The race for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination has already shown itself to be a wild one – probably the wildest of our lifetimes. With a field of 16 viable candidates heading into primary season, a “brokered” convention in Cleveland in July 2016 is a very real possibility, where no single candidate has a majority of the delegates’ votes heading into the convention. In such a situation, each state’s delegation to the convention becomes extremely important. For Colorado, the No. 4 swing state in the nation, our importance in this convention cannot be overstated.

So the political gloves have come off very early, as the factions of the GOP struggle to position themselves to have a voice for their candidates at the Convention. The GOP’s establishment elite, who have control of the rule-making process, have tried to prevent Colorado’s conservative grassroots from having their voice heard at the convention in 2016. But this isn’t a new struggle.

In 2012, the rise of the conservative grassroots fueled the beginning of a revolution at the Republican National Convention in Tampa, threatening the power of the GOP’s establishment elite with the overwhelming voice of people who want something different out of our Republican Party. The elites went on the offensive to preserve their own power to crown their chosen candidate, starting with the last-minute rule changes to make sure Ron Paul could not be nominated. These rule changes were passed without regard to the actual floor vote, with convention chair John Boehner reading the pre-scripted results from a teleprompter. The amendments made to the party’s rules since then have made matters worse, presenting two obstacles to Colorado fielding a powerful delegation at the 2016 convention.

The first obstacle was the mandate that, should Colorado hold a statewide presidential preference poll (a “straw poll”), the delegates must be bound to the results of that poll. The Colorado GOP Executive Committee cleared this obstacle on Aug. 21 by unanimously voting against having a straw poll at the caucus in 2016, thereby preserving our delegates’ freedom at the convention to make coalitions beneficial to Colorado.

The second obstacle is the date of our caucus. Colorado statutes set the date of caucus as the first Tuesday in March, which is March 1 in 2016. However, the statutes provide an option for the party’s State Central Committee to choose to hold the caucus instead on the first Tuesday in February in presidential years, if they so desire. This would be Feb. 2, 2016.

The Republican State Central Committee will meet in Pueblo on Sept. 26 to decide the date of the caucus. Central Committee members — and those whom they represent — must understand what the effect would be of choosing a February caucus date. According to RNC rules, if we choose a February date, we risk a challenge to our delegation from any candidate who believes our presence could jeopardize his or her nomination — a challenge that would likely succeed, and would reduce the size of our delegation from 37 to 12.

We must be extra vigilant in safeguarding the selection and seating of our delegation at the 2016 convention. We must send our full allocation of 37 free agents to that convention — delegates empowered to do their best for Colorado in the swiftly shifting landscape of what may very well be a brokered convention.

Colorado could be the kingmakers of this cycle, but only if we are careful. We absolutely must have a March caucus date in order to preserve a full strength delegation, so that Colorado’s conservative voice is heard loud and clear in Cleveland in July.

Kristina Cook is a Republican party activist and the host of Grassroots Radio Colorado, a daily podcast found at grrc.podomatic.com.