Colorado GOP starts 2026 campaign in the red
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The Colorado Republican Party gathered over the weekend to energize loyalists and name its candidates to challenge the state's dominant Democratic Party.
Why it matters: The GOP is facing a bleak 2026 election cycle in Colorado, where Democrats hold every statewide office.
The latest: Saturday's GOP assembly in Pueblo provided an opportunity to unite its members, but instead, GOP activists backed some of the extreme conservative candidates — ones who have little chance of winning in November.
This dynamic is most obvious in the governor's race, where two far-right pastors, state Rep. Scott Bottoms and Victor Marx, secured slots on the June primary ballot with 45% and 39%, respectively. Meanwhile, 16 other contenders failed to get enough support.
- Bottoms has promised to work closely with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents on deportations and to slash the size of government with a DOGE-like approach, the Colorado Sun reported.
- Marx, a first-time candidate and Marine veteran, promised to free former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters from prison on "Day 1," despite her nine-year sentence for election tampering, CPR reported.
The fine print: The two candidates are likely to face a more moderate rival, state Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer, in the June primary.
- Kirkmeyer skipped the assembly nominating process and submitted voter signatures in an attempt to qualify for the race.
The big picture: The Republican Party starts its campaign with a substantial deficit for myriad reasons.
- Party chair Brita Horn announced her resignation in March — a year before her term expires — after two no-confidence votes from the party's governing board. Her departure is effective Friday.
- The party's federal campaign account owes more than it collected through February, with $164,000 in debts, records show. For comparison, the Democratic Party's federal account holds $263,000.
The intrigue: The party's dysfunction manifested at the assembly in other ways.
- In tallying votes, officials counted 80 additional paper ballots because of a credentialing mistake. The party's delegates agreed to count those rather than hold another vote.
The bottom line: Republicans are poised to nominate hardcore conservatives to the November ballot, which could weaken their chances of appealing to moderate unaffiliated voters, and need an infusion of leadership and cash to become competitive.
Go deeper: See who made the GOP primary ballot