About 100 Republicans gathered in Brighton Saturday morning to discuss the potential removal of state party Chair Dave Williams, though no vote on the issue was taken due to a judge’s restraining order.
That effort was thwarted after an Arapahoe District Court ruled Friday to temporarily block the group from conducting a previously scheduled formal meeting. Williams had called a planned vote invalid and filed a lawsuit several days ago.
“I was pretty stunned,” Eli Bremer, an Olympian, former chairman of the El Paso
County GOP and candidate vying to replace Williams, said when describing reading a text message about the temporary restraining order.
But, despite the ruling, the group still rallied at a church, with speeches from four GOP candidates to replace Williams and signatures collected for a petition to conduct a future meeting to formally vote to remove the chairman.
It’s not yet clear when such a meeting could take place. Friday’s restraining order bars William’s critics from doing so for 14 days or until further action from the court. Meanwhile, they need signatures from a quarter of the state’s central committee to conduct the meeting. And Williams disputes whether the organizers have reached that threshold.
“The last thing we want to do is go against a restraining order and put all of us in contempt,” Republican state Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer said.
“We are in a crisis mode, and I’m not saying that lightly,” Kirkmeyer told the crowd. She noted that the GOP is one senate seat away from being a super minority in both chambers of the statehouse. “Our state senators and representatives and candidates for those offices aren’t getting support from party leadership.”
She said another loss would mean the GOP could not block things like veto overrides or proposed constitutional ballot amendments.
“We are screwed,” Kirkmeyer said if the legislature becomes a super Democratic majority.
Pressure has been mounting for months to remove Williams
Williams has had a tumultuous tenure at the helm of an embattled and diminished Colorado GOP. After months of long-standing criticism, anti-Pride emails he sent in June ignited an unprecedented public uprising against a state party chair. He also faced backlash for using party resources for his failed congressional bid in Colorado’s Fifth Congressional District and endorsing candidates in GOP primaries.
Multiple Republican nominees for Congress signed a letter Friday asking Williams to resign or face removal from office.
In a Facebook post Friday, U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert called the state party infighting “embarrassing.”
“We have a golden opportunity this November to flip seats at every level of government,” Boebert wrote. “Instead of uniting … we've seen lawsuits, threats, and censures, resulting in a failure to come together fueled by all sides of the party.”
Boebert placed the blame on Williams for “failing” to lead the party and called on the party chair to either show a plan to support candidates up-and-down the ballot or be removed.
Williams did not respond to a request for comment from CPR News but did provide a copy of the temporary restraining order issued Friday.
Brita Horn, a firefighter from the Western Slope, was one of the four candidates willing to replace Williams. She said the party needs robust fundraising.
“Money, unity and victory,” said Horn. “We’ve got to win. We have it in our grasp to win.”
Bremer, another candidate, said the party can’t fight against itself.
“We’ve got a lot of relationships we have to restore,” Bremer said, listing the RNC, NRCC, county and state leaders as well as grassroots activists.
Candidate and Statehouse Rep. Richard Holtorf of Akron said his future vision for the Republican party would include building coalitions.
“People don’t want to give to a dysfunctional Republican party,” Holtoft said. “In the country we have country values.”
And Douglas County GOP Chair Steve Peck said it’s a losing strategy for Republicans to spend money against other Republicans in primary races.
“What I want is party unity,” Peck said. “Sometimes it is unity behind a letter.”
