In early March, several hundred Colorado Republicans gathered online for a tense meeting to air their grievances about finances and fundraising, intra-party lawsuits and current leadership.
“Does the membership of the CRC (Colorado Republican State Central Committee) have confidence in the continued leadership of Brita Horn?” asked RNC Committeewoman Christy Fidura, who was presiding at that moment.
An overwhelming majority of the Republicans present said they had no confidence in state party chair Brita Horn. She tried to defend her leadership and actions. The final tally was 63 yes votes to 241 no votes.
“Dumpster fire is the only thing I can think of,” said Raymond Garcia, the chairman of the Colorado Hispanic Republicans, who was active in efforts to remove Horn. “I have never seen the Colorado GOP this messed up. We have no money, no donations, and no one wants to donate and why would they?”
The no-confidence vote led to Horn’s resignation, but the intraparty fracture has been ongoing for years between grassroots conservative members, such as Garcia, and mainstream Republicans, like former GOP state Chair Dick Wadhams, who said Horn was faced with an impossible task of bringing the different factions together. There was also intense infighting under Dave Williams, the controversial GOP chair prior to Horn.
“The party is very split,” said Wadhams. “There's still lawsuits flying around. The result is a party that is struggling financially, and the bottom line is that this party will not be able to fulfill some basic functions the rest of this election year.”
The first big test is the GOP state assembly in April, which the party is legally required to hold to nominate candidates for the ballot.
Republican Rep. Scott Bottoms is running for governor and hoping to make the ballot through the assembly process. He said he appreciates that Horn is staying on through the assembly because the party doesn’t need that kind of changeover right now. But he has concerns.
“I have no confidence in her ability to run the assembly,” said Bottoms, pointing out that Horn hasn’t run meetings well, so he thinks it’s going to be rough. “There's going to be a lot of problems, and this is a few thousand people we're talking about … it’s gonna be a madhouse the whole time.”
There’s also a question of how the party will vote. Some, like Bottoms, are pushing for paper ballots and hand counts, which would be logistically tough. An effort to do that failed four years ago, but it could bog down the assembly and make it difficult to conduct votes. CPR News reached out to Horn to ask about the voting process, but did not get a response.
“A state convention should be 100 percent about the candidates we are nominating, about the ballot, so anyone who is planning to disrupt the convention should remember that it defeats the purpose of getting candidates on the ballot for the general election,” said former GOP chair Kristi Burton Brown.
The fall election is high stakes for both parties, and control of the U.S House is on the line. Republicans must defend the 8th Congressional District, currently held by Rep. Gabe Evans. It’s a toss-up seat north of Denver and could be one of the closest races in the country.
There are also all the statewide offices, and Republican gains to be made at the statehouse.
”Right now, being able to just pull off convention is the question,” said Kelly Maher, a long-time Republican who works for a non-profit that seeks to elevate people of character in politics. She said it’s hard to believe the state GOP is in this bad of a position. “The fact that it is a question would've shocked the ‘me’ of 20 years ago, and it would've shocked the ‘you’ of 20 years ago that that's just a question.”
She said for the Republican party to regain its footing, the party needs to be more thoughtful about the kinds of candidates it’s nominating.
“Watching people fight over the Republican Party right now is like watching buzzards fighting over a corpse. What is the point at that point?”
But despite all the turmoil the GOP faced last cycle, the party did make some gains in Colorado two years ago. Republicans flipped CD8 from blue to red, and also picked up a few seats at the statehouse and avoided being in the super minority.
Certain conservative ballot initiatives have also done well. Advance Colorado passed several public safety measures, including requiring the state to set aside $350 million for a dedicated fund for law enforcement. Michael Fields, who leads Advance Colorado, thinks Republicans need to focus on issues like crime and the economy — areas where he thinks Democrats are out of step with the electorate
“The electorate is still center right on a few issues, including taxes and crime. And half are unaffiliated, and they're unaffiliated for a reason. They're not really thrilled with either party and therefore want to make individual decisions based on the issue that’s before them.”
He said polling numbers for Democratic officials aren’t great.
“It's just when a voter is looking at two options they don't really love right now, they have to pick one of 'em and they've been picking Democrats the last few cycles.”
But as campaigns start gearing up for statewide offices and Congress all the way down the ballot, campaigns are planning to do without assistance from the party on outreach, such as door knocking and phone calling or raising money, which also happened last cycle. And some candidates like Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer and Victor Marx, who are both running for governor, are petitioning on the ballot and avoiding the state assembly process altogether.
