gardner-coryRumors that Barack Obama was born in Kenya, rather than Hawaii, have persisted throughout the president’s candidacy and time in office, a notion spread by the so-called “birthers movement.” After all, if he wasn’t born in the United States, he can’t be president.

Although the State of Hawaii has confirmed that Obama was born there and Honolulu newspapers carried an announcement of his birth in 1961, Cory Gardner, a candidate for the 4th Congressional District seat held by Democrat Betsy Markey, is prone to believe conspiracy theories about Obama’s birth.

As Gardner’s campaign manager, Mike Ciletti, tells the Fort Collins Coloradoan, Gardner (pictured) isn’t 100 percent sure Obama is American; he only believes Obama “is most likely a citizen.”

During a recent town hall meeting, Gardner was asked if he knew for a fact whether Obama was born in the United States: “Based on what they’ve shown, what they’ve tried to say, I think the administration is trying to say he was born in this country,” he said. “I know what everybody else knows.”

Democrats attacked Gardner’s comments as part of the discredited birthers, which include conservative talk-show hosts Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck. The issue seems to resonate deep in the Republican psyche: Only 33 percent feel certain Obama was born in the United States, according to a poll cited by ColoradoPols.