Colorado Republican Ken Buck tried Saturday to steer the state's tight Senate contest away from social issues and toward the economy as he attempts to unseat Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet.
Buck stuck to his hard-right positions on abortion and gay marriage in his seventh and final debate with Bennet. However, Buck insisted that voters care more about unemployment and government spending.
"We get caught on these social issues when the voters want to know about jobs, they want to know about unemployment, they want to know about spending," Buck said when asked to elaborate on his opposition to abortion rights, even in cases of rape and incest.
Bennet and the Democrats have swiped at Buck for his social conservatism. Buck repeated his opposition to abortion rights and gay marriage on Saturday, but he punched back at Democratic efforts to highlight those position instead of his promises to cut taxes and federal spending.
But the abortion question didn't go away. At one point in the KCNC-TV debate, also aired on C-SPAN, the candidates were allowed to grill each other, and Bennet laid into Buck for opposing abortion rights.
"Who's going to jail?" Bennet asked, referring to women seeking abortions.
Buck replied, "I don't think abortion's going to be criminalized anytime soon. ... You have tried once again to take this debate off-topic. Once again, I am going to focus my campaign on the issues Colorado voters care about."