DENVER, Colorado—Defending America’s religious freedom and the First Amendment was the theme of this year’s Western Conservative Summit on July 12-13, attracting close to 2000 people.
NTD News interviewed John Andrews, the former chairman of the summit, who was honored and awarded this year for his work. Andrews explained to us the origin of the summit.
“Western Conservative Summit got started in 2010, with 700 attendees at a small hotel bar room outside Denver,” said Andrews. “I led it for the first six years, the next four years have been led by the brilliant Jeff Hunt. And year after the year, the speaker lineup just gets more outstanding.”
This year Donald Trump Jr. spoke at the summit, which Andrews is very proud of.
“He was great! He was funny, and factual and penetrating and convincing, and he joked about needing to pretend that it didn’t matter who wins the election next year, but we know he wants his dad to win, and we want his dad to win, and we think he’s going to,” said Andrews.
Bipartisan Message With Democrat Speaker
When the summit was established, the former chairman said that they wanted it to be bipartisan, welcoming to both the left and right. And while they worked to get a prominent Democrat as a speaker, it never came to fruition.
This year, however, they had their first Democrat speaker: Colorado Governor Jared Polis.
“[He] spoke, and very eloquently, was welcomed very warmly and courteously,” said Andrews. “I think it’s a good milestone to prove that Colorado Christian University and Centennial Institute, and the Western Conservative Summit are open to all comers.”
He added that probably most of the audience does not agree with what Governor Polis wants to accomplish. Andrews said he respectfully disagrees with Polis on a number of policy issues, but is “very very glad that he could be part of the summit.”
