Cory Gardner


Cory Scott Gardner is an American attorney and politician who served as a United States senator from Colorado from 2015 to 2021. A Republican, he was the U.S. representative for Colorado's 4th congressional district from 2011 to 2015 and a member of the Colorado House of Representatives from 2005 to 2011. As of 2025, he is the last Republican to serve Colorado in the U.S. Senate.
Gardner narrowly defeated Democratic incumbent Mark Udall in the 2014 Senate race. Gardner was chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee from 2017 to 2019. After the 2018 midterm elections, he and University of Colorado Regent Heidi Ganahl became the only Republicans to hold statewide elected office in Colorado. Gardner ran for re-election in 2020, but lost to former Governor John Hickenlooper.
He currently serves as president of NCTA - The Internet and Television Association, the trade group representing cable companies.

Early life and education

Gardner was born on August 22, 1974, in Yuma, Colorado, the son of Cindy L. and John W. Gardner. He is of Irish, German, Austrian, and English descent. He graduated summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts in political science in 1997 from Colorado State University, where he was a member of the FarmHouse fraternity.
In college, Gardner switched from the Democratic Party to the Republican Party and interned at the Colorado State Capitol. He went to law school at the University of Colorado to earn his Juris Doctor in 2001.

Early career

Prior to public office, Gardner worked at his family's implement business and served as spokesman for the
National Corn Growers Association. Gardner later served as general counsel and legislative director for former U.S. Senator Wayne Allard of Colorado from 2002 to 2005.

Colorado House of Representatives (2005-2011)

Elections

Gardner was appointed to the Colorado House of Representatives in 2005 and elected to a full term in 2006. He represented District 63 in the Colorado House of Representatives from 2005 through 2011.

Tenure

In 2006, Gardner proposed legislation to create a rainy-day fund to help protect the state from future economic downturns. His proposal relied on money made available by Referendum C—which allowed state revenue caps to be exceeded for five years—for future budget emergencies. He staunchly opposed any tax increases. He helped create the Colorado Clean Energy Development Authority which issued bonds to finance projects that involve the production, transportation and storage of clean energy until it was repealed in 2012.
Committee assignments
  • House Education Committee
  • House Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee
  • Legislative Council

    U.S. House of Representatives (2011-2015)

Elections

2010

Gardner won the Republican primary in the 4th Congressional District to challenge Democratic incumbent Betsy Markey. Also running were American Constitution Party nominee Doug Aden and Independent Ken "Wasko" Waszkiewicz. In an early September poll, Gardner was up 50% to 39% over Markey. Gardner was endorsed by former U.S. Congressman Tom Tancredo. On November 2, 2010, Gardner defeated Markey, 52%–41%.

2012

Gardner ran unopposed in the Republican primary before defeating Democratic nominee Brandon Shaffer 59%–37% in the general election. He was helped by the 2010 redistricting, which cut Fort Collins and Larimer County out of the district. Fort Collins had long been the 4th's largest city. For years, Larimer and the district's second-largest county, Weld County, home to Greeley, accounted for 85 percent of the district's population even though they only took up 15 percent of its land.

U.S. Senate (2015-2021)

Elections

2014

Gardner was the Republican nominee for Senate, and narrowly defeated incumbent Senator Mark Udall in the general election receiving 965,974 votes to Udall's 916,245,. No Labels performed independent get-out-the-vote efforts on behalf of its Problem Solvers, including Gardner.

2020

Gardner ran for reelection in 2020. During his tenure as a Senator, he notably did not hold many public town halls. At a February 2017 public town hall at Denver’s Byers Middle School, Gardner was represented instead by a cardboard cutout, dubbed "Cardboard Cory", created by Katie Farnan and friends. The concept developed staying power, and become an iconic four year protest campaign, showing up at protests and events around the state. Liberal groups including ProgressNow and Indivisible Colorado launched a 14-stop, statewide bus tour featuring Cardboard Cory and Coloradan constituents including Laura Packard during summer 2019. A short documentary film by Nick Rosen of Sender Films about Cardboard Cory's journey sponsored by Indivisible was released July 28, 2020. One of the Cardboard Cory cutouts was eventually given to Senator John Hickenlooper after his defeat of Gardner. According to The Colorado Sun, Gardner "decisively tied his reelection bid to President Donald Trump." He lost to the Democratic nominee, former governor John Hickenlooper by 301,622 votes.

Committees and caucuses

Committee assignments

In March 2019, Gardner was ranked the 5th most bipartisan senator of the 115th Congress by The Lugar Center and Georgetown's McCourt School of Public Policy, and was also ranked the 4th most bipartisan senator of the 116th Congress in May 2021. GovTrack noted that of the 157 bills Gardner cosponsored in 2017, 41% were introduced by legislators who were not Republican.

Abortion

Gardner identifies as pro-life and opposes legal abortions in most circumstances. He has also stated that he believes that abortion laws should be left up to the states. In 2006, Gardner opposed legislation that would allow pharmacists to prescribe emergency contraception and proposed an amendment to the Colorado state budget to prohibit the state Medicaid plan from purchasing Plan B emergency contraception. In 2007, he voted against a bill that would require hospitals to inform survivors of a sexual assault of the availability of emergency contraception.
In 2012, Gardner co-sponsored the controversial so-called "personhood" legislation titled the Life Begins at Conception Act. Gardner later said that he changed his mind on personhood after listening to voters. According to The Denver Post, "Gardner conceded that with his new position on personhood, he might be accused of flip-flopping simply to make himself more palatable to statewide voters." The nonpartisan Factcheck.org said "It would be clearer to say that Gardner supports efforts to ban abortion that could also ban some forms of birth control. As for his change of position, voters in Colorado should know Gardner still supports a federal bill that would prompt the same concerns over birth control as the state measure he says he rejects on the same grounds." In 2014, Gardner called for over-the-counter access to oral contraceptives and said the birth control pill would be safer and cheaper if it was available over the counter.

Donald Trump

In the 2016 presidential election, Gardner initially endorsed Donald Trump. In October, however, after the release of the Access Hollywood tape, Gardner said he would not vote for him, whom he called "a candidate whose flaws are beyond mere moral shortcomings and who shows a disgust for American character and a disdain for dignity unbecoming of the Presidency. I cannot and will not support someone who brags about degrading and assaulting women." Nevertheless, in the 2020 presidential election, Gardner endorsed Trump. Gardner voted with Trump 89% of the time during Trump's tenure as president. Gardner tied his 2020 reelection bid to the president. Trump's role was seen as posing a dilemma for Gardner; distancing himself from Trump risked angering some Republican voters and donors, but Trump was very unpopular with Democrats and independents. A Gardner advertisement on Facebook touting his close relationship with Trump did not run in the state.
In 2017, Gardner criticized Trump's response to the Unite the Right rally, writing, "Mr. President—we must call evil by its name. These were white supremacists and this was domestic terrorism." He also differed with Trump on some trade and foreign policy issues. In January 2018, he signed a letter urging the president to preserve and modernize the North American Free Trade Agreement. In March 2018, he criticized Trump for imposing a 10% tariff on aluminum imports and a 25% tariff on steel imports, arguing that they would lead to a trade war that would threaten the American economy, particularly agriculture. "I am concerned that a tariff can result in a tax on the very same people that we are trying to help in this economy," he said. In June 2019 Gardner again expressed concern over Trump's threats to impose tariffs on goods entering the United States from overseas. He argued that such tariffs would result in "a 1.1% tax increase for the lowest 20% of income earners; a 0.3% increase for those in the middle; and a zero net change for the upper middle class." Gardner said that by implementing harsh tariff policies America would be "turning backs on American workers and consumers."
In January 2019, Gardner was one of 11 Republican senators to vote to advance legislation intended to prevent Trump from lifting sanctions against 3 Russian companies. In January 2019, following a report that Trump had expressed interest in withdrawing from NATO several times during the previous year, Gardner was one of eight senators to reintroduce legislation to prevent Trump from withdrawing the United States from NATO by imposing a requirement of a two-thirds approval from the Senate for a president to suspend, terminate or withdraw American involvement with it. Gardner criticized Trump for perceived softness in dealing with North Korea. "The president has, I'm afraid, taken pressure off of North Korea. He believes it's a way for him to negotiate with Kim Jong Un. I believe it's a rope-a-dope." In April 2019, Gardner was one of 12 senators to sign a bipartisan letter to top senators on the Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development advocating that the Energy Department be granted maximum funding for carbon capture, utilization and storage, arguing that American job growth could be stimulated by investment in capturing carbon emissions and expressing disagreement with Trump's 2020 budget request to combine the two federal programs that do carbon capture research.