Sen. Cory Gardner, R-Colo., has become a staunchly conservative voice against President Donald Trump and his administration, The Washington Post reports.
Gardner, the junior senator from Colorado, came to oppose Trump last year over the president's support of Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore. As chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, Gardner refused to back Moore financially after he was accused of making sexual advances towards teenage girls when the judge was in his 30s.
More recently, Gardner has spoken out against the Justice Department after Attorney General Jeff Sessions, a Trump appointee, announced that the department would change its policy towards the state-level legalization of marijuana.
"Cory didn't look for a fight in either case. It came to him and he responded vigorously. And to me, that's the model," Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., a friend of Gardner's, told the Post.
Gardner is "a very substantive senator, but he's also a very politically savvy senator," former Colorado GOP chairman Dick Wadhams told the newspaper. "Frankly, he will suffer some backlash from loyal Trump Republicans for doing this, but Cory looks at the bigger picture."
Gardner faces re-election in 2020, and his pro-states rights approach to marijuana legalization and his vocal refusal to support Moore could play well with both libertarian and liberal voters in his home state.
Cole added: "You're seeing a very able politician position himself personally on issues that are important to his state. And both the marijuana issue and the issue of sexual harassment are going to be pretty important in a swing state like Colorado."
Gardner previously chided Trump for not naming white nationalists as the cause for violence in Charlottesville, Va., last year.
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