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September 28, 2022 11:49 AM UTC

The Heidi Ganahl Campaign Is Completely Off the Rails

  • 30 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

THURSDAY UPDATE: right-wing “parent’s group” Jeffco Kids First promises to prove Heidi Ganahl right on the supposed “furry” invasion:

We can’t wait.

—–

We wrote on Monday about Republican gubernatorial candidate Hiedi Heidi Ganahl’s completely ridiculous claim on right-wing radio that there are “furries in Colorado schools.” Somehow, the Ganahl campaign figured out a way to make this story even worse for themselves.

Kyle Clark of 9News touched on the subject in a brief segment on Tuesday that absolutely CRUSHED Ganahl for her comments, noting that this is a subject that has already been thoroughly debunked and promoting it could be harmful to transgender students who already face high suicide rates.

 

 

 

The Ganahl campaign actually responded to 9News when asked to provide proof of her allegations, which Clark covers at about the :30 second mark in the video above. This is what the Ganahl camp sent to 9News as evidence of her claims that furries are invading Colorado schools:

 

That is exactly what you think it is: A random picture of a person in a costume pulled off the Internet. This makes less sense than presenting a photo of Chuck E. Cheese as proof that restaurants in Colorado are infested with rodents.

We can laugh at all of this, though only to a point. This entire episode is one of the more bizarre events we can recall in our many years of covering Colorado politics, but it speaks to a bigger issue: What in the hell is going on over at the Ganahl campaign? This is not a normal political operation. This is complete insanity.

It’s been clear for a long time that Ganahl is an unserious person running an unserious campaign for the top job in Colorado. Ganahl is not going to come close to defeating incumbent Democrat Jared Polis, and thank goodness for that. We’ve zoomed past the partisan political argument at this point; it is not hyperbole to say that putting Ganahl in charge of an entire state would be flat-out dangerous. 

The more important story for Republicans for the next few months will be about assessing the collateral damage from what will unquestionably go down as the worst major campaign in state history. Every single person who had any association with the Ganahl campaign will be forever tainted (for example, Danny Moore’s political career is over).

Colorado Republicans should now hope that Ganahl just goes away quietly. The more desperate Ganahl becomes in the final weeks of this race, the more likely she is to make increasingly offensive statements that reflect negatively on the entire Republican Party.

Ganahl is going down. That’s inescapable. The only mystery remaining is about who she takes down with her.

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30 thoughts on “The Heidi Ganahl Campaign Is Completely Off the Rails”

  2. And Hiedi was supposed to be the best and brightest, the only GOP candidate this time around who'd actually won a statewide election.

    But she went full bugfuck.

    Never go full bugfuck.

  3. "….it could be harmful to transgender students who already face high suicide rates."

    Of course it will be!  That is by design. 

    These bigots in positions of power prefer to either entice other bullies to kill LGBTQ folks, or barring that, to bully LGBTQ folks to suicide because they don't have the balls to do the wet work themselves.  

  4. Doesn't your header imply that Heidi's campaign was on the rails in the first place?

    They would have been better off running Walker Stapleton again. Maybe next time.

  5. A major rule of political campaigns …. if a mistake is made, at the very least, STOP DIGGING.  Whoever thought it would be a good idea to “pwn the liberal media” by sending a random animal image did Ganahl no favor. 

    Here’s hoping the Polis team can pivot from running a campaign tightly focused on winning re-election to one seeking to develop a wave election in Colorado, bringing as many Democrats as possible to victory in executive and legislative races.

  7. But at least Heidi hasn't reached peak Republican commitment.  We can be happy we aren't in Pennsylvania, where "Doug Mastriano plans ‘40 days of fasting and prayer’

    On Monday night, Mastriano’s campaign posted on Facebook a photo of two hands under the words “40 days of fasting & prayer” with the dates Sept. 29 through Nov. 8 — Election Day. “Interceding for our elections, our state, and our nation,” it stated, along with a verse from the Book of Isaiah.

    “Starting in a few days,” Mastriano wrote in the post. One Facebook supporter responded: “It’ll be my honor to fast with you.”

     

  9. I think we should go easy on Heidi. She's going to lose by a lot and so no need to hammer her on anything. And she has got to be miserable watching all she worked for fall apart. We shouldn't make it worse.

    Yes she signed up for this. Yes she's a public figure. I'm not saying it's wrong to revel in her weirdness. But I think we can be nice and leave her alone.

    2. Yes, Heidi will lose. In a year, she’ll be down the memory hole with Dan Maes and Walker Stapleton.

      But, in the meantime, she has a helluva bully pulpit to spread her hate and homophobia. She can spread this disease of neo-fascism, trying to make teachers afraid to teach real history, trans and queer kids afraid to live openly, 

      She keeps advocating for the latest Q craziness. It’s no longer Heidi as serious candidate that Dems should fear; it’s now Heidi as Spokesperson for RWNJ conspiracy theories. She has more than a month to go in that role.

      1. I'm with you, kwtree. She hasn't got a ghost of a chance of beating Polis, but she can validate a lot of hatred while she's losing. She's crazy and dangerous. 

    4. No.  Until the votes are counted, no going easy on Heidi.  She's a current member of the Board of Regents, and an awful one at that.  She's going to lose big and she deserves it.  Sympathy?  Nah, not for a POS like her

  11.  Mike Littwin chimes in … (great read)

    We don’t use the F-word here, unless we really, simply, truly can’t avoid it

    In any political race, the culture wars nearly always come into play. Immigration, abortion, transgenders, anti-gay bakers. You know the drill. But now Heidi Ganahl, the GOP nominee for Colorado governor, has brought furries — yes, furries, running rampant in our public schools — to her campaign against Gov. Jared Polis. As a friend mentioned to me, Ganahl, whose campaign has been one stumble after another, has now officially jumped the shark. Or maybe three of them. If by chance you don’t know what a furry is, here’s a chance to educate yourself. My latest column in the Sun.

  15. That picture looks more like a mascot to me than an actual furry (I see them at game conventions often). But wait, does that mean mascots like Digger and Ralphie are part of the queer agenda? Somebody at CU should really look into that for Heidi.

  16. Helpfully answering the question of: "are they cynically playing at being crazy, or are they actually crazy?"

    I have to confess, I was subconsciously hoping it was the former.

  17. As someone whose pre-teen daughter calls her self a "furry," I can tell you some things:

    1. She does not understand the adult meaning of this word.

    2. She doesn't look anything like that ridiculous picture. (Most people don't even notice, much to her chagrin.)

    3. She and her friends don't harass other kids.

    4. She doesn't believe she is a cat.

    5. She doesn't do anything more unusual than any of us did who maybe liked to dress up as an astronaut for some extended time in our childhood.

    6. Heidi is making a big deal out of this because she is THAT desperate.

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