Gordon Klingenschmitt, a former U.S. Navy chaplainwho believes homosexuality is a sin and often compares President Barack Obama to a demon on his daily religious television show, won this week’s Republican primary for state representative in an eastern El Paso County district.
The District 15 Republican candidate has also said that ” Obamacare causes cancer.”
Klingenschmitt, who bested opponent Dave Williams by roughly 300 votes, now faces a Democrat for the vacant seat in the Colorado House. However, Klingenschmitt’s rhetoric and beliefs have raised alarm with members of the Republican Party, who worry that his views might cause problems for conservatives.
“Gordon does not speak on behalf of the Republican Party. To suggest otherwise is inaccurate and dishonest,” said Ryan Call, chairman of the Colorado Republican Party.
Klingenschmitt, a 46-year-old graduate of the Air Force Academy, says he is ready to be a “team player” and that he declines “to talk about his religious views as a candidate.” But he said, if elected, he will continue his daily half-hour religious-based news show, broadcast on DirecTV and other, smaller outlets.
“If people want to know my religious views, they should come to church and hear them,” Klingenschmitt said in an interview Thursday with The Denver Post. “But this campaign is not about my religious views.”
However, his outspoken religious beliefs have crossed into the realm of popular politics, including homosexuality and Obama.
“Father in heaven, we pray against the domestic enemies of the Constitution — against this demon of tyranny who is using the White House,” Klingenschmitt said of the president in an episode of his show, “The Pray in Jesus Name Project.”
Klingenschmitt will face Lois Fornander, a Democrat, in District 15, a perennially conservative stronghold.
“As I’ve said before, this campaign is not just a steep hill for me to climb — it’s a cliff,” Fornander said. “If voters truly understand how limited and extreme his vision for legislation is, then they will want an option.”
Ian Silverii, executive director of the the House Majority Project, an initiative of the Democratic party, says people in Colorado Springs tell him they are “absolutely humiliated” by Klingenschmitt.
Mark Waller, a Republican who held the district’s seat and served as House Minority Leader before he resigned for a run to become Colorado’s attorney general, said he did not endorse either candidate who ran in last week’s primary.
Jesse Paul: 303-954-1733, jpaul@denverpost.com or twitter.com/jesseapaul
