On impeachment, pressure on Colorado senator is from right

If Democrats were to have any hope of shaping Senate impeachment trial of President Donald Trump to ir liking, y'd need help from Republicans like Sen. Cory Gardner.

Gardner, a young and upbeat senator who didn't endorse Trump's 2016 election, represents Democratic-trending Coloro. But he's walked party line during Trump's impeachment and subsequent skirmishes over president's trial.

Gardner's statements on standoff that has seized Senate have largely aligned with president's most fervent defenders. He has slammed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and process Democrats used to impeach Trump in House and carefully avoided criticizing president.

Democrats have ackwledged that it's unlikely GOP-led Senate will remove Trump from office. But y h hoped impeachment will at least put pressure on some vulnerable Republican senators as Democrats fight to win chamber in vember.

Gardner's posture is one sign of limits of that strategy. While Democrats and Republicans battle over how and when to try president for high crimes and misdemears, Gardner and several or GOP senators in tight races this year have shown little inclination to risk wrath of Trump supporters at home.

It's a political calculation that values loyalty to Trump and his base over any bipartisan appeal. And it's one measure of grip Trump has over party.

“If (Gardner) does anything that turns off Trump base in Coloro, that's more dangerous than anything from or side,” said Dick Whams, a veteran GOP strategist in state. “I'm t sure impeachment complicates things any more for Cory.”

That dynamic also helps explain why or Republicans in competitive states, including Sens. Susan Collins in Maine, Thom Tillis in rth Carolina and Martha McSally in Arizona, have followed ir party's le on impeachment proceedings.

Democrats would need to net four seats to take back Senate -- or three seats plus win White House to have a tie-breaking vice president. One in ir ranks, Alabama Sen. Doug Jones, is considered vulnerable and also squeezed by impeachment. Democrats can also hope for surprises in places like Kansas, where Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said this week that he won't run for an open seat, leaving some Republicans worried about strength of ir candidates.

By some measures, Gardner is most endangered Republican on target list. He won by less than 2% of vote in 2014, elected largely on midterm backlash to President Barack Obama. In one , Gardner pledged that “when my party is wrong, I'll say it.”

Gardner was only Coloro Republican to win a top-of--ticket race in past 15 years, as an influx of white, college-educated transplants has shifted state's politics to left. In 2016, Trump lost Coloro by 5 percent points, and in 2018, Democrats won every single statewide race.

Gardner is hoping he can squeeze every vote out of Coloro's diminishing share of Republican voters. He also wants to appeal to state's long trition of pragmatic centrists with Coloro-specific efforts like allowing marijuana businesses to access banking system, expanding Rocky Mountain National Park and moving Bureau of Land Manment hequarters to western Coloro. His strategists think that combination could secure him reelection.

But analysts te it's a difficult path in a time when Trump dominates all political conversations.

“re's a lot of factors that are going to make things very difficult for Cory,” said Floyd Ciruli, a npartisan pollster based in Denver. “Impeachment just puts ar issue out re.”

Gardner has carefully limited his statements on impeachment, sparking helines in October when he refused to say that a politician should t solicit foreign help in an election. dodge includes a defense of president, suggesting Trump is victim of partisanship.

In a statement on Tuesday, Gardner spokeswoman Annalyse Keller said: “Senator Gardner believes Nancy Pelosi’s impeachment inquiry to appease far-left has been a total circus that has only served to divide this country. Senator Gardner will be a juror and unlike what has happened in House, he is confident process in Senate will be bipartisan and fair.”

key test on impeachment may come after trial begins and Republicans like Gardner are forced onto record on wher y want to mit new testimony and documents, as Democrats have vocated.

Gardner's alignment with president has been grual. senator rescinded his endorsement of Trump in October 2016 after Trump was caught on tape bragging about sexually assaulting women. But, after Trump's election, Gardner's criticism of president has been muted.

He chastised Trump after president appeared to blame “both sides" for violence at a white supremacist march in Charlottesville, Virginia. But Gardner has been careful t to be personally critical of president on any number of issues, from demands that Democratic congresswomen “go back” to ir home countries to complaints that immigrants come from Africa rar than rway.

Meanwhile, Gardner has backed many of president's priorities, including votes for Trump's health care proposal, tax plans and conservative judges. He also ran National Republican Senatorial Committee in 2018 and helped engineer a cling-to--president midterm strategy that expanded GOP majority even as y lost control of House.

“At this point he's shown his allegiance is to Trump and t to voters of Coloro,” Craig Hughes, a Democratic strategist in state, said of Gardner. “Once you've gone this far with Trump, a break probably gets you less than it costs you.”

Gardner's strategy contrasts with that of ar Coloro Republican, former Rep. Mike Coffman. Coffman continued to criticize Trump through his 2018 reelection campaign in a competitive district in Denver suburbs. Coffman lost by double digits.

Josh Penry, a Republican strategist who vised Coffman and dislikes Trump, said Gardner's reluctance to criticize president makes sense. If Gardner ever turned on president, Democrats would remain critical. “It'd be ‘thoughts and prayers’ and ‘it’s just words,'” he said, citing two criticisms thrown at Coffman during last election.

“You can never do eugh because this isn't about Trump,” Penry said. "It's that y want to defeat Cory Gardner.”