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Ryan Frazier has made it official: He’s running for the US Senate.

http://www.frazierforcolorado.com/

Ryan’s an interesting candidate, and I’m sure most Republicans and Independents (and hopefully a few Democrats as well) will find a lot to like about him.

He’s young, energetic, intelligent, has background in the military and the private sector as well as serving in his local government as a member of the Aurora City Council. And, not to put too fine a point on it, he’s black…which I’ve told him directly I think is quite an advantage.

I’ve heard Ryan speak in public and I’ve had several private conversations about him, and I’m quite impressed. In my view, he tends toward the libertarian side rather than the hard-core conservative side, of the GOP, which of course appeals to me.

The dynamics of our system of elections, with its primaries (focused on the party base) and then the general election (in which one must have a much broader appeal to win) makes Ryan’s candidacy particularly interesting.

There’s no doubt that some of the more conservative and single-issue parts of the GOP will think for a while before deciding to support him. Ryan is not particularly hawkish on immigration and although he’s personally fairly conservative on social issues (such as not approving of abortion), he strikes me as loathe to use government to impose morality on the citizenry.

If a social conservative is going to focus on Ryan’s view of this or that social issue, I’d suggest that conservative consider one overriding point: The damage which you perceive as being done to society is more often than not due to activist judges rather than votes of legislators. Frazier has made it clear to me that he will support judges who believe the Constitution means what it says and not what any given interest group wants it to say. I believe Ryan understands that the Constitution is NOT a “living document", and his support of judges who understand that is, in my view, far more important than any one Senator’s view on any one social issue.

While anyone who runs for high public office must have a bit of an ego, Ryan is a soft-spoken guy, very pleasant to have a conversation with, and (at least in all my conversations with him) both open and genuine. He answers hard questions and he’s not afraid to ask questions of his own. He’s a guy who is not going to pretend to be someone or something he isn’t in order to get your vote.

Back to the issue of primary elections versus general elections: It will be interesting to see whether a more conservative Republican decides to challenge Ryan from the right. Certainly, there are talking points to be made which might appeal to the right-most part of the GOP base. My personal views on issues are far more in sync with Ryan Frazier’s than with any such (hypothetical) challenger from the right. But regardless of that, I’d urge GOP voters to decide whether they want to push the most conservative candidate through the primary just to have him lose to a Democrat in the general election or whether they want to support a guy who might not be perfect on some social issue but is a solid pro-liberty, pro-limited government, pro-capitalism candidate who stands a very good chance of appealing to Independent voters and winning back a Senate seat for the Republican Party.

Let me make one thing very clear: The term “moderate” is used in both correct and incorrect ways. For example, some people call Arlen Specter a “moderate” when he sometimes supports limited government and sometimes doesn’t. Specter is no “moderate", he’s just a spineless, unprincipled vote-grubber. Moderation doesn’t mean standing up for fundamental principles only some of the time. As for Ryan, while I would consider him truly “moderate” on social issues, he is – in the best sense – not a “moderate” on ideals of liberty: He truly believes in the value of limited government and people being free to live their lives.

For me, Ryan Frazier has, from what I have gathered so far, about the best combination of views that a libertarian-leaning Republican could hope for. I hope that less libertarian Republicans will determine that a one- or two-issue litmus test that leads eventually to the election of a Democrat will clearly be a mistake, and that Ryan Frazier is precisely the type of candidate who can and should win in both a GOP primary and the subsequent general election.

I am pleased to be supporting Ryan Frazier for Senate and I encourage you all to read his site, ask him questions, and donate if you like what you see. (I have made a small donation, and I’ll do more if and when finances allow.)