in Colorado is moving to secure endorsements from top GOP leaders before the Republican National Convention next week in Cleveland.
And Robert Blaha will help lead the effort.
Patrick Davis, , recently named the former U.S. Senate candidate as a campaign co-chairman. Blaha will help organize a committee of state leaders for Trump, Davis said Monday.
For Blaha, itap a quick return to political life. The Colorado Springs businessman finished a distant third in on June 28, taking 16.5 percent of the vote in a five-way race in which he loaned his campaign $1 million. Itap his second losing bid, after he challenged incumbent Republican U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn in the 2012 primary.
In the latest campaign, Blaha initially supported Ted Cruz but became the most vocal Trump supporter in the race, a “man of vision and courage” as others expressed skepticism. Davis ran a low-profile super PAC supporting Blaha’s campaign.
on the trail, Blaha emphasized the need for an outside voice with business world credentials and carried a sometimes-brash approach to politicking. But at other points the comparisons and criticized the presidential candidate’s rhetoric.
Either way, now he’s carrying the Trump campaign message. In his new volunteer role, he will make campaign and talk radio appearances as a Colorado surrogate for the presumptive GOP nominee. His role is a nod to the fact that Trump doesn’t have many high-profile endorsements in the state so far.
He acknowledged that some Republicans have reservations about Trump. This is his message to them: “We are going to have a very clear directional choice that, regardless of how anybody might feel philosophically, there’s not a third choice,” he said in an interview Monday. “So we have to pick a direction, and that direction is going to be the Republican direction. For people who are not yet bought into that … I think all we have to do is be very clear about the two different roads that are in front of us.”
Will Trump’s message resonate, even though Blaha’s didn’t? Blaha suggested itap a different situation.
“I think in my case there were a lot of powers that weighed in from Washington,” he said, a reference to the conservative groups that backed rival Darryl Glenn and propelled him to victory. “They had their money in the game, and they had their way in the game.”
“I don’t think I can look at my case and draw a parallel between myself and Mr. Trump,” he continued. “I do think that there’s a lot of Republicans that I’m talking to that are coming very quickly into the Trump camp. The Trump train is going to be crowded pretty quick.”