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Sen. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.) is throwing his support behind President Trump’s 2020 reelection bid, a move that could stir trouble for his own electoral prospects next year. Gardner, a onetime critic of Trump, told IJR that he was backing the president, because he believed Trump would do right by the people of Colorado. “Look, there are things here – look, I’ve made it very clear that where I agree with the president, we will agree or where I disagree, we will disagree,” Gardner said. “But I’m going to fight like hell for Colorado, and we’ve done some good things for...

Republican Rep. Mike Coffman (Colo.) says in a new interview that he tries to "tune out" President Trump whenever possible. “I try and tune out the president whenever I can, in terms of his tone and saying things that I think are inappropriate,” Coffman told BuzzFeed News for a story published Tuesday. "Unfortunately ... it takes a lot of oxygen," Coffman added. Coffman, who has previously criticized the Trump administration, is facing a difficult reelection bid in November's midterms against Democratic challenger Jason Crow. The nonpartisan Cook Political Report rates the race as a "toss-up," while FiveThirtyEight projects that Coffman...

A new ad targeting Rep. Mike Coffman (R-Colo.) for his gun-friendly policies features a hypothetical text conversation between a mother and child during a school lock down. The ad was released by a PAC run by former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.). According to Politico, the PAC intends to spend almost $1.5 million on TV and digital ads against the vulnerable congressman. Democrats are optimistic about their chances in November against Coffman, who is facing Jason Crow in Colorado’s 6th district. Cook Political Report rates the race as a “toss up.” The ad warns viewers that the pro-gun National Rifle Association...

WASHINGTON -- A Republican congressman said he'll use a rarely invoked maneuver Tuesday to force a bill to the floor for a vote that would protect DACA beneficiaries for the next three years. Politico reported Sunday that administration officials met to discuss how to roll out President Trump's decision to end the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which allowed qualified undocumented immigrants who were brought to the country illegally as children to apply for protected status. About 800,000 people are now registered under DACA. Rep. Mike Coffman (R-Colo.) introduced the Bar Removal of Individuals who Dream and Grow...

Republicans are trying to recruit Rep. Mike Coffman to challenge Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet in Colorado. If he stays put in the House, that gives the GOP a crop of candidates who could have a harder time in what will be one of Republicans’ few offensive opportunities in 2016. Coffman will have breakfast Thursday with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who will surely make the case to convince the four-term lawmaker to try and join him across the rotunda. Asked about recruitment efforts, Coffman quipped, “Pressure, pressure, pressure.” Coffman is taking his time. He told CQ Roll Call a decision...

Tensions ran high when Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert McDonald was grilled about mismanagement within the VA system during a House hearing Wednesday – a major veterans group is demanding an apology.Rep. Mike Coffman, R-Colo., a 22-year Marine Corps veteran, who saw combat in Iraq in the 1990s then returned to the country on active service in 2006, was questioning McDonald about Denver’s failed VA hospital construction project and accusing him of glossing over problems within the system when things got testy.After citing cost overrun and scheduling problems with a VA hospital construction in Denver, Coffman said it was a symbol...

GOP Rep. Cory Gardner won election to the Senate in the midterms in a state where 14 percent of voters are Hispanic. His GOP colleague, Rep. Mike Coffman, won re-election in a district where 14 percent of residents were born in foreign countries. Both opposed last year's failed bipartisan effort in the Senate to overhaul the nation's immigration system, a top priority of immigrant-rights groups, especially its centerpiece: a pathway to citizenship for most of the 11 million people living in the U.S. illegally. Both also spoke warmly of the contributions made by immigrants and shifted to the center on...

National Democrats are canceling more than $1 million of planned commercial airtime for Colorado congressional candidate Andrew Romanoff — a sign of waning confidence in his prospects. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee had reserved $1.4 million for TV spending to boost Romanoff in the final two weeks of his race against Republican Rep. Mike Coffman. .. Romanoff, a former state House speaker and unsuccessful 2010 Senate candidate, was once regarded as one of his party’s top 2014 hopefuls. But, with Republicans benefiting from a favorable national environment and Coffman running an energetic reelection campaign, Romanoff has seen his prospects dim....

Hey, remember Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), the guy who threw needless layers of bureaucracy at SpaceX because the private space company was doing its job of launching rockets into space a little too well? Well, it looks like he’s being joined by gentlemen from the other side of the Capitol: Three congressmen are trying to do the same thing.

U.S. Rep. Mike Coffman’s searing criticism of Former Montana Governor Schweitzer’s ridiculously sexist comments inspired some pretty damning headlines yesterday. But, Coffman’s opponent, Andrew Romanoff, was silent on the matter. And, now we know why – Schweitzer was in Colorado seven months ago stumping for Romanoff. ... Calling Diane Feinstein a prostitute-turned-nun is probably not the way to win friends and influence people, so we have to ask – will Romanoff denounce his fundraiser buddy’s comments? We’ve reached out to his campaign for comment. They responded with [drum roll] silence. ... They say you are who your friends are. Perhaps...

Surprise action outside Denver's Brown Palace Hotel this morning, as a press release from a coalition of groups including Together Colorado and the Colorado Immigration Reform Coalition (CIRC) explains: Outside a fundraiser headlined by House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) and Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) for Rep. Mike Coffman (R-CO) today, local leaders staged a rally to protest the fact that these three House Republicans are key obstacles standing in the way of immigration reform that would keep Colorado immigrant families together. It has been 322 days since the Senate passed a bipartisan immigration bill, but Speaker Boehner and House...

The head of the House Armed Services Committee dealt another blow to immigration reform efforts in the Republican-controlled House on Friday by deciding not to include in this year's defense policy bill GOP-written proposals that would permit undocumented immigrants to become legal U.S. residents if they serve in the military. Rep. Jeff Denham (R-Calif.) speaks during a recent subcommittee hearing. (J. Scott Applewhite/AP) Rep. Jeff Denham (R-Calif.) speaks during a recent subcommittee hearing. (J. Scott Applewhite/AP) The decision could cause considerable political trouble for Reps. Mike Coffman (R-Colo.) and Jeff Denham (R-Calif.) and other Republicans who represent districts with growing...

The chairman of the House Armed Services Committee says a proposal to allow illegal aliens to receive permanent legal residency by enlisting in the military won't be in the underlying text of a must-pass defense bill, dealing a serious blow to a push to enact the immigration measure. “I do not intend to include the ‘ENLIST’ Act in the proposed National Defense Authorization Act that I will submit to the Armed Services Committee next month. I have reached this conclusion without regard to my views on the underlying policy, but because I do not believe that the Chairman’s mark should...

The chairman of the House Armed Services Committee says a proposal to allow illegal aliens to receive permanent legal residency by enlisting in the military won't be in the underlying text of a must-pass defense bill, dealing a serious blow to a push to enact the immigration measure. “I do not intend to include the ‘ENLIST’ Act in the proposed National Defense Authorization Act that I will submit to the Armed Services Committee next month. I have reached this conclusion without regard to my views on the underlying policy, but because I do not believe that the Chairman’s mark should...

U.S. Rep. Mike Coffman (R-Aurora) blasted the Obama administration on Wednesday for suspending tuition assistance benefits for Army and Marine Corps servicemen, and called on the White House to restore funding to the program by paring back U.S. assistance to Egypt. “We are not under any obligation to continue to provide [Egypt] with over a billion and a half dollars in aid every year. Re-prioritizing this funding to our soldiers and Marines is the right thing to do,” said Coffman. Coffman has proposed trimming $500 million from unspent foreign aid to Egypt, and reprogramming the funding to the military tuition...

DENVER - A Colorado congressman is expanding his apology to President Barack Obama after publicly questioning his citizenship and his belief in American values. Rep. Mike Coffman of Aurora wrote a long apology published in Thursday's Denver Post. Coffman says his comments earlier this month were "boneheaded" and that he should not have questioned Obama's patriotism. Coffman wrote, "I should never have questioned the president's devotion to our country."

Republican Congressman Mike Coffman is concerned that a recent report on the 2009 Fort Hood shooting rampage caused by a Muslim Army psychiatrist does not include an analysis of Islamic extremism. Coffman, R-Aurora, wrote a letter to Secretary of Defense Robert Gates on Friday, warning of the “dangerous risk” to national security from not acknowledging the “threat posed by radical Islam.” “A political ideology has emerged that is fraudulently camouflaged within a religious tradition and is so twisted in its beliefs that it values death over life and uses terrorism as its only tactic,” wrote Coffman, a decorated military man....

Colorado Rep. Mike Coffman says it's time the U.S. took more aggressive action on the seas. He recommends arming merchant ships with military personnel. Coffman says the pirating problem is only going to get worse. "They may be less interested in taking hostages when the situation may be somewhat precarious for them to do so," Coffman said. "I think they are going to be more aggressive in their actions." Coffman says arming American merchant vessels with military personnel is also nothing new. "We did that in World War II, we posted military personnel on U.S.-flagged merchant vessels to provide protection....

State Sen. Steve Ward will join the crowded field running for retiring U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo's seat, he said in a phone interview Friday from Iraq. "I definitely want to be a candidate, certainly," Ward said from Fallujah, where he is serving as a colonel in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserves. "I make no bones about that." The 20-year Marine's candidacy would throw a wrench into Secretary of State Mike Coffman's rationale for leaving his post to seek the office, against his party's wishes. Coffman, who served in the first Gulf War as well as in Iraq last year, has...