Republican voters on June 30 will choose between nominating U.S. Rep. Jeff Hurd for reelection to Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District or backing Ron Hanks, a former state lawmaker and Air Force veteran.
It’s a rematch of sorts for the two candidates, but their first time facing off head-to-head. In 2024, Hurd defeated Hanks and four others in a crowded field for the Republican nomination after the incumbent U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert switched districts.
The predominantly rural district covers most of Colorado’s Western Slope, stretching into Pueblo and southeastern Colorado.
Jeff Hurd, 46, is serving his first term in the U.S. House of Representatives. Hurd is an attorney who started his own law practice in 2014, then joined Ireland Stapleton Pryor & Pascoe PC as manager of its local branch. He lives in Grand Junction.
Ron Hanks, 61, is a former state lawmaker who served one term in the Colorado House beginning in 2021. Before that, he served in the U.S. Air Force as a linguist and intelligence officer. He lives in Cañon City.
The Colorado Sun attempted to interview both candidates to see where they stand on the war in Iran, immigration, healthcare, and other top issues. Hurd declined to participate.
Here are Hanks’ answers.
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- What will you do to bring down gas prices?
- Do you think Congress should repeal the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare? If yes, what should it be replaced with?
- When Congress passed H.R. 1, the federal tax and spending bill, it imposed work requirements for Medicaid and eliminated tax credits for Obamacare plans. Did you support that? Why or why not?
- Colorado’s childcare system is in crisis. Families of all incomes can’t afford care and providers are struggling to stay in business. How would you help families afford to raise children in Colorado?
- The agriculture industry in Colorado has faced a number of economic headwinds over the last several years, including volatile commodity prices, tariffs and cuts to federal food assistance. What will you do to help farmers?
- President Trump has repeatedly attacked mail-in balloting. Do you support Colorado’s election system and will you protect it from federal interference? Or do you think Congress should pass a law changing how the state’s elections are run?
- Did you support Gov. Polis’ decision to grant clemency to Tina Peters?
- President Trump has proposed creating a $1.776 billion fund to compensate people who he says have been unfairly targeted by the Justice Department, including those involved in the Jan. 6 breach of the Capitol. Do you support creating that fund? And do you think people who attacked police officers on Jan. 6 should be eligible for compensation?
- President Trump also wants Congress to approve $1 billion for his White House ballroom project. Would you vote to approve funding for that?
- Do you support President Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration?
- Do you support continued U.S. military funding for Israel? If so, should there be restrictions or conditions imposed on that funding?
- Do you support the U.S. war against Iran?
- When the president returned to office, he instituted mass layoffs across the federal government, and often without much direction or input from Congress. Did you support those cuts and how they were handled?
- Under the Trump administration, the Environmental Protection Agency rescinded its endangerment finding on greenhouse gases. Do you think the federal government should be regulating greenhouse gases and trying to limit climate change?
- Do you think Congress should pass a law regulating artificial intelligence? If yes, what regulations do you support?
- How would you improve housing affordability for Coloradans?
GAS PRICES
What will you do to bring down gas prices?
Jeff Hurd
Hurd declined to participate in the Sun’s issue guide.
Ron Hanks
“I think the inflation is all about the conflict with Iran,” Hanks said. “Prior to that, gas and diesel were headed in the right direction. So what I think we need to do is get on with it with Iran.”
OBAMACARE
Do you think Congress should repeal the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare? If yes, what should it be replaced with?
Jeff Hurd
Hurd declined to participate in the Sun’s issue guide.
Ron Hanks
“I’m not a fan of Obamacare. I think it’s been a disaster,” Hanks said, adding that he would “root out fraud” in the healthcare system if elected. “I’d like to see medical care go back to being between a patient and his or her doctor and really get the government out of it as much as possible. It’s going to take some time to get there because we are so enmeshed in a government system.”
BIG BEAUTIFUL BILL
When Congress passed H.R. 1, the federal tax and spending bill, it imposed work requirements for Medicaid and eliminated tax credits for Obamacare plans. Did you support that? Why or why not?
Jeff Hurd
Hurd declined to participate in the Sun’s issue guide.
Ron Hanks
”I’m not a big fan of the Big Beautiful Bill,” Hanks said. But, he added, he probably would have voted for it “because Congress is so useless and it’s the best we could have done with the incompetence and corruption in place.”
Hanks said there should have been more cuts to healthcare spending in the bill. “It should have been a budget reduction.”
CHILDCARE
Colorado’s childcare system is in crisis. Families of all incomes can’t afford care and providers are struggling to stay in business. How would you help families afford to raise children in Colorado?
Jeff Hurd
Hurd declined to participate in the Sun’s issue guide.
Ron Hanks
Hanks cited a viral right-wing claim that Somali-run daycares in Minnesota had committed “billions upon billions” of dollars in fraud. (News reports and subsequent state investigations have debunked the fraud allegations as false.)
“If we got rid of the fraud do you think we might actually be able to tax the people less and they could keep more of their money rather than shoveling it to the state and the federal governments?” Hanks said. “The faster we can root it out, the better off we are.”
AGRICULTURE
The agriculture industry in Colorado has faced a number of economic headwinds over the last several years, including volatile commodity prices, tariffs and cuts to federal food assistance. What will you do to help farmers?
Jeff Hurd
Hurd declined to participate in the Sun’s issue guide.
Ron Hanks
Hanks said he considers water the biggest issue for farmers, and he supports efforts to desalinate water in California to alleviate the demands on the Colorado River. He also wants to look into severing water rights from property ownership. “We have people coming in, buying land, selling the water rights, and then you got a desert you can never get water back on top of,” he said.
Hanks also wants to limit foreign ownership of farmland, and he said he’d work to promote family farms over large corporations.
MAIL-IN VOTING
President Trump has repeatedly attacked mail-in balloting. Do you support Colorado’s election system and will you protect it from federal interference? Or do you think Congress should pass a law changing how the state’s elections are run?
Jeff Hurd
Hurd declined to participate in the Sun’s issue guide.
Ron Hanks
“Colorado’s election system is complete and utter trash,” Hanks said. “It is not the gold standard that these BSers have said.”
Hanks said the state needed to “zero out” its voter rolls to prevent fraud, and “we should stop mail-in balloting. We have no confidence in the chain of custody.” (Elections experts insist Colorado’s mail-in voting system is secure and voter fraud is rare.)
“Both sides of the political spectrum have to have confidence that their vote matters and that all votes were counted fairly, and that all votes were from legitimate voters,” he said. “If not, we have civil unrest and even civil war.”
TINA PETERS
Did you support Gov. Polis’ decision to grant clemency to Tina Peters?
Jeff Hurd
Hurd declined to participate in the Sun’s issue guide.
Ron Hanks
“I did,” Hanks said. “The sentence was ridiculous for who she was as far as a nonprior offender.”
He said he believed her sentencing was political. “I haven’t had much to agree with Jared Polis on, but I agree with that. I wish he’d have done it a little sooner.”
“WEAPONIZATION FUND”
President Trump has proposed creating a $1.776 billion fund to compensate people who he says have been unfairly targeted by the Justice Department, including those involved in the Jan. 6 breach of the Capitol. Do you support creating that fund? And do you think people who attacked police officers on Jan. 6 should be eligible for compensation?
Jeff Hurd
Hurd declined to participate in the Sun’s issue guide.
Ron Hanks
Hanks said he was at the Capitol rally on Jan. 6, 2021, which he described as “a peaceful protest.” He blamed Capitol police for trying to “foment hostilities,” and said he did not go into the building because it seemed like a bad idea.
(Trump supporters violently breached the Capitol while Congress was attempting to certify the election results, and more than 1,200 people were convicted of crimes related to the attack. After his reelection, President Trump granted sweeping clemency to those involved.)
“I support the fund,” Hanks said. “I support the idea that those people were pardoned. I think that their incarceration was fundamentally un-American.”
BALLROOM
President Trump also wants Congress to approve $1 billion for his White House ballroom project. Would you vote to approve funding for that?
Jeff Hurd
Hurd declined to participate in the Sun’s issue guide.
Ron Hanks
“I haven’t heard that yet,” Hanks said. “I thought that the funding was all private (donations) up to this point. I see the value in the structure and I think probably Trump will do a decent job with it. I would try to kick it back to the White House, and say, ‘hey, you said private, why don’t we keep working on the private side of it?’”
Hanks said that as a Republican Congressman, “you may ultimately have to support it … but I wouldn’t approve it right away.”
IMMIGRATION CRACKDOWN
Do you support President Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration?
Jeff Hurd
Hurd declined to participate in the Sun’s issue guide.
Ron Hanks
“I do, absolutely,” Hanks said. “And I think we have to work very hard” to end Colorado’s “sanctuary state” policies, which prohibit local law enforcement from cooperating with federal immigration officials.
Hanks pointed to his experience in the U.S. military, and said he was concerned about terrorists from the Middle East entering the country in retaliation for the Iran conflict. “We have legitimate serious problems, we have to crack down on it,” he said. “We have to know every single person that came across.”
ISRAEL FUNDING
Do you support continued U.S. military funding for Israel? If so, should there be restrictions or conditions imposed on that funding?
Jeff Hurd
Hurd declined to participate in the Sun’s issue guide.
Ron Hanks
Hanks said the question unfairly “singles out Israel” when the U.S. arms other countries in the region, including Saudi Arabia, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates.
“I don’t have a problem with it in the sense of, we’re not picking one ally over another,” he said. “We’ve got military cooperation with many, many countries.”
IRAN WAR
Do you support the U.S. war against Iran?
Jeff Hurd
Hurd declined to participate in the Sun’s issue guide.
Ron Hanks
“I support this military operation,” Hanks said, pointing to his experience in the U.S. Air Force as a linguist in the Middle East. “It’s been 47 years of terror from Iran, but we need to finish it up and we need to get the oil flowing again.”
GOVERNMENT CUTS
When the president returned to office, he instituted mass layoffs across the federal government, and often without much direction or input from Congress. Did you support those cuts and how they were handled?
Jeff Hurd
Hurd declined to participate in the Sun’s issue guide.
Ron Hanks
“I did, and I frankly think there could and should be more,” Hanks said, adding that federal worker unions have too much power, which “puts the taxpayer at a disadvantage.”
“I think the federal government ought to have the right to hire and fire,” Hanks said. “People that apply and take jobs with the government should fully understand that it can be a cyclical process just like the private sector.”
CLIMATE CHANGE
Under the Trump administration, the Environmental Protection Agency rescinded its endangerment finding on greenhouse gases. Do you think the federal government should be regulating greenhouse gases and trying to limit climate change?
Jeff Hurd
Hurd declined to participate in the Sun’s issue guide.
Ron Hanks
“No, I think climate change has proven itself to be largely the crisis that government was looking for to fund things that ultimately end up being a pathway to grift,” Hanks said. “Climate change was Al Gore’s favorite crisis, and I think fundamentally we’ve seen how little impact any government program has had on climate change.”
AI REGULATION
Do you think Congress should pass a law regulating artificial intelligence? If yes, what regulations do you support?
Jeff Hurd
Hurd declined to participate in the Sun’s issue guide.
Ron Hanks
Not at this point, Hanks said. “I think that remains to be seen. I think let’s see what AI does first.”
He said privacy concerns about AI are a “straw man” argument, saying the federal government invades people’s privacy more than tech companies do. “People raise the alarm that AI is going to know everything about you,” he said. ”Well, the federal government already does.”
HOUSING
How would you improve housing affordability for Coloradans?
Jeff Hurd
Hurd declined to participate in the Sun’s issue guide.
Ron Hanks
Hanks said he would allow more logging on federal lands to provide construction materials and bring down housing costs. “We should use our forests to produce construction material rather than just letting it all burn down,” he said, adding that federal land and wildlife agencies have gone into “environmental lockdown” since the 1960s and 1970s.
Hanks said he also wants to reduce regulations that drive up construction costs, like requiring indoor sprinkler systems to contain house fires.