Former U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo is considering a run for Colorado governor in 2018 in a move that he hopes is a shot across the bow at the Republican Party.
The conservative firebrand told The Denver Post on Wednesday that he is thinking about another run after two losing bids in 2010 and 2014. “I certainly have concerns about the party and the people running,” he said in an interview.
Tancredo, a hard-line anti-immigration advocate and an , is “infuriated” at the party’s silence after a Colorado Springs resort for the white nationalist organization VDARE Foundation, where he was scheduled to speak.
A writer for VDARE.com helped organize the demonstration in Charlottesville, Va., that turned violent and led to the death of a counterprotester. But Tancredo considered the Cheyenne Mountain Resortap move to cancel the April 2018 event an affront to free speech.
“Not one Republican in this state, no one elected or running for office, has the guts to say, ‘What the hell is going on?’” he said. “What ever happened with the First Amendment? Have we totally annihilated it in our rush to appease the left?
“Honestly,” he added, “if you are going to run for public office I think it’s incumbent … to speak up.”
A Republican activist with the Golden-based is circulating a petition to draft Tancredo, who served five terms in Congress, to run against the “Democrats and liberal Republicans” in the race. Tancredo is celebrated for his stance against illegal immigration.
A message sent to the federal political action committee was not returned Wednesday.
The Southern Poverty Law Center as an anti-immigration hate organization aligned with white nationalists. Its founder, “an American hero.”
Tancredo defended his affiliation with the organization and called the actions of both sides of the Charlottesville protest “repugnant.”
“The whole thing from beginning to end is repugnant it seems to me,” he said.
To run for the GOP nomination for governor, Tancredo would need to register as a Republican. He in 2015, saying he could no longer defend “this transparently dishonest charade called the Republican Party.”
The one-time presidential candidate on the American Constitution Party ticket, splitting conservatives and giving Gov. John Hickenlooper an easy win. He sought the GOP nomination in 2014 but .
He tempered talk about whether he would run again — and join the eight current candidates — by saying he’s not sure whether he is serious about re-entering politics.
“Of course, I thought about it,” Tancredo said about a potential bid. Then, he added, “periodically I’d take a cold shower and rethink it.”
Still, the speculation drew interest from the liberal organization ProgressNow, which helps elect Democrats.
“The kind of hateful politics for decades on the right that fueled the political rise of Congressman Tancredo is exactly what gave us President Donald Trump,” said Ian Silverii, the group’s executive director. “A Tancredo candidacy could unite the Colorado Republican Party, but it would divide Colorado.”