DENVER — There may not be much drama around Colorado’s U.S. Senate race, but Wednesday’s debate between a Republican state lawmaker and U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper at least provided some contrast.

For Hickenlooper, his focus was on President Donald Trump. From the stage at Metropolitan State University of Denver, he repeatedly linked his opponent, state Sen. Mark Baisley, to the Republican chief executive and said supporting Baisley would mean helping Trump. And as he mounts his last political campaign after weathering a surprisingly close primary race in June, the 74-year-old acknowledged that voters were unhappy with the direction of the country.

“I think there was a lot of unhappiness and frustration, not just with Democrats — Republicans, independents,” he said. “I also think there’s a great deal of impatience and sense of urgency that we need to change.”

Baisley, meanwhile, waded through questions about controversial statements and positions he’s taken in the past, from voting to “acknowledge” debunked claims of election fraud to backing a bill to ban gay marriage and baselessly claiming that Democrats wanted to institute Sharia law. He defended the war in Iran and congressional Republicans’ steep cuts to Medicaid, which Baisley incorrectly suggested were intended to cut off funding for immigrants without legal status. (Undocumented people are not eligible for federal Medicaid).

“If I’m anybody’s sycophant, it’s Thomas Jefferson,” Baisley, a longtime state lawmaker and GOP official, said in his closing statement, after predicting that Hickenlooper would try to link him to Trump. He criticized Colorado’s Democratic leadership. “We cannot keep going the same direction and expect a better answer. Thomas Jefferson said let’s have a wise and frugal government. We need to resecure the promise of America for Colorado and establish that balance back.”

The stakes of the debate — or lack thereof — were set early: 9News moderator Kyle Clark acknowledged that, given Hickenlooper’s stature in a deeply blue state, the race was not one that would swing the balance of power in the upper chamber come January. Hickenlooper is perhaps the most well-known politician in the state, having served as Denver mayor, then governor and, now, senator.

While Republicans could once seriously vie for U.S. Senate seats in Colorado, Hickenlooper likely faced his most serious scare in the June Democratic primary. In a near-seismic upset, progressive state Sen. Julie Gonzales came within 6 percentage points of toppling him. Gonzales had little money to boost her stature outside of metro Denver and was considered a long shot to win; still, she came far closer to upsetting Hickenlooper than virtually anyone had expected.

Despite that closer-than-expected race, Hickenlooper is heavily favored to cruise past Baisley in the Nov. 3 election. On Wednesday, he said he regretted supporting any of Trump’s cabinet nominees and that, though he didn’t want Iran to have a nuclear weapon, he did not support the ongoing war with the Middle Eastern country.

He said he would leave office at the conclusion of the second term that he now seeks to spend more time with his son. He would be 80 then.

As Clark suggested, Baisley is mounting a moonshot bid to stop Hickenlooper from retiring on his own terms. Baisley said he trusted Trump’s decision to strike a diesel fuel deal with Russia and said he wanted to use universities’ endowments to pay off student loan debt. He said he would vote for a national abortion ban but wasn’t sure that his earlier proposal to criminalize abortion was the right move.

He said he was perplexed that Clark didn’t likewise assume that Jan. 6 rioters were leftwing protesters, as he had. He said he supported the president putting Iranians “back where they ought to be” and suggested that high gas prices were worth the cost. He said he didn’t recall co-sponsoring a 2020 bill to ban gay marriage and prohibit same-sex couples from adopting children. He said he believed marriage was a religious institution, not one that should be licensed by the government.

He has raised little money to support his campaign. As of the end of September, he had pulled in less than $130,000, compared to the more than $2 million Hickenlooper still had in the bank after the primary campaign. While Republican groups pour money into races elsewhere, Baisley has received zero outside support, according to campaign finance records.

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