Marxist teacher chose by select Democrat committee insiders for seat for Colorado General Assembly

Tim Hernández, the teachers’ union activist in Colorado who advocated for an anti-capitalist plank, was picked to fill a vacancy in the Colorado Legislature.

Hernández, who is an avowed Marxist, has called for a “FORCEFUL Cultural Revolution” against “Whiteness,” and put signs in his classroom displaying such phrases as “Dismantl[ing] White systems,” according to Fox News.

The vacancy was created when Rep. Serena Gonzales-Gutierrez resigned from the Legislature to join the Denver City Council, said Colorado Politics.

In Colorado, vacancies in the Legislature are filled by standing vacancy committees, which are elected by party insiders who run for the positions at neighborhood caucuses.

In a single round of voting, Hernández won 39 of 68 votes, or 57%, said Colorado Politics.

“I find it staggering that the Democrat Party would validate that [Marxist] ideology by appointing Tim Hernández to the Colorado State House of Representatives today,” Rep. Mark Baisley, a Republican, told The Lion. “Just last week, a Democrat colleague of mine in the State Legislature told me that their side of the aisle is relying on the Republicans to be the adults in the room because their caucus has gone so radically left.”

As previously reported by The Lion, Hernández posted to Twitter that an anti-capitalist plank was approved by the CEA’s Assembly as a part of its platform.

“BREAKING: @ColoradoEA (CO’s largest union of over 39,000 education workers) just ratified a resolution (by @Bryan4Aurora) against capitalism as an economic system at our 2023 Delegate Assembly,” wrote Tim Hernández on Twitter.

The CEA later confirmed to The Lion that a version of that resolution was passed by the Assembly.

In videos reported on by Fox News, Hernández said teachers compete to show that they know Marx and Lenin better than others.

“What I think is happening in our schools, what I think is showing up in my classroom, is a lot of the things that we get into ideological circles up here. We like to compete who knows Marx better, who knows these things better, who’s a Leninist. Listen, all right, I’ll give you a real take on this s–t. Kids don’t care,” he said, according to Fox.  

Hernández’s social media account also includes screeds attacking “White Supremacy” and calling for a presumed Marxist “Cultural Revolution,” such as the one that happened under Chairman Mao in China.  

Estimates vary widely, but between 1.5 million and 20 million people died as result of Mao’s Cultural Revolution. 

“If White people spent HALF of the time they spend trying to distance themselves from their Whiteness and instead spent it actually deconstructing systems of White supremacy, where would we be?” Hernández asked in a Twitter post, said Fox. “[S]ystems of white supremacy are upheld by individuals – to remove individuality from this conversation is unproductive… I am absolutely advocating for a Cultural Revolution where we dismantle individual and systemic White supremacy,” he said in 2021.   

Baisley says the GOP in Colorado sees its role as “bringing a core of maturity and reason to the discourse” that extremists like Hernández have made so toxic.  

“Of course, helping the Left rise above their worldview is an onerous challenge for Republicans with the Democrats holding the super majority along with the Governor’s office,” added Baisley. “Now more than ever, we need the people to bring a thoughtful balance back to Colorado politics.”