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Democrat Congressional Candidate Claims To Be A Moderate, Previously Supported Medicare For All, Green New Deal

   DailyWire.com
Routt County Commissioner Diane Mitsch Bush asks a question of keynote speaker U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood during the Q&A portion of the "Putting Colorado to Work" jobs forum at the University of Denver.
Joe Amon/The Denver Post via Getty Images

A Colorado Democrat who failed to win a seat in congress during the 2018 election cycle is back, and this time she’s claiming to be a moderate even though she previously supported radical left-wing policies.

Diane Mitsch Bush ran on the Green New Deal and Medicare for All while campaigning in 2018. Now she speaks out against both, and they are nowhere to be seen on her current platform, the Washington Free Beacon reported.

In 2018, Mitsch Bush spoke of the Green New Deal in a positive light: “You’re creating jobs and helping to protect our environment and prevent climate change, so it’s a triple whammy.” Now she says the legislation “does nothing” and is insensitive to the needs of the people she wants to represent.

“[The Green New Deal] shows remarkable insensitivity to the kinds of issues we face in rural Colorado,” Mitsch Bush told Colorado Public Radio last week.

Also in 2018, Mitsch Bush said she supported a universal, single-payer health care system, more commonly referred to as Medicare for All. Now she says she would only work to repair Obamacare and not attempt to create a public option.

As the Free Beacon reported, Mitsch Bush now describes herself as a “pragmatic progressive” even though she lurched to the left in order to win her primary.

“She has said in interviews she spent her career as a legislator reaching across the aisle. Her support for radical causes, however, stretches beyond 2018. As early as 1999, Mitsch Bush donated to In These Times, a pro-union magazine founded by an avowed socialist. Mitsch Bush donated for at least two more years, until 2003,” the Free Beacon reported.

“She further pledged to never accept any corporate PAC money for her campaign to demonstrate her commitment to Colorado residents. The longtime state lawmaker’s record, however, does not hold up to her claims of bipartisanship and pragmatism, nor does her previous campaign financing. Her last congressional bid netted thousands from liberal groups such as Swing Left, EdPAC, Emily’s List, and the Sierra Club. In April 2020, federal filings showed that Mitsch Bush took donations from Planned Parenthood Action Fund—the political arm of the billion-dollar abortion provider,” the outlet added.

Mitsch Bush’s claims to be more moderate are likely due to the fact that she is not running in a solid blue congressional district. She lost in 2018 to incumbent Rep. Scott Tipton (R-CO) by 8 points (51% to 43%). Tipton lost his primary to Lauren Boebert, a political outsider who is pro-gun. Boebert owns a restaurant called Shooters Grill where the wait staff are allowed to open carry.

The district is not reliable for either party, though the Cook Political Report currently rates it as “leans Republican.”

Tipton had held the seat since 2010 after beating then-incumbent Democrat John Salazar, who had won the seat in 2004 after incumbent Republican Scott McInnis decided to run for governor.

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