Ted Cruz, who swept Colorado’s delegates in his unsuccessful quest for the White House, will try to channel his influence with Republicans here to affect the outcome of the U.S. Senate race. The Texas senator has endorsed El Paso County Commissioner Darryl Glenn and has plans to travel to Colorado to campaign with him this week.
“We’re planning an event,” Glenn told The Colorado Independent. “We’re truly blessed to have Senator Cruz backing us in our campaign.”
The National Review was first to report the endorsement news. Cruz aides told The Dallas Morning News that Cruz will stump for Glenn in Colorado Monday. The paper reported the Glenn nod is Cruz’s “first major endorsement since dropping out 6 weeks ago,” as Cruz navigates his political comeback.
The Cruz endorsement of Glenn follows that of Sarah Palin and the Senate Conservatives Fund, a group run by former Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli that aims to get hard-right conservative underdogs elected to the Senate. That group’s Super PAC is paying for TV ads in support of Glenn, who hasn’t raised much money for the race.
Related: What you need to know about Colorado’s U.S. Senate race
This year’s sprawling U.S. Senate primary once had about 15 Republicans running. But in April, Glenn bested six of them during the party’s state convention when he took 70 percent of the vote from the roughly 4,000 GOP delegates in attendance after a rousing speech.
Related: Did Darryl Glenn’s convention speech shift the U.S. Senate race?
Those delegates also overwhelming supported Cruz, who traveled to Colorado for a speech at the convention.
Since then, Glenn has crisscrossed the state focusing on his ground game.
A retired Air Force officer and lawyer who previously served on the Colorado Springs City Council, Glenn says Republicans shouldn’t try to work with Democrats in the U.S. Senate.
He calls himself an “unapologetic Christian constitutional conservative pro-life, Second-Amendment-loving American,” and sees this election for U.S. Senate in 2016 as mainly about foreign policy and national security. He has said the United States might have to consider closing military bases to “become more lean and efficient.” And if so, as the only candidate to serve on what’s called a BRAC— a Base Closure and Realignment Commission— he says he has the experience to help.
Glenn is on the ballot along with four other Republicans. Those ballots have already been out since June 6. Republican voters in Colorado have until June 28 to turn them in.
In an interview, Glenn said he believes his bid can harness the votes of those who supported presidential candidates Ben Carson, Ted Cruz and Donald Trump, calling his effort “the one campaign that can consolidate the conservative base.”
Democrats pounced on the Cruz news.
“Colorado doesn’t need a far right, never-compromise conservative in the Senate, and it’s clear from Ted Cruz’s endorsement of Darryl Glenn – that’s exactly who Glenn would be,” said Colorado Democratic Party spokesman Chris Meagher in a statement.
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