Cory Gardner

Cory Gardner

Cory Scott Gardner is an American attorney and politician serving as the junior United States Senator for Colorado since 2015. He was the U.S. Representative for Colorado’s 4th congressional district from 2011 to 2015 and a member of the Colorado House of Representatives from 2005 to 2011. Gardner defeated Democratic incumbent Mark Udall in the 2014 Senate race. Gardner lost his 2020 reelection bid to former Governor John Hickenlooper.

About Cory Gardner in brief

Summary Cory GardnerCory Scott Gardner is an American attorney and politician serving as the junior United States Senator for Colorado since 2015. He was the U.S. Representative for Colorado’s 4th congressional district from 2011 to 2015 and a member of the Colorado House of Representatives from 2005 to 2011. Gardner defeated Democratic incumbent Mark Udall in the 2014 Senate race. Gardner was chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee from 2017 to 2019. Gardner lost his 2020 reelection bid to former Governor John Hickenlooper. Gardner has said that he is pro-life and that abortion laws should be left up to the states. In April 2018, the Lugar Center and Georgetown’s McCourt School of Public Policy ranked Gardner the 8th most bipartisan senator in the first session of the 115th United States Congress. The nonpartisan Factcheck org said that Gardner supports efforts to ban some forms of birth control and that he could also support a ban on some abortion forms. In 2012, Gardner co-sponsored the controversial legislation titled the Conception Act of Life Begins at Conception, which would have required hospitals to inform sexual assault survivors of the sexual assault of the state Medicaid plan. Gardner said he changed his mind on personhood after listening to voters. He said that with his new position onpersonhood, he might be accused of flip-flopping simply to make himself more palatable to statewide voters. The University of Colorado Regent Heidi Ganahl became the only Republicans to hold statewide elected office in Colorado after the 2018 midterm elections.

Gardner is of Irish, German, Austrian, and English descent. He graduated summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts in political science in 1997 from Colorado State University. In college, Gardner switched from the Democratic Party to the Republican Party and interned at the Colorado State Capitol. Gardner ran unopposed in the Republican primary before defeating Democratic nominee Brandon Shaffer 59%–37% in the general election. In November 2010, Gardner defeated Markey, 52%–41%. Gardner was endorsed by former U. S. Congressman Tom Tancredo. In an early September poll, Gardner was up 50% to 39% over Markey. He helped create the Colorado Clean Energy Development Authority which issued bonds to finance projects that involve the production, transportation and storage of clean energy until it was repealed in 2012. In 2006, Gardner proposed legislation to create a rainy-day fund to help protect the state from future economic downturns. In 2007, Gardner voted against a bill requiring survivors of a sexual assault to inform hospitals of the sex assault of their loved ones so that they could receive treatment. In 2008, Gardner opposed legislation to allow pharmacists to prescribe emergency contraception and proposed an amendment to prohibit the Colorado state plan from purchasing Plan B emergency contraception. In 2009, Gardner supported a bill that would prohibit the sale of Plan B to survivors of sexual assault. He ran for reelection in 2020, but lost to the Democratic nominee, former governor John Hennylooper, who was also running for governor.