Republican Ron Hanks, a Colorado state representative who participated in the protest at the Capitol on January 6th and spouts conspiracies on the floor of the legislature, has filed paperwork to challenge Democratic Senator Michael Bennett in 2022, Colorado Newsline reports.
The single-term state legislator, who was once known as Loren Hanks, ran for Congress in California in 2010. He lost that election badly to Democrat Mike Thompson. Hanks has repeated the debunked conspiracy theory that Donald Trump won the November 2020 election.
"State Representative Ron Hanks participated in the U.S. Capitol riot on January 6th and joked about lynching in the 2021 legislative session," Colorado Democratic Party Chair Morgan Carroll said in a statement. "He is a right wing extremist and insurrectionist. Hanks' entry into the crowded GOP primary is proof of Trump's strong influence over the Colorado Republican Party."