Photo: Dave Williams, chair of the Colorado Republican Party, speaks during a rally for former President Donald Trump, the GOP candidate for president, October 11, 2024, at the Gaylord Rockies Resort in Aurora. Quentin Young/Colorado Newsline.
This op-ed by Quentin Young appeared on Colorado Newsline on October 24, 2024.
For a brief time, the Colorado Republican Party had two competing sets of officers claiming to be the organization’s rightful leaders.
The spectacle was the latest sign of how divided the party has become. Republicans increasingly describe their liberal opponents in dehumanizing terms — “demons,” “vermin” — but here in Colorado, they’re getting almost as vicious with each other.
A judge recently put an end to the leadership battle, when he decided that a vote to oust the chair was improper. But the ruling did not bring peace to the party. Instead, the internal battle is intensifying, and that will further undermine the party’s ability to accomplish its most essential task — getting Republicans elected. Like the national GOP, the state party now behaves like a cult, and cults are no good at helping others. They only really serve the interests of a single leader.
Former state Rep. Dave Williams was elected chair of the party in March 2023 on a pugnacious platform of MAGA attitudes and priorities. It was a moment of exasperation for the party, which had become all but irrelevant at the General Assembly and had repeatedly failed to put its candidates into statewide office.
His combative style was itself divisive. But he really began to alienate fellow Republicans when in January he announced his candidacy for Colorado’s 5th Congressional District seat and refused to step down as party chair — a clear conflict of interest. The party under Williams, in a sharp break with precedent, endorsed not only his own candidacy but also that of allies who were running in primaries against other Republicans. This behavior, along with the party’s vile anti-LGBTQ+ messaging, became intolerable to party members who were interested in winning elections and restoring integrity to leadership.
A faction led by El Paso County Republican Party Vice Chair Todd Watkins and Jefferson County Republican Party Chair Nancy Pallozzi organized a vote in August that booted Williams and installed former U.S. Senate candidate Eli Bremer as the new chair. But Williams disputed the legitimacy of the vote, and last month a District Court judge in El Paso County who ruled in a lawsuit over the leadership dispute sided with Williams, who was affirmed as the party chair.
Now comes retribution and purge.
Last week, the party’s executive body ordered the creation of an investigative committee, with members to be appointed by Williams. It will report on the actions of “co-conspirators” who opposed Williams and is supposed to recommend forms of punishment by the end of January. The main targets are Watkins, Pallozzi and Richard Holtorf, a state representative. The document that calls for an investigative committee says these three “are rightfully to blame for starting a civil war” in the party.
But Williams’ wrath extends well beyond the organizers of his attempted ouster to every Republican deemed to have supported the effort.
Rino Watch Colorado, a publication that does not reveal its creators but is widely understood to be overseen by close Williams allies and is influential among grassroots Republicans, released a list of “traitors” said to have opposed Williams. The list is breathtaking in scope and substance. It features almost 200 names, including U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn, former Colorado Secretary of State Wayne Williams, previous state Republican Party Chair Kristi Burton Brown, about half the Republicans in the state House, including state House GOP leader Rose Pugliese, two-thirds of Republican state senators, including Senate GOP leader Paul Lundeen, and 25 GOP county party chairs.
This is the behavior of a party that has completely lost its way.
“It’s a discipleship of Dave,” Watkins told Newsline. “It is a cult. It’s a cult of personality. It is a radicalized Christian nationalist movement.”
This brand of politics won’t succeed in Colorado, he said. Indeed, the vast majority of state party-endorsed Republicans in contested primary elections in June lost.
Newsline sought comment from Williams but did not receive a reply.
In a way, Williams’ retention of power could have minimal effect in places like Jefferson County, since under his leadership the state party provided no resources for local Republican candidates, Pallozzi told Newsline. She would be more concerned if it did.
“If he got active now, it would hurt them drastically. The candidates actually have tried to stay away from him,” she said. “The majority of the ones that I know don’t want to have anything to do with him and just want him to leave them alone. They see themselves losing if Dave gets involved with the elections this year.”
Bremer told Newsline he thinks the effort to oust Williams achieved at least some of its purpose.
“Virtually all the congressional candidates had made it clear they wanted a change” in party leadership,” Bremer said. Williams had supported the losing primary-election Republican candidates — including himself — in high-profile congressional races this year. “With that said, it’s probably good that his animosity is turned toward me, because I’m not on the ballot. He had been getting in the way of our candidates pretty badly, and at least we put a stop to that.”
But after November, a Williams-led party’s electoral prospects could be doomed if he succeeds in advancing unelectable candidates to the ballot, Bremer said. That’s why Republicans who pine for a return to sane leadership look forward to March, when the next party officer elections are scheduled. It’s unclear who might stand to oppose Williams. Bremer said he “100%” will not run to be chair.
Whoever it is, many Republicans throughout the state hope to support a candidate who can guide the party out of the Williams-era civil war.
“They just need to go in there with a big heart and want to make change to unify the party, and we’re looking for that person,” Pallozzi said. “Dave Williams is not that person.”