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Aurora City Councilman Ryan Frazier fought off stiff competition from Lang Sias last night to score the GOP’s nomination in the 7th Congressional District.
Now he faces a bigger challenge taking on Democratic incumbent Ed Perlmutter — but as a 2008 Westword profile notes, Frazier has a history of staring down strong competition.
As reported in “Ryan Frazier Puts His Job on the Line With Amendment 47,” the 32-year-old Frazier — only the second African American ever nominated to run for a federal office by Colorado Republicans — caught the public’s attention two years ago by becoming the unlikely public face of a controversial right-to-work measure going to the polls.
National labor interests were so inflamed by measure, which they saw as a blatant attempt at union-busting, that they inserted four “poison pill” measures on the ballot that could have caused statewide financial havoc. They also launched a multimillion-dollar smear campaign against Frazier and his cohorts and turned many of right-to-work’s expected allies into opponents.
It seemed that Frazier was risking his political career for a cause that didn’t make sense, considering his markedly liberal views on subjects like abortion and gay marriage. Some wondered if it was all a ploy to climb the political ladder.
In the end, the right-to-work measure failed — but as yesterday’s election results demonstrated, Frazier didn’t come out worse for wear.
