Cory Scott Gardner was born on August 22,1974 and is an American attorney, lobbyist, and politician who served as a United States senator from Colorado from 2015 to 2021.
63 Facts About Cory Gardner
2.
Cory Gardner was chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee from 2017 to 2019.
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Cory Gardner announced in 2019 he would run for re-election for a second term, but lost his 2020 reelection bid to former Governor John Hickenlooper by just over 9 percentage points.
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Cory Gardner is of Irish, German, Austrian, and English descent.
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In college, Cory Gardner switched from the Democratic Party to the Republican Party and interned at the Colorado State Capitol.
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Cory Gardner went to law school at the University of Colorado to earn his Juris Doctor in 2001.
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Cory Gardner served as general counsel and legislative director for former US Senator Wayne Allard of Colorado from 2002 to 2005.
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Cory Gardner was appointed to the Colorado House of Representatives in 2005 and elected to a full term in 2006.
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Cory Gardner represented District 63 in the Colorado House of Representatives from 2005 through 2011.
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In 2006, Cory Gardner proposed legislation to create a rainy-day fund to help protect the state from future economic downturns.
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Cory Gardner 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issued bonds to finance projects that involve the production, transportation and storage of clean energy until it was repealed in 2012.
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Cory Gardner won the Republican primary in the 4th Congressional District to challenge Democratic incumbent Betsy Markey.
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Cory Gardner was helped by the 2010 redistricting, which cut Fort Collins and Larimer County out of the district.
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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.
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One of the Cardboard Cory cutouts was eventually given to Senator John Hickenlooper after his defeat of Gardner.
16.
In February 2021, Cory Gardner became the chair of the National Action Victory Fund, a PAC that raises money for Republican candidates.
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In February 2023, Cory Gardner was hired to co-chair a super PAC alongside longtime GOP operative Rob Collins by South Carolina Senator Tim Scott.
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Cory Gardner was ranked the 5th most bipartisan senator in 2019.
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Cory Gardner has said that he is pro-life and that abortion laws should be left up to the states.
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In 2006, Cory Gardner opposed legislation to 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.
21.
In 2012, Cory Gardner co-sponsored the controversial so-called "personhood" legislation titled the Life Begins at Conception Act.
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Cory Gardner later said that he changed his mind on personhood after listening to voters.
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In 2014, Cory 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.
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Trump's role was seen as posing a dilemma for Cory Gardner; distancing himself from Trump risked angering some Republican voters and donors, but Trump was very unpopular with Democrats and independents.
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In June 2019 Cory Gardner again expressed concern over Trump's threats to impose tariffs on goods entering the United States from overseas.
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In January 2019, Cory Gardner was one of 11 Republican senators to vote to advance legislation intended to prevent Trump from lifting sanctions against three Russian companies.
27.
In January 2019, following a report that Trump had expressed interest in withdrawing from NATO several times during the previous year, Cory 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.
28.
Cory Gardner criticized Trump for perceived softness in dealing with North Korea.
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Cory Gardner believes it's a way for him to negotiate with Kim Jong Un.
30.
Cory Gardner signed the Americans for Tax Reform's Taxpayer Protection Pledge.
31.
In July 2014, Cory Gardner introduced legislation to reform the Earned Income Tax Credit program.
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In February 2019, Cory Gardner was one of 20 senators to sponsor the Employer Participation in Repayment Act, enabling employers to contribute up to $5,250 to the student loans of their employees.
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Cory Gardner has acknowledged the existence of climate change while downplaying the contribution of human activity.
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Cory Gardner has repeatedly voted against measures to reduce or regulate greenhouse gas emissions, including the Clean Power Plan, and has received over $1 million in donations from the oil and gas industry.
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Shortly after taking office in the House of Representatives, Cory Gardner passed legislation to speed up clean-air permits for companies engaged in offshore drilling in Alaska, saying it would create jobs and reduce dependence on foreign oil.
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In 2020, Cory Gardner introduced the bipartisan Great American Outdoors Act, which passed with 58 co-sponsors, providing full and permanent funding of $900 million a year for the Land and Water Conservation Fund to aid national parks and public lands.
37.
In September 2016, Cory Gardner was one of 34 senators to sign a letter to United States Secretary of State John Kerry advocating that the United States clearly enforce "a legally binding Security Council Resolution" by using "all available tools to dissuade Russia from continuing its airstrikes in Syria that are clearly not in our interest".
38.
In December 2018, Cory Gardner voted against ending US military support to the Saudi Arabian-led coalition in the Yemen war.
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In January 2019, Cory Gardner joined Rubio, Jim Risch, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell in introducing legislation to impose sanctions on the government of President of Syria Bashar al-Assad and bolster American cooperation with Israel and Jordan.
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Cory Gardner has said that he opposes gun control and that action to prevent gun violence cannot violate constitutional protections.
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In 2016, Cory Gardner voted against the Feinstein Amendment, which sought to ban gun sales to anyone who had been placed on the terrorist watch list for the last five years.
42.
Cory Gardner opposed an amendment making it necessary for background checks to take place for guns bought at gun shows and online.
43.
Cory Gardner opposes the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and has voted to repeal it.
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Cory Gardner was part of the group of 13 Republican senators drafting the Senate version of the American Health Care Act, which would have repealed and replaced the Affordable Care Act.
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Cory Gardner voted in favor of all variations of AHCA that came up for a vote in the Senate.
46.
The New York Times reported that in September 2017, when the GOP made another attempt to pass legislation to repeal the Affordable Care Act, Cory Gardner warned Republican legislators at a closed luncheon that failure to pass any repeal legislation would lead to a backlash by big donors to Republicans, as well as the grassroots.
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In January 2019, Cory Gardner was one of six senators to cosponsor the Health Insurance Tax Relief Act, delaying the Health Insurance Tax for two years.
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Cory Gardner voted for the 2012 Ryan budget plan which would have begun the process of privatizing Medicare.
49.
In October 2019, Cory Gardner was one of 27 senators to sign a letter to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer advocating the passage of the Community Health Investment, Modernization, and Excellence Act, which was set to expire the following month.
50.
In 2013, Cory Gardner announced that he would introduce a bill to prohibit executives of state healthcare exchanges from getting bonuses.
51.
Cory Gardner has said that he supports immigration reform in the form of a guest worker program and increased border security.
52.
In June 2018, Cory Gardner was one of 13 Republican senators to sign a letter to Attorney General Jeff Sessions requesting a moratorium on the Trump administration family separation policy while Congress drafted legislation.
53.
In March 2019, Cory Gardner voted for Trump's national emergency declaration on the creation of a southern border wall.
54.
The Denver Post rescinded its 2014 endorsement of Cory Gardner, citing his vote on Trump's national emergency declaration.
55.
In March 2017, Cory Gardner voted for the Broadband Consumer Privacy Proposal, which repealed the FCC's internet privacy rules and allowed internet service providers to sell customers' browsing history without their permission.
56.
In May 2020, Cory Gardner voted for an amendment co-sponsored by Senators Steve Daines and Ron Wyden that would have required federal intelligence and law enforcement agencies to obtain federal court warrants when collecting web search engine data from American citizens, nationals, or residents under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
57.
In 2007, then a state representative, Cory Gardner voted against legislation to allow Colorado gay and lesbian couples to adopt children.
58.
In 2012, Cory Gardner voted to renew the Violence Against Women Act of 1994, which reauthorized the bill and expanded protections for Native Americans, immigrants, and gays and lesbians.
59.
In 2015, Cory Gardner voted against giving same-sex partners access to the Social Security and veterans benefits earned by their spouses.
60.
In 2016, after the death of Justice Antonin Scalia, Cory Gardner said the Senate should delay confirming justices so close to a presidential election.
61.
In 2012, Cory Gardner opposed Colorado Amendment 64, which legalized recreational marijuana.
62.
In January 2018, Cory Gardner criticized Attorney General Jeff Sessions for announcing a crackdown on marijuana dispensaries around the country, which he said was contrary to what Sessions had told him during his confirmation hearing.
63.
In 2019, Cory Gardner introduced the National Suicide Hotline Designation Act, which creates a new nationwide three-digit phone number to connect to a suicide prevention hotline.