- You just said that you have a Colorado compass,
but maybe you oughta try getting GPS
because your Colorado compass
is leading this state down the wrong path.
- [Narrator] That's Cory Gardner,
what Jim Acosta would look like as a Republican.
He's a senator from Colorado,
a leading opponent of the Green New Deal,
staunch anti-choice politician, a major NRA beneficiary,
and a former babysitter to a ram.
Gardner was born in 1974 in Yuma, Colorado,
where his family owned a farm machinery business.
As a young Democrat, Gardner played football in high school
before going on to Colorado State University,
where he babysat a live ram.
The university's mascot, CAM the Ram,
had to be cared for by several students.
Gardner was one of the volunteers who stepped up.
While many students
were seemingly doing normal student things,
Gardner was traveling across state lines with a ram.
"We took CAM to a lotta different places,
California, Tennessee;
we even took him into restaurants," he said.
In 1997, Gardner graduated with tons of experience
in hanging out with a ram
and also a degree in political science.
In 2001, he received his law degree
from the University of Colorado, Boulder.
After graduating, Gardner was a spokesperson
for the National Corn Growers Association,
which sounds absolutely thrilling.
In 2005, Gardner was appointed
to the Colorado House of Representatives,
before being elected the next year for a full term,
during which he spent a lot of time
attacking women's rights.
Gardner voted against a bill that would require hospitals
to make emergency contraception available to rape victims.
In '07, Gardner sponsored a bill
that would've banned all abortion in Colorado,
even in cases of rape and incest.
The bill also aimed to criminalize
the doctors who perform abortions
by making it a class 3 felony.
According to Mark Silverstein,
legal director of the ACLU of Colorado,
under Gardner's bill, a doctor could've faced more jail time
than the woman's rapist.
In 2010, Gardner was elected
to the US House of Representatives,
thanks in part to an endorsement
from former US Congressman Tom Tancredo,
a guy who once called Miami a Third World country
because of its diversity.
After Gardner's election win, he continued to focus
on the issue that seems to matter most to him as a male:
women's rights.
In 2013, he voted against even considering
the Paycheck Fairness Act,
which was legislation introduced to help close the wage gap.
The year before, women in Colorado made,
on average, $11,000 less than men.
Gardner, who is a male, doesn't see an issue with that gap.
He instead blamed the war on women on a guy
who instituted a rule protecting Planned Parenthood.
- You wanna talk about the real war on women,
let's talk about the failed economic policies
of Barack Obama.
- [Narrator] Gardner went on to throw his name
in the 2014 Senate race,
where he apparently invented prefixes.
- I made up a few words the other days.
I said we will leave no door unknocked
and no phone uncalled.
- [Narrator] Groundbreaking.
His run was backed by the NRA, who gave him an A rating
and over $3 million for his opposition to gun reform
in a state with a history of mass shootings,
from Columbine to Aurora.
Gardner's solution to mass shootings
in a state defined by them,
include voting against an amendment
which sought to ban gun sales
to anyone on the Terrorist Watch List.
- [Announcer] In the Senate,
he'll stand up against their extreme gun control agenda.
- [Narrator] Aside from guns, Gardner ran on clean energy.
In an ad, he posted up on a wind farm
where he was definitely totally comfortable
and not at all awkward, at all.
- So, what's a Republican like me doing at a wind farm?
Supporting the next generation, that's what.
- [Narrator] It's unclear if awkwardly standing
near a wind farm helped Gardner,
but he won the Senate race
and defeated Democrat Mark Udall by 48% to 46%,
or just under 40,000 votes.
While Gardner talked a big game
when it came to the environment,
critics argue that there's a huge difference
between his rhetoric and his voting record.
Pine River Times points out,
"His website highlights legislation he's introduced
"to clean up abandoned mines
"and his work as the chairman
"of the Senate Energy and Resources Subcommittee on Energy."
But when it really matters,
Gardner votes in line with his party.
In addition to voting to confirm Brett Kavanaugh,
who faced credible allegations
of sexual assault and misconduct,
Gardner voted yes on Andrew Wheeler,
Trump's pick for head of the EPA.
It's unclear why Gardner,
a guy who touted his environmental bona fides
on his own website, voted to confirm a guy
with a rich background in coal
and whose first major rule ended up being one
that allows power plants to offload toxic coal ash
in ways that could pollute the water we drink.
Gardner has also become a leading voice
against AOC's Green New Deal.
"This Green New Deal, if enacted,
"would kill hundreds of thousands of real jobs,
"cost the American people trillions of dollars,"
Gardner said.
- But we have to stand up to the radical environmentalists.
- [Narrator] When he's not standing up
to radical environmentalists,
Gardner is standing up to activists with disabilities
for wanting those pesky rights.
When Gardner was working on an effort to repeal Obamacare,
protestors from the Disability rights group ADAPT
held a sit-in in Gardner's office, protesting a repeal
that would disproportionately affect them.
After sitting in for nearly 58 hours,
they were physically removed and arrested by police.
Gardner's up for reelection in 2020,
but he faces an uphill battle,
as Colorado is drifting away from the GOP.
Roll Call notes that in 2018,
"Democrats retained the state's open governorship,
"took over the offices of attorney general,
"state treasurer, and secretary of state,
"and gained a new congressional seat.
"The party also flipped the State Senate."
While Gardner has worked with Democrats
on marijuana and immigration bills,
he's also been strategizing with Trump
on how to maintain Republican control of the Senate.
In a state that Clinton won in 2016,
Gardner's campaign manager is already working on
convincing people a vote for Cory Gardner
is not a vote for Donald Trump.
"The presidential election is one race,
"the Senate election is another one.
"Voters will have their opportunity
"to vote for their pick for president
"and a separate vote for the Senate,"
Gardner's campaign manager said desperately.
In order to stay afloat in 2020,
Gardner will have to swim with his state's current.
One way might be to stop voting in line with the guy
whose name will be right next to Gardner's on the ballot.
According to FiveThirtyEight,
Gardner has voted in line with Trump
90% of the time over his career.
Better start swimming.