GOP House candidate slams opponents' 'high-fiving' over prior arrests

Colorado Republican House candidate and former state Rep. Ted Harvey on Monday lamented the behavior of his fellow Republican candidates for the party nomination in 2024 during a recent debate in which several of them admitted to having an arrest record.

"Another show of hands here, have you ever been arrested?" the nine participants were asked on Thursday, according to CBS Colorado. Six of the participants raised their hands, including Colorado GOP Rep. Lauren Boebert. The episode drew chuckles from the crowd and smiles from many of the candidates, but Harvey, who did not raise his hand, saw the incident in a negative light.

"Well, I don't think many voters are actually laughing it off. And I'm saddened by the fact that you did see six of the 10 of us up there, raising their hand and saying they had been arrested," he said on the "Just the News, No Noise" television show. "Not only are they raising their hand, they are high fiving each other and it's sad, because the Minority Leader in the House had to resign his position the day before this debate, because... he's a candidate here at this table. And it became known to everybody that he was on probation for going 90 miles an hour down the highway, passing a cop, and had a blood alcohol level of twice the legal limit."

Colorado Minority Leader and state Rep. Mike Lynch resigned last week following revelations about his 2022 arrest, Axios reported.

The were nine participants in the debate, but a tenth candidate is in the race and did not attend, according to Colorado Public Radio. The myriad candidates hope to replace retiring Colorado GOP Rep. Ken Buck. Boebert, for her part, has opted to pursue election to Buck's district rather than face a tougher contest in her current one. A recent straw poll showed her in fifth place for the party nomination, however.

"You could literally kill a whole car full of people had he ran into them, and he is up there high fiving people like it was no big deal," Harvey went on. "This is a big deal. And then when he was arrested, when he's pulled over, he notifies the police officer that he has a gun in his pocket as he's pulling it out and the police officers about to freak out. It's embarrassing that we have that many candidates in the Republican Party running for office that think that being arrested is something to be high fiving themselves about."

The primary contest is scheduled for June 25, according to Ballotpedia.

Ben Whedon is an editor and reporter for Just the News. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter.