ASHE IN AMERICA — OPINION
The election is behind us, and Colorado Republicans performed better in the Centennial State than they did during the prior two iterations of Colorado GOP leadership. The Congressional delegation is now balanced with four Democrats and four Republicans, and Republicans managed to chip away at the super majority in the Colorado House and prevent a super majority in the Colorado Senate.
In 2023, Republican party voting members chose to break the establishment’s stranglehold on their party, choosing former State Representative Dave Williams to lead the party in a new America First direction. The idea was simple: We’re finally going to fight back against Democrats and elect America First Republicans.
Prior to the election of Williams, party leadership under Brown, and under former Congressman Ken Buck (CO-04) before her, were happy being the minority party in the state. They scored no notable wins. They made no meaningful change. They whined and failed and blamed Democrats for their failures. Then they asked for money.
In 2023, Republican voters demanded the party fight back, fight the corruption head on, and openly oppose the sinister subversion of our Colorado institutions.
The opposition began immediately, as the Kristi Burton Browns and Eli Bremers of the world processed their thunderous rejection by the most engaged members of their party.
In the run up to their ouster, in December 2022, Kristi Burton Brown’s leadership team allegedly paid themselves the party’s remaining budget as bonuses, despite a complete and total failure to achieve the much anticipated “red wave.” It’s never been established what accomplishments those bonuses awarded, but it doesn’t matter. They left the party coffers empty, and they never turned over the books.
While starving the party of resources, these Republicans then, in the middle of an election year, attempted a coup on the elected Chairman of the GOP. They dragged the party to court, held a meeting with their allies, agreed on a novel interpretation of the bylaws that affirmed their subversive plot, and claimed that “the party” voted to oust the Chair.
Then Eli Bremer ran around calling himself Chairman for a while.
Imagine how Republicans might have performed in the 2024 election if former GOP leadership was working for, rather than against, the will of Republican voters. Imagine if those resources — legal fees and time spent in court and all that psychological and emotional energy — had been spent on winning races?
Despite this targeted opposition from the Republican establishment, Republican candidates performed better than they have in a long time. It likely would have been even better if not for the ongoing GOP civil war.
Prior to the 2024 election cycle, GOP leadership never made any effort to engage the broader electorate, recognizing the changing demographics in our state. Chairman Dave Williams, however, collaborated with Libertarian Party Chairman Hannah Goodman, and they developed the Liberty Pledge. As a result of the Liberty Pledge, the Libertarian candidate in Congressional District 8 withdrew from the race and Gabe Evans is now a Republican Congressman.
The establishment camp is quick to dismiss the Colorado Republican Party of having any impact in CD8 — Evans reportedly refused party resources and negotiated his Liberty Pledge outside the party — but prior to Williams, the idea of Republicans collaborating with Libertarians would get you banished from polite party society. Williams broke the ground.
Establishment Republicans’ first instinct after Evans’ victory was to attack the coalition and settle personal scores. They barely acknowledged the role of Libertarians in the extraordinarily tight CD8 race; their primary focus — after a massive Republican win — was to attack their fellow Republicans and manipulate their way back into power.
In Colorado, America First is a coalition and competing for credit and assigning blame are death blows to a coalition. It’s not surprising, then, that this is the path of the power hungry. Soon these instigators will renew their calls for Williams to resign despite the chair election being a few months away. Pursuing power and settling personal scores is really all they know.
America First has momentum in Colorado, and powerful people are desperate to stop it. Division is effective at destabilizing, and there’s nothing more divisive than a civil war.
Ashe in America is a writer and activist. Find all her work at linktree.com/asheinamerica.
