April 08, 2022 09:51 AM UTC

A Mind-Blown Endorsement For Heidi Ganahl

• 3 Comments
• by: Colorado Pols

With a fateful Republican Party state assembly kicking off tomorrow, Republican gubernatorial candidate Hiedi Heidi Ganahl posted a video clip last night of highly controversial right-wing activist Charlie Kirk, the president of a far-right youth organizing group known as Turning Point USA, endorsing Ganahl’s campaign:

I’ve known Heidi Ganahl for a long time, and we’ve done a lot of fun things together throughout the years.

Now before we get to the “fun things” Charlie Kirk has done with Heidi Ganahl throughout the years, we have to start by asking–what the hell happened to Charlie Kirk? This video looks like it was literally shot inside a drunk tank where Kirk is an involuntary guest, and Kirk looks like the bender he’s on is…well, far from over. If the goal is to make people like Heidi Ganahl, instead of wonder what kind of disheveled weirdos she hangs out with, Kirk missed the mark.

How hard is it to drag a comb through your hair before endorsing a candidate for governor?

Ganahl’s proud reposting of Kirk’s unkempt endorsement last night was a shock to many on the left, but with Ganahl desperate to shore up support ahead of tomorrow’s assembly it makes plenty of sense. We take Charlie Kirk at his word that he’s had a lot of dealings with Ganahl over the years, since Ganahl’s ideological crusade for “viewpoint diversity” (see: CU’s Benson Center) on college campuses is one of Kirk’s own pet issues. Ganahl has reportedly spoken at TP-USA events, and supported the local chapter on CU’s campus. As we’ve seen with Ganahl trotting out high-profile right-wing “thought leaders” like Dennis Prager at her campaign events, Ganahl has been trafficking in these circles for a long time.

Assuming Ganahl does overcome hard-charging Republican challenger Danielle Neuschwanger, either tomorrow or (more likely) on June 28th, Kirk’s glowing and reciprocated support immediately becomes toxic in the general election. Kirk’s rap sheet of indefensible falsehoods, embrace of COVID misinformation of every kind, and more recent openly racist musings about protecting “white demographics in America” by force have made him a celebrity within the far-right MAGA media bubble and persona non grata just about everywhere else.

Ganahl’s desperation to prove her conservative bonafides has ramped up in recent weeks with the unexpected threat from Danielle Neuschwanger. From our point of view Ganahl had nothing to prove in this regard, and has needlessly painted herself into a politically untenable corner running in a steadily blue-trending state. This burning need to prove Ganahl is “conservative enough” to beat what should have been a weak primary challenge resulted in choices her campaign will live to regret.

That, or this is just who Ganahl is–and there’s no point hid-eying it.