Cory Gardner

Cory Scott Gardner (born August 22, 1974) is an American attorney and politician who served as a United States senator from Colorado from 2015 to 2021.

Gardner was born on August 22, 1974, in Yuma, Colorado, the son of Cindy L. (née Pagel) and John W. Gardner.

He is of Irish, German, Austrian, and English descent.

He graduated summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts in political science in 1997 from Colorado State University, where he was a member of the FarmHouse fraternity.

In college, Gardner switched from the Democratic Party to the Republican Party and interned at the Colorado State Capitol.

He went to law school at the University of Colorado to earn his Juris Doctor in 2001.

Prior to public office, Gardner worked at his family's implement business and served as spokesman for the

National Corn Growers Association.

Gardner later served as general counsel and legislative director for former U.S. Senator Wayne Allard of Colorado from 2002 to 2005.

Gardner was appointed to the Colorado House of Representatives in 2005 and elected to a full term in 2006.

He represented District 63 in the Colorado House of Representatives from 2005 through 2011.

In 2006, Gardner proposed legislation to create a rainy-day fund to help protect the state from future economic downturns.

His proposal relied on money made available by Referendum C—which allowed state revenue caps to be exceeded for five years —for future budget emergencies.

He staunchly opposed any tax increases.

On November 2, 2010, Gardner defeated Markey, 52%–41%.

Gardner ran unopposed in the Republican primary before defeating Democratic nominee Brandon Shaffer 59%–37% in the general election.

He was helped by the 2010 redistricting, which cut Fort Collins and Larimer County out of the district.

Fort Collins had long been the 4th's largest city.

For years, Larimer and the district's second-largest county, Weld County, home to Greeley, accounted for 85 percent of the district's population even though they only took up 15 percent of its land.

Gardner was the Republican nominee for Senate, and narrowly defeated incumbent Senator Mark Udall in the general election 48% to 46%, receiving 965,974 votes to Udall's 916,245.

No Labels performed independent get-out-the-vote efforts on behalf of its Problem Solvers, including Gardner.

A Republican, he was the U.S. representative for Colorado's 4th congressional district from 2011 to 2015 and a member of the Colorado House of Representatives from 2005 to 2011.

He 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.

Committee assignments

Gardner won the Republican primary in the 4th Congressional District to challenge Democratic incumbent Betsy Markey.

Also running were American Constitution Party nominee Doug Aden and Independent Ken "Wasko" Waszkiewicz.

In an early September poll, Gardner was up 50% to 39% over Markey.

Gardner was endorsed by former U.S. Congressman Tom Tancredo.

Gardner narrowly defeated Democratic incumbent Mark Udall in the 2014 Senate race.

Gardner was chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee from 2017 to 2019.

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.

The concept developed staying power, and become an iconic four year protest campaign, showing up at protests and events around the state.

After the 2018 midterm elections, he and University of Colorado Regent Heidi Ganahl became the only Republicans to hold statewide elected office in Colorado.

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.

After leaving the Senate, Gardner has remained active in politics and policy.

He sits on the board of Michael Best Strategies, is the Chief Political Affairs Strategist for the Crypto Council for Innovation, and has remained active in fundraising for Republican candidates.

Liberal groups including ProgressNow and Indivisible Colorado launched a 14-stop, statewide bus tour featuring Cardboard Cory and Coloradan constituents including Laura Packard during summer 2019.

Gardner ran for reelection in 2020.

During his tenure as a Senator, he notably did not hold many public town halls.

A short documentary film by Nick Rosen of Sender Films about Cardboard Cory's journey sponsored by Indivisible was released July 28, 2020.