April 05, 2024 11:59 AM UTC

Republican Danny Moore Embarks on a "Reverse Lang Sias"

• 6 Comments
• by: Colorado Pols

Huh. We gotta admit we didn’t see this one coming.

As The Colorado Sun reports in its “Unaffiliated” newsletter, 2022 Republican nominee for Lieutenant Governor Danny Moore is running for a state legislative seat:

Republican Danny Moore, a Navy veteran and entrepreneur who ran unsuccessfully for lieutenant governor in 2022 with gubernatorial candidate Heidi Ganahl, is running for the state House. He’ll challenge recently appointed state Rep. Chad Clifford, D-Centennial, in House District 37. Moore was removed as chair of Independent Congressional Redistricting Commission in 2021 following scrutiny of social media posts where he touted unfounded claims of widespread fraud in the 2020 presidential election and referred to coronavirus as the “China virus.”

Democratic Rep. Chad Clifford is not technically an incumbent, since he was chosen by a vacancy committee to fill the opening created by the December 2023 resignation of Rep. Ruby Dickson. But HD-37, which basically covers Centennial in south Denver, is also a fairly safe Democratic district — particularly in an election cycle with Donald Trump at the top of the ballot for Republicans.

Dickson handily defeated Republican Paul Archer in 2022 by a 56-44 margin. This is about in line with the district’s performance in 2020, when Democrat John Hickenlooper carried what is now HD-37 by 13 points over incumbent Republican Sen. Cory Gardner. And since we’re listing out numbers, we should also note that the last time Moore appeared on a Colorado ballot alongside 2022 Republican gubernatorial nominee Heidi Ganahl, that ticket was smashed by Gov. Jared Polis and Lieutenant Governor Dianne Primavera by just shy of 20 points.

So you’re saying there’s a chance…

Moore seems to be trying to advance his political career by taking the “Reverse Lang Sias” approach. If you recall, Lang Sias is the perpetual Republican candidate who hasn’t yet met a political office that he isn’t capable of losing. Over a span of 12 years, Sias lost races for Congress, State Senate, State House, and Lieutenant Governor; he capped this sad period in 2022 by losing a race for State Treasurer to Democrat Dave Young by 11 points. But for all of his (many, many) faults, Sias at least tried to win more consequential campaigns over time.

Moore, by contrast, started at the top and appears destined to fail downward. Moore forever destroyed any credibility he might have once had after Ganahl inexplicably selected him to be her running mate in July 2022 — infamously kicking off their ticket with an event in which they both refused to speak to reporters. Moore later tried, and failed, to get the media to forget about his 2020 election denialism, which was an impossible task given that he was removed as Chair of the Congressional Redistricting Committee in March 2021 for precisely this reason. We could list dozens of Moore gaffes from 2022 alone.

It’s not unthinkable that Republicans could eventually win the HD-37 seat, since Centennial is not exactly a bastion of liberalism. But the GOP isn’t going to win this seat in a year in which Trump is on the ballot.

They’re also not going to be competitive with a super right-wing candidate like Danny Moore; after a statewide campaign in 2022 full of gaffes and idiotic speeches, Moore is basically a walking, talking opposition research book at this point.

Colorado Republicans have had a hell of a time trying to recruit candidates for legislative races across the state, so perhaps it is just a nice bonus that there will be an actual Republican name on the ballot in HD-37.

Meanwhile, Moore will get some additional campaign practice before launching his 2025 bid for city council.