{"id":40220,"date":"2022-06-06T18:21:47","date_gmt":"2022-06-07T00:21:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/republican-joe-odea-empties-his-pockets-in-colorado-primary-with-ron-hanks\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T02:54:19","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T08:54:19","slug":"republican-joe-odea-empties-his-pockets-in-colorado-primary-with-ron-hanks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/republican-joe-odea-empties-his-pockets-in-colorado-primary-with-ron-hanks\/","title":{"rendered":"Republican Joe O\u2019Dea empties his pockets in Colorado primary with Ron Hanks"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Joe
Joe O\u2019Dea, a Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in Colorado, debates at Grizzly Rose in Adams County on May 21. (Steve Peterson\/Special to The Colorado Sun)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

Joe O\u2019Dea\u2019s campaign for U.S. Senate is making a major push heading into the June 28 Republican primary, spending more than $300,000 on television and radio ads over the next three weeks as he begins attacking his GOP opponent, U.S. Rep. Ron Hanks, in earnest.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Dea, a wealthy, self-funding first-time candidate who owns a Denver construction company, has also hired a campaign manager with experience working on political races across the country.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis nearly $325,000 TV and radio buy is the start of our June blitz,\u201d said Zack Roday, the new campaign manager, whose resume includes a stint with former House Speaker Paul Ryan. \u201cWe are ramping up our advertising and adding key staff to close out this primary strong.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hanks, by comparison, is operating on a shoestring budget. He had just $30,000 in his campaign account heading into April, compared to the more than $600,000 O\u2019Dea had in his coffers.<\/p>\n

Hanks has yet to buy TV ad time (he is planning to run radio ads soon) and he doesn\u2019t have the same kind of paid campaign infrastructure that O\u2019Dea has. Instead, Hanks is relying on a grassroots network of supporters and volunteers to win the primary, many of whom appear energized by his embrace of baseless claims that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from former President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe can spend all the money he wants,\u201d Hanks told The Colorado Sun, \u201cbut he can\u2019t move the people to a message they aren\u2019t going to accept. He\u2019s on the wrong side of the issues.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"State
State Rep. Ron Hanks, R-Ca\u00f1on City, speaks during an \u201cElection Truth Rally\u201d on April 5, 2022, at the Colorado Capitol. (Olivia Sun\/The Colorado Sun via Report for America)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The two candidates\u2019 uneven resources and disparate approaches will make for an interesting run up to the primary in a race that could help decide which party controls the U.S. Senate.<\/p>\n

Will Republican primary voters back O\u2019Dea with his deep pockets and more moderate approach, especially on issues like abortion? Or will they throw their support behind Hanks, with his low-budget campaign and who says the GOP must be more steadfast in its conservatism to win in November after several election cycles of defeat in Colorado?<\/p>\n

Colorado Democrats have signaled that they think Hanks will be easier for their longtime incumbent, U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet, to beat in November. The Colorado Democratic Party, for instance, has labeled Hanks the front-runner in the Republican primary race despite there being a dearth of polling.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Dea\u2019s campaign released an internal poll to The Colorado Sun last week showing that while Republican primary voters don\u2019t know either candidate very well, they are more familiar with O\u2019Dea and have a more favorable view of him.<\/p>\n

Fifty-nine percent of those polled said they had heard of O\u2019Dea, with 34% saying they have a favorable view of him. Forty percent said they had heard of Hanks, with 15% saying they have a favorable view of him.<\/p>\n

When asked who they would vote for if the primary were held today, 11% said definitely O\u2019Dea, while 22% said probably O\u2019Dea and 5% said they lean toward O\u2019Dea, for a total of 38%. Four percent said definitely Hanks, while 9% said probably Hanks and 1% said they lean toward Hanks, for a total of 14%.<\/p>\n

Forty-seven percent said they were completely undecided.<\/p>\n

The poll was conducted by Public Opinion Strategies from May 15-20 among 400 Republican primary voters. It had a 6 percentage point margin of error.<\/p>\n

Public Opinion Strategies has an A- pollster rating from FiveThirtyEight.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Dea, despite being a political upstart, made a bold prediction to Politico last month: \u201cI\u2019m going to beat (Hanks) by 10-15 points.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, O\u2019Dea, who is focusing his campaign on rising consumer costs and battling crime, is going on the offensive. Some of his ad spending in the coming weeks, which builds off hundreds of thousands of dollars he\u2019s already spent on TV and radio advertising, will be used to attack Hanks.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re running this primary with urgency until the polls close \u2014 like an underdog on a mission,\u201d said Jefferson Thomas, who ran Donald Trump\u2019s 2016 and 2020 presidential campaigns in Colorado and is now serving as a senior political adviser to O\u2019Dea.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Dea also blasted Hanks at the Western Conservative Summit on Friday for changing his position on abortion. Hanks used to believe abortions should be allowed in certain limited circumstances, such as when the life of the mother is at risk, but now says he thinks the procedure should be totally banned.<\/p>\n

\u201cRon Hanks has his finger in the wind,\u201d O\u2019Dea said in a speech at the summit. \u201cA Republican majority in the Senate is vital to the future of this country. We don\u2019t need a flip-flopping politician.\u201d<\/p>\n

O\u2019Dea, meanwhile, has taken a more moderate stance on abortion, saying that he doesn\u2019t think Roe v. Wade should be overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court. He believes abortions should be outlawed in the third trimester \u2014 last three months \u2014 of pregnancy and that government funding shouldn\u2019t be used to pay for the procedure, but that the government generally shouldn\u2019t otherwise \u201cbe in the middle of that decision.\u201d<\/p>\n

O\u2019Dea appeared to acknowledge Friday how his stance could be problematic to the Republican primary electorate.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know my position on abortion isn\u2019t the same as all of yours,\u201d he said at the Western Conservative Summit, which is hosted by the fiercely anti-abortion Centennial Institute.<\/p>\n

And Hanks has criticized O\u2019Dea for his abortion stance.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t fight for life some of the time,\u201d Hanks said in his speech at the Western Conservative Summit on Friday.<\/p>\n

Hanks brushed off O\u2019Dea\u2019s attacks and told The Sun that O\u2019Dea \u201cisn\u2019t accountable to the people of this party\u201d because of his stance on abortion and because he paid to collect signatures to get on the primary ballot as opposed to going through the caucus and assembly process, as Hanks did.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf he\u2019d gone to the assembly he wouldn\u2019t be in this primary,\u201d Hanks said.<\/p>\n

\"U.S.
U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet speaks to reporters alongside fellow elected and local officials during an event regarding new federal funding slated for Interstate 70\u2019s Floyd Hill in Clear Creek County on Feb. 23. (Andy Colwell\/Special to The Colorado Sun)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Whoever wins on June 28 will go on to face Bennet in November. Colorado voters have backed Democrats by wide margins in statewide races over the past two election cycles, but with President Joe Biden\u2019s approval ratings slipping in the Centennial State and across the country the GOP sees an opening.<\/p>\n

Democrats acknowledge that reelection for Bennet isn\u2019t a given.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s going to be a competitive race and we are not taking anything for granted,\u201d said Nico Delgado, a spokesman for the Colorado Democratic Party. \u201cColorado Democrats are confident that we can beat whoever turns out to be the Republican nominee.\u201d<\/p>\n

Both O\u2019Dea and Hanks will have to spend heavily to win the primary. Bennet had $6.2 million in his campaign bank account to begin May and isn\u2019t facing a primary challenger.<\/p>\n

Read more at The Colorado Sun<\/div>\n

The Colorado Sun is a reader-supported, nonpartisan news organization dedicated to covering Colorado issues. To learn more, go to coloradosun.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

O\u2019Dea will spend more than $300,000 on television and radio ads over the next several weeks<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":40221,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[233,266,28,265,1566],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-40220","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-coloradosun-com","tag-election","tag-headlines","tag-politics","tag-u-s-senate"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40220","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=40220"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40220\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":84587,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40220\/revisions\/84587"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40221"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40220"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=40220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}