GOP straw poll U.S. Senate favorite Hanks says he won’t ‘pretend climate change is a real issue’

In a YouTube video released earlier this month, Colorado U.S. Senate candidate and state Rep. Ron Hanks (R-Cañon City) said he does not believe that climate change is a real issue.

“We’ve got to start marketing the truth,” Hanks said. “I don’t want to sit here and pretend climate change is a real issue. It’s called weather. [applause] They have used it as a lever to control policy and to control conversation and we have got to push back.”

Hanks is responding to a question at what appears to be a candidate forum for Republicans looking to unseat U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet (D-CO), given that he is sitting next to fellow candidate Peter Yu. The question Hanks is answering was how candidates would respond to attacks from Bennet about climate change.

Hanks continued his answer by saying climate change is a plot by China to prevent the U.S. from expanding domestic manufacturing.

“Their climate change concepts are also another line of effort from China,” Hanks said. “Remember how I talked about getting manufacturing back into the United States? Well just like the green movement in Europe during the nuclear era of Reagan they have got us to shut down our power plants and coal plants early so we cannot manufacture in our country. And that is a serious effort from China to emasculate us.”

Here is a link to the full video of the exchange.

The video was posted by a YouTube account labeled Ron Hanks for US Senate which has other videos from the same event. In those videos, Hanks discusses the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Canadian trucker convoys, the Second Amendment, and Joe Biden.

Hanks is a QAnon and election-fraud conspiracy theorist. He attended the Capitol attack and crossed police barriers there. Last year, as a member of Colorado’s House of Representatives, Hanks made racist comments downplaying the Three/Fifths Compromise.

So far this year, Hanks has won three different straw polls at Republican Senate candidate forums and debates across the state.

Last week a bill sponsored by Hanks that would have limited early voting and the option to vote by mail in Colorado failed in committee.

Despite what Hanks claims, climate change is a real issue and caused by humans, according to vast scientific consensus. Also, the titanic effect of climate change is causing environmental disasters, such as wildfire and drought, here in Colorado.

Editor’s note: This story first appeared in the Colorado Times Recorder.