THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN
Thursday, October 15, 2020
Vol. 130, No. 17
COLLEGIAN.COM
Former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper and Sen. Cory Gardner listen to moderator Kyle Clark ask a question before they respond during the final Colorado U.S. Senate debate broadcasted from the Lory Student Center Theatre Oct. 13. PHOTO BY LUCY MORANTZ THE COLLEGIAN
Gardner, Hickenlooper face off in final senatorial debate By Sam Moccia & Natalie Weiland @CSUCollegian
U.S. senatorial candidates Cory Gardner and John Hickenlooper debated Tuesday night over issues ranging from the COVID-19 response to health care, racial justice, Colorado’s role in addressing climate change and more, offering voters another glimpse of both candidates ahead of the Nov. 3 election. Colorado’s previous senatorial debate on Oct. 2 touched on similar topics, including health care and the state response to COVID-19, and it saw attacks from Gardner regarding Hickenlooper’s previous ethics violations as former
Colorado governor. Throughout the evening, Gardner repeatedly went on the offensive, often using his allotted response time to pose his own questions to Hickenlooper, who continued to defend his record from his time as governor. The first question of the evening addressed the Colorado COVID-19 response, asking both candidates what they believed was the most important improvement needed in the Colorado pandemic response and the challenges to enacting it. Gardner began with stating his support for passing additional relief packages out of the U.S. Congress, including funding for small businesses in the form of the Pay-
check Protection Program as well as additional funding for education, child care and vaccine research. Gardner also said he wants to ensure individuals are following public health guidelines before going on the offensive, claiming that Hickenlooper wouldn’t have passed relief, citing Hickenlooper saying so himself. Although Hickenlooper has criticized the relief bill proposed by Senate Republicans, he has not explicitly stated that he would have voted against it. “The GOP’s partisan ‘skinny relief’ bill doesn’t do nearly enough to help Americans who are struggling to put food on the table and pay their bills,” Hickenlooper wrote in a Sept. 10 tweet. “Enough with
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the bickering and political stunts. Coloradans needed relief months ago — and Washington needs to get its act together.” In a similar vein, health care was of particular focus throughout the evening, specifically the Affordable Care Act. The ACA has long been criticized by Gardner, who has made it an objective to repeal the ACA, according to The Colorado Sun. Gardner was asked whether or not his goal of repealing the Affordable Care Act had shifted following the COVID-19 pandemic’s disproportionate impact on Black and Latinx American communities. Gardner responded by stating, “Under my plan, we will focus on a patient-centered care system,” be-
fore saying that his own plan would increase quality of care by reducing medical care costs through reinsurance programs and risk pools. “I don’t think it needs to be a zero-sum game,” Gardner said before claiming that Hickenlooper’s plan would replace the ACA with a government-run health care program that would “take over 176 million people’s insurance plans away from employers.” While fact-checking the debate, The Collegian found that Hickenlooper never planned to replace the ACA, but instead worked with former Ohio Gov. John Kasich in 2017 to make proposed amendments to it. see DEBATE on page 6 & 7 >>
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