Scoop: Denver GOP leader Garrett Flicker will step down in mid-March

Denver GOP chairperson Garrett Flicker — the youngest and first openly gay man to lead the group — will resign March 15 after one year in the role, Axios Denver has learned.

Driving the news: The Colorado Springs native is stepping down to work on the campaign of U.S. Senate candidate Eli Bremer, Flicker tells us.

The intrigue: Prominent local Republicans expressed disappointment in Flicker's tenure.

• Organizers at a Denver GOP caucus meeting on Tuesday said that low turnout was the direct result of a lack of energy from the top.
• "The chair of the party here has basically not done anything," said Scott Gessler, a Denver resident and former GOP secretary of state.

Why it matters: Many pundits predicted Flicker's fresh perspective could help shift the fractured party's post-Trump outlook and push more Republicans to the polls at a time when the state's registered Democrats outnumber registered Republicans by about 115,000 voters.

The other side: Flicker, 26, called his next step a "good career move." He also touted the party's progress under his leadership.

• "We got things on the map. And the party — for the first time in a long time — really put their hands in local politics and did more than just run a candidate," he says, referring to its backing of two ballot questions in the 2021 election.

What's next: Denver GOP's first vice chairperson, Wendy Warner, will take Flicker's role later this month.

This story first appeared in the Axios Denver newsletter, designed to help readers get smarter, faster on the most consequential news unfolding in their own backyard. Subscribe here.