On Tuesday, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney joined a growing chorus of GOP voices telling Akin to drop out. Akin resolutely refused to budge as a Tuesday deadline to withdraw came and went. Akin can still choose to take his name off the ballot, but the process is more complicated.
Akin has apologized for remarks made over the weekend suggesting that women's bodies have a way of preventing pregnancy as a result of what he called "legitimate rape."
A spokeswoman for Rep. Gardner said the congressman thinks Akin's comments were "boneheaded."
"If Akin were running for the U.S. Senate in Colorado the Congressman would call on him to bow out," Gardner spokeswoman Rachel George said. "But the ultimate decision on who would make the best U.S. Senator from Missouri is up to the people of Missouri."
In response to a 9NEWS inquiry asking whether Akin should bow out, a spokesman for Rep. Coffman replied in a single word: "yes."
A spokeswoman for Rep. Lamborn said she would respond but did not. Rep. Tipton's spokesman did not reply to a voicemail and email requesting comment.
[UPDATE: Rep. Tipton's spokesman, Josh Green, contacted 9NEWS a day after this story originally aired to say Tipton "believes Akin should step down and that his comments were wrong." Hours earlier, the campaign of Tipton's Democratic challenger, Sal Pace, released an email statement scolding Tipton for not denouncing Akin's comments and calling Tipton's silence "conspicuous."]
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