” with former Denver City Council member Robin Kniech. “I wish that he would have shown up. And yet we’re doing the work, we’re showing up, going across this state, and talking to folks about how we can meet the moment.”
Along with debates, Hickenlooper has eschewed other public-facing staples of a typical Colorado political campaign, including a sit-down interview with Colorado Public Radio last month. Along with two long-shot GOP candidates for attorney general, he was the only candidate for statewide office of any party not to return Newsline’s voter guide questionnaire.
With the winners of Democrats’ statewide primaries highly likely to go on to victory in a favorable midterm year, the Senate contest has inverted the dynamics of the head-to-head Colorado governor primary between U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet and Attorney General Phil Weiser, who have spent many hours debating each other onstage since January despite disagreeing on relatively few major issues.
By contrast, a Senate race between two Democrats with substantial disagreements on healthcare, energy, immigration, taxes and foreign policy — to say nothing of sharply diverging personal backgrounds and a 31-year age difference — appears unlikely to feature any face-to-face dialogue at all.
As he seeks a second six-year Senate term, Hickenlooper holds a massive fundraising advantage, having collected over $6.8 million by the end of March, compared to Gonzales’ $443,000. His campaign has used that financial firepower to fund a barrage of TV and digital ads touting his plans for “fighting Donald Trump’s cruelty and turning the page on his chaos.”
While benefiting from so much “paid media,” as it’s known by political professionals, Hickenlooper’s lack of participation in debates, extended interviews and other traditional campaign events has helped to limit coverage of the race by the news media in a busy primary season. With polls showing growing dissatisfaction among rank-and-file Democrats with the party’s direction and leadership, Gonzales and her supporters suspect that’s precisely the point.
“I think the strategy is, ‘If we don’t talk about this race, then no one’s talking about it, and it won’t be real,’” said Annie Orloff, a spokesperson for Gonzales.
It’s not the first time, however, that Hickenlooper, a former Colorado governor and Denver mayor, has been the heavy favorite to win a head-to-head Senate primary. After failing to gain traction as a 2020 presidential candidate, he jumped into the Senate race and quickly cleared a crowded field of Democratic primary hopefuls — with the exception of former state House Speaker Andrew Romanoff, who persisted despite consistently trailing in the polls, and in the face of establishment pressure to unite behind Hickenlooper.
Hickenlooper faced Romanoff in three televised debates in June 2020, along with assorted candidate forums, on his way to a 59% to 41% primary victory. His campaign didn’t respond to a question about why he hasn’t been similarly willing to engage in public forums this time around.
His refusal to debate Gonzales at all has stood out this primary season, even among other incumbent and favored candidates who have faced criticism for dodging debates and forums. Secretary of State Jena Griswold, a Democratic candidate for attorney general, has shared a stage with her three opponents multiple times, including at DemFest, even as her rivals criticize her for skipping roughly a dozen other events. U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette, a 30-year incumbent facing two primary challengers, is set to appear with them at least twice, including Friday at the Denver Press Club.
In 2020, Hickenlooper and Romanoff were vying for the chance to challenge U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner, a one-term Republican who had become so notorious for ducking town halls and interviews that progressive activist groups took to toting “Cardboard Cory,” a life-size cutout of the absent senator, from event to event. Hickenlooper even filmed an ad inspired by the tactic in the general election. After his win, The Colorado Sun called it “one of the most iconic advocacy campaigns in recent memory.”
As Gonzales looks to pull off an upset victory on June 30, another cardboard cutout has returned to the Senate campaign trail — this time with Hickenlooper’s face printed on it.
In the real Hickenlooper’s absence, the cardboard version stood next to his challenger’s table throughout the day at DemFest, where it was peppered with questions from primary voters in a video later released by the Gonzales campaign.
“Why haven’t you agreed to debate Julie yet?” asked one supporter.
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Colorado Newsline is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Colorado Newsline maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Quentin Young for questions: info@coloradonewsline.com.
