{"id":40214,"date":"2022-06-06T18:51:19","date_gmt":"2022-06-07T00:51:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/gop-senate-candidates-discuss-guns-abortion-at-conservative-conference\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T02:54:19","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T08:54:19","slug":"gop-senate-candidates-discuss-guns-abortion-at-conservative-conference","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/gop-senate-candidates-discuss-guns-abortion-at-conservative-conference\/","title":{"rendered":"GOP Senate candidates discuss guns, abortion at conservative conference"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"U.S.
U.S. Senate candidate Joe O\u2019Dea speaks at the Western Conservative Summit in Aurora. (Sara Wilson\/Colorado Newsline)<\/span>Sara Wilson\/Colorado Newsline<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

With abortion access poised to be a key election-year issue, U.S. Senate candidate Joe O\u2019Dea, who would not support a total ban on abortion<\/a>, appealed to conservative voters Friday by arguing they have more in common than not.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know my position on abortion isn\u2019t the same as all of yours, but we share some common ground. I support an end to elective late-term abortion nationally, and an end to taxpayer funds for abortions nationally,\u201d the Republican told attendees of the Western Conservative Summit<\/a> during an afternoon candidate forum on the first day of the two-day event.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t support a total ban early in the pregnancy or for certain emergencies, but I do oppose both Polis\u2019 and Schumer\u2019s reckless late-term abortion bills,\u201d he said, referring to the recently enacted Reproductive Health Equity Act<\/a> and the Women\u2019s Health Protection Act, which failed in the Senate<\/a> in May. In Colorado, RHEA codified existing abortion access into state law.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Dea told moderator and conservative radio host George Brauchler that the decision to have an abortion should be between the pregnant person and their doctor, and that the federal government should not be involved.<\/p>\n

The first-time candidate and construction company owner went on to emphasize \u201ccommon ground\u201d he has with Republican voters on the issues of fighting inflation, securing the southern border, defending the Second Amendment and balancing the budget.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn these positions, as conservatives, we are united,\u201d he said. \u201cI may be an outsider, but I\u2019m a conservative to my core.\u201d<\/p>\n

The abortion stance, however, is a contrast to his primary opponent, state Rep. Ron Hanks. Hanks does not support abortion access at any stage of pregnancy \u2013 or for any reason, including fatal complications like ectopic pregnancies.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt may be a social issue, but more important than that, it is murder,\u201d Hanks said.<\/p>\n

The candidates answered nearly the same questions during two separate conversations with Brauchler, including one on the federal government\u2019s role in reducing gun violence and school shootings. A recent school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, left 19 children and two teachers dead and has renewed gun control conversations in Congress<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to maintain our Second Amendment rights, but we have to have secure schools as well. I would put money and energy toward securing our schools,\u201d Hanks said, without offering details on what security measures he would support.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Dea also called for more school security policies, and said he wants to see more police officers on school grounds. He also expressed support for the Faculty\/Administrator Safety Training and Emergency Response program, which trains teachers who conceal carry to respond in emergencies.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s a fiscally responsible way to do this \u2013 to make sure they are armed,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Hanks and O\u2019Dea are vying for the Republican nomination to compete against incumbent Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet this November.<\/p>\n

Hanks secured the top ballot line<\/a> for the June 28 primary with the highest vote share at the GOP state assembly in April.<\/p>\n

To read more stories from Colorado Newsline, visit www.coloradonewsline.com<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

O\u2019Dea and Ron Hanks answer nearly the same questions during two separate conversations<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":40215,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[2612,2786,120,150,28,826,2972,1566],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-40214","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-abortion","tag-candidates","tag-colorado","tag-firearms","tag-headlines","tag-political-campaigns","tag-primary","tag-u-s-senate"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40214","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40214"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40214\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":84585,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40214\/revisions\/84585"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40215"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40214"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40214"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=40214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}