The event included remarks from U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet, Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser, and local nonprofit leaders and activists about extremist politicians’ escalated attacked on LGBTQ+ people and how Coloradans can support pro-equality, pro-choice, and pro-democracy candidates up and down the ballot.
HRC’s election program will mobilize 1.5 million “Equality Voters” in Colorado for whom LGBTQ+ equality is a make-or-break issue through volunteer canvassing, phone banking, voter registration drives, among other efforts. HRC’s strategy will be fueled in part by a highly energized grassroots network that includes volunteers across the state. HRC endorsed Sen. Michael Bennet and Attorney General Phil Weiser earlier this year.
Please view a recording of the remarks and photos from the event. Remarks came from:
U.S. Senator Michael Bennet:
“There is a lot at stake this year on the ballot. There are obviously candidates at stake but what is really at stake is our democracy. Our country’s history has always been a battle between the highest ideals on the one hand that we wrote down in the pages of the Constitution – words that the Attorney General knows well – and the worst impulses in human history… We cannot let the Supreme Court be the last word on a woman’s right to choose, we must make sure that we elect pro-equality majorities in the House and Senate – both here and in Washington, DC – and we’ve got to make sure that we’re constantly on the side of those higher ideals.”
Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser:
“In the Dobbs decision, Justice Clarence Thomas said the quiet words out loud. This Supreme Court is ready to overturn marriage equality, which means marriage equality is on the ballot... Everyone deserves to be protected. Everyone is worthy of equal treatment under the law. We in Colorado have made a transition that we must continue to be vigilant about – from the ‘hate state’ to the first state to elect an openly gay person as its governor. We can do that again this year when we fight for equality on the ballot.”
Brandi Hardy, Associate Regional Campaign Director at the Human Rights Campaign:
“We’re here today because every family, every child, and every Coloradan deserves the same protections as everyone else – to live their lives with safety, dignity, privacy, and free from discrimination. We deserve leaders who will fight for all of us. I know many of you share my pride in being a Coloradan and living in a state that has many protections for LGBTQ+ people. But we also know that our fight for equality is far from over. Today, the rights of millions of Americans across the country are being held hostage by an extremist minority of anti-equality judges and politicians who are stripping away the rights of LGBTQ+ people, women, and people of color — attacking our families, our right to vote, and our right to make decisions about our own bodies…We refuse to sit by and the majority of Americans will send a strong message by showing up at the ballot box this November.”
Matthew Bell, Political, Organizing, and Field Manger at One Colorado:
“With so much at stake this year, we continue to advocate for equality for the LGBTQ+ community. We’re encouraging our supporters to vote with pride in the November 8 election.”
HRC’s Commitment to Colorado
Equality Voters, including the 1.5 million in Colorado, are a voting bloc of demographically and geographically diverse Americans who are united by the advancement of LGBTQ+ equality. Equality Voters are younger, more racially diverse, and more female than the general electorate, they recognize and trust the HRC brand, and they are more likely to identify with issue-specific organizations than candidates or political parties.
Across the country, HRC PAC works every day to elect pro-equality leaders who support policies that will support the rights and lives of LGBTQ+ people. During the 2020 election cycle, HRC staff on the ground recruited 5,800 individual volunteers nationwide who completed 28,500 hours of voter contact in more than 2,650 volunteer events. HRC engaged in robust digital and online GOTV efforts, including sending over 2.7 million person-to-person text messages, a massive increase from 2018 when approximately 500,000 texts were sent. HRC sent over 2.5 million mail pieces, had over 930,000 phone conversations with voters, and engaged more than 200,000 voters through HRC’s voter dashboard at hrc.org/vote.
