FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, August 16, 2024
CONTACT: Sara Loflin, Executive Director at [email protected]

DENVER: Responding to news reports that Republican Sen. Cleave Simpson has denounced a hateful message sent in support of his campaign from the state Republican Party, ProgressNow Colorado, the state’s largest multi-issue progressive advocacy organization, renewed the call for Republican legislative candidates Marc Catlin (SD-5), Stan VanderWerf (SD-12), Robyn Carnes (SD-16), Rebecca Keltie (HD-16), Dan Woog (HD-19), George Mumma (HD-25), and Nathan Butler (HD-26) to condemn the hateful messages directed at their opponents and to disassociate with the Colorado Republican Party.

“It has been 11 days since ProgressNow Colorado first demanded accountability from these legislative candidates benefiting from hate-filled endorsements from the Colorado Republican Party. If a rural Republican state senator can condemn the state party’s outrageous attacks on members of every Colorado community, then there’s no excuse for Robyn Carnes, Stan VanderWerf, Marc Catlin, and other Republicans to remain silent. In fact, Sen. Simpson’s actions today show that these other candidates already failed this basic test.”

“All Coloradans deserve better leadership than this Republican hate-mongering,” said Loflin.

Multiple news outlets reported on Friday morning that Sen. Simpson rejected bigoted anti-LGBT messages originating from the scandal-plagued state Republican Party and called his opponent to apologize. To date, Simpson is the only legislative candidate to do so.

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