Senate candidates discuss healthcare, immigration

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(The Center Square) - Voters in Colorado will head to the polls on June 30 to elect partisan candidates in a U.S. Senate race.

Issues for the primary election vary from healthcare to immigration.

Colorado’s U.S. Senate race will be the first reelection bid for Sen. John Hickenlooper, 74, who said he will not run for reelection after this cycle. However, progressive challenger Julie Gonzales and Republican Mark Baisley said they can beat Hickenlooper. 

Gonzales and Hickenlooper will face off on June 30 to determine the Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate in the Nov. 3 general election. Baisley, the only Republican candidate for U.S. Senate, is running unopposed in the primary and will run against the Democratic candidate in November.

Baisley, a state senator in Colorado’s 4th District, initially placed a bid for the Colorado governor’s race. He dropped the bid in January to run for U.S. Senate, citing a crowded Republican primary and the chance to flip a Senate seat.

He pointed to Gonzales, a state senator, running against Hickenlooper in the Democratic primary. Baisley said her candidacy proved he could realistically challenge Hickenlooper.

“It told me for the first time that perhaps John Hickenlooper is vulnerable,” Baisley told The Center Square in an interview.

Gonzales, 43, has repeatedly criticized Hickenlooper’s moderate stances on issues and called for more progressive policies. She called for abolishing private healthcare insurance, increasing federal home building and raising the federal minimum wage.

“Will we continue to engage in six more years of ‘go along to get along politics,’ or will we make history by electing the first woman in Colorado’s history to serve in the U.S. Senate?” Gonzales told a local radio station.

Gonzales did not respond to The Center Square’s requests for an interview.

Hickenlooper refuted claims his tenure has been too moderate.

“My track record shows that I don’t shy away from big fights,” Hickenlooper said, answering The Center Square's questions by email. “As governor, we expanded healthcare to half a million Coloradans and created the world’s first methane regulations to fight climate change. We took on the NRA and won, creating strong gun control laws and saving lives. We helped save and pass the largest investment to fight climate change — ever.”

Healthcare has become a primary concern among candidates in the general election. Hickenlooper voted against the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, citing his concerns over the legislation's Medicaid cuts.

Baisley said the cuts were designed to prevent illegal immigrants from obtaining healthcare benefits.

“It’s so critical that we stop requiring Americans to fund healthcare and mental health and so on of folks who are in the country uninvited,” Baisley said. “They need to go home.”

Hickenlooper called on Congress to reverse cuts proposed in the legislation and create a public option for Medicare to negotiate drug prices. He said passing a bill for a public option would “root out fraud and abuse” in the healthcare system.

“Healthcare is a right,” Hickenlooper said.

Baisley said he supports placing more restrictions on insurance companies to prevent price gouging prescription medications. He said his time as a state senator has exposed him to the unfair practices in the industry.

Baisley said he would support a proposal from U.S. Sen. Rick Scott, R-Florida, to implement the More Affordable Care Act. The legislation would provide Americans with funds through health savings accounts to choose providers for medical care, rather than having a single provider.

“The consumer is making more decisions on where to spend their dollars because it will be their dollars that they will be spending out of their HSA debit card,” Baisley said. “We need to involve the consumer more, and I think that would just be a big advantage because market forces are a wonderful thing.”

Immigration has also been a critical issue for candidates across Colorado’s Senate race. Hickenlooper called for the complete overhaul of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. He also floated the idea of shutting down the agency.

“We’ve voted against giving ICE another penny because they’ve refused to stop their violence and lawlessness,” Hickenlooper said. “We’ll continue fighting to get more Coloradans released from ICE detention, but we also need to actually fix our broken immigration system.”

Hickenlooper said reforms to the immigration system need to include a pathway to citizenship for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals recipients, individuals on temporary protected status visas and other workers.

“The president’s secret police are dragging people out of their cars. They’re shooting and killing them,” Hickenlooper said. “They’re targeting our neighbors, our families, and our friends – not the violent criminals they should be. That’s why we’ve voted against sending a single penny to ICE and are fighting to pass legislation to stop their violence.”

Baisley said rhetoric against the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement policies has caused further divisiveness in Congress. He pointed to the shutdown of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in the beginning of the year and Hickenlooper’s rhetoric against ICE agents.

“If you’re calling them secret police, then we’re really far away from each other philosophically,” Baisley said. “The Biden administration just kicked open the doors and allowed all kinds of folks to come in, including criminal minds and mentally disturbed folk and to not to fight against the protection of the individual people who are truly individually suffering in rape and death, and theft.”

Gonzales has touted her record as a state senator, particularly with immigration enforcement. She touted policies to prevent ICE agents from accessing state databases, expanding in-state college tuition to noncitizen students and establishing a legislative office to handle immigration cases.

Hickenlooper has a massive fundraising advantage over Gonzales and Baisley with more than $5.7 million in contributions toward his campaign over the last year, according to most recent Federal Election Commission filings.

He has received contributions from the Solar Energy Industry Political Action Committee, American Israel Public Affairs Committee PAC and the American Financial Services Association PAC.

Gonzales follows with more than $443,000 in contributions and Baisley with more than $31,000. Gonzales received contributions from the Service Employees International Union and several individual donations.

Baisley has also been primarily supported by small, individual contributions throughout his campaign.

Polls are open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on June 30, Election Day. For more information visit the Secretary of State’s website, coloradosos.gov/pubs/elections. Early election results will be published on the evening of June 30 at www.thecentersquare.com/colorado.