GOP Senate Candidate Runs Away From Trump: ‘I Hope He Doesn’t Run. I Don’t Want to See Him as President’

Colorado Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate, Joe O’Dea, distanced himself from former President Donald Trump on Friday, while on a local Colorado radio program.

“As far as Trump’s concerned, I hope he doesn’t run,” O’Dea told KOA radio’s Ross Kaminsky. “I don’t want to see him as president.”

Kaminsky noted that when he asked O’Dea “a question he hadn’t heard” him answer yet and fully expected the Republican to dodge. “I think most Republicans, especially in swing states, would have dodged the question,” Kaminsky wrote of the interview, in which he asked O’Dea if Trump should run for president in 2024.

Kaminsky praised O’Dea for the straightforward answer and noted that the candidate “is sticking with his distinctly moderate-conservative what’s-best-for-Colorado approach.”

Of course, O’Dea’s answer may also just be wise electoral politics as President Joe Biden won Colorado by some 13 points over Trump in 2020. The forty-fifth president has struggled in the Mountain West as states like Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, and even deep red Utah are skeptical of Trumpism.

“I think a lot of people are ready to move our country forward. So I wouldn’t support him running again,” O’Dea added.

The Colorado Republican also pulled no punches in his evaluation of Biden, deriding the sitting president as the “worst president we’ve ever had.”

“Look, I don’t think Biden should run for president, and he’s senile,” added O’Dea. “We’re done with that.”

O’Dea will face incumbent Sen. Michael Bennet (D-CO) in November, after he beat the Trump-aligned Ron Hanks in the GOP primary, despite Hanks getting an advertising boost from Democrats who saw him as the weaker general election candidate.

When asked who he would like to see run for the 2024 GOP nomination, O’Dea said, “There’s a lot of great talent out there, we need to move this country forward. I think that seeing a Biden-Trump rematch again in 2024 would rip the country apart.”

When pushed to name names, O’Dea mentioned Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL), Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC), and Nikki Haley as potential candidates he would back.