The confirmation of Betsy DeVos as U.S. Secretary of Education Tuesday sparked outrage among local critics of President Donald Trump’s nominee and calls for celebration among her supporters.
The vote was split 50-50 as two Republicans broke with their party, forcing Vice President Mike Pence to cast the deciding vote. Colorado Sens. Cory Gardner, a Republican, and Michael Bennet, a Democrat, voted as expected, along party lines.
Predictably, response to the way the Colorado senators voted also broke along party lines. Gardner, who has been the focus of intense lobbying by constituents since DeVos, a wealthy, highly connected Republican from Michigan, was nominated, remained in the social-media spotlight Tuesday. More than 1,500 tweets were posted in response to his online statement, most of which were negative, saying he turned his back on constituents and betrayed their interests.
Gardner declined an interview request. In a prepared statement, he explained that he felt DeVos will “fight for public schools.”
My full statement on Betsy DeVos's confirmation below. I will continue to advocate for public schools & educational opportunity for all. pic.twitter.com/gOCjAHWQEn
— Cory Gardner (@SenCoryGardner) February 7, 2017
DeVos is a powerful advocate for school choice, including a controversial voucher system in Detroit.
“The debate around her nomination has been a healthy exercise of our democracy, made all the more important because it involves our most precious possession, our children,” Gardner wrote. “As someone who believes education decisions should be left to parents and their children with policy driven locally, Congress will hold her accountable and I will work to ensure she lives up to the commitment she made to me.”
Protesters showed up at Gardner’s Denver office again Tuesday, this time to show their disappointment with his vote, urging him to break with the Trump administration and emphasizing that his re-election is on the line.
Many noted that Gardner has so far approved of every Trump nominee. Others said he was bought by DeVos, who donated between $46,800 to $49,800 to the senator’s 2014 campaign, depending on who is doing the reporting. He is among 23 sitting senators who have received campaign contributions from DeVos and her family since 1980. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, has received $43,200, but was one of the two GOP senators voting against DeVos’ confirmation.
“It’s clear that a lot of people in this state wanted a better option for Secretary of Education,” protester Ari Levi said. “It’s clear that he fell to party lines.”
While holding a sign calling DeVos unqualified, the 36-year-old Denver resident said that he, like thousands of others, has called Gardner’s office multiple times. His sign was among many at the protest, some branching beyond DeVos to critique Trump, the dismantling of the Affordable Care Act and Trump’s Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch.
“Hopefully he hears our voices, sees our bodies and our signs,” Levi said. “Trump is our president but there’s a lot of people that want to be heard.”
Before the vote, Democrats held an all-night speaking marathon on the Senate floor in a show of opposition.
“I am addressing the president and not Mrs. DeVos when I say that this nomination is an insult to schoolchildren and their families, to teachers and principals and communities fighting to improve their public schools all across this country,” Bennet said when he took the floor Monday night.
DeVos supporters in Colorado hailed her appointment, saying her outsider standing will help reform a stalled and low-performing education establishment.
“Rather than protests, there should be celebrations that Mrs. DeVos has been confirmed,” said Pam Benigno, director of the education policy center for Colorado’s Independence Institute. “I am glad that she hasn’t come from within an education bureaucracy that has failed to meet the needs of so many precious children. This is truly a historic day.”
Luke Ragland, president of Ready Colorado, said moderate Democrats said little during the DeVos confirmation fight and allowed teachers’ unions to bad-mouth school reform efforts.
“Has the influence of union money to the Democratic Party smothered the conscience of Democratic school reformers?” Ragland asked.
“We hope the union-orchestrated dog pile on school choice and school accountability doesn’t become the prevailing sentiment of Democrats in Washington. Because this much is certain,” he said, “far too many kids are trapped in underperforming schools.”
Denver Post staff writer Mark K. Matthews contributed to this report.