A statewide co-chair of the 2016 Colorado Trump campaign said Friday she was frustrated and disappointed that the campaign’s other co-chair sent an email earlier in the week to Republicans endorsing Jeff Hays in the race for state GOP chair on behalf of the Trump campaign.

“As a co-chair of the Trump team, I have not endorsed anybody,” Barb Neville told The Colorado Statesman. “This is very disappointing that the perception is that I have come out and supported Jeff Hays. I have not.”

Hays, the outgoing chairman of the El Paso County Republican Party, is locked in a tight race for the state GOP’s top spot with former congressional candidate George Athanasopoulos. The Republican state central committee meets April 1 to elect officers to two-year terms.

On Wednesday, Bob Balink, a former El Paso County elected official – he served as treasurer and clerk and recorder in the county – and one of two statewide co-chairs on the 2016 Donald Trump presidential campaign, issued an email saying Hays is the Trump team’s favorite in the chair race.

“As a two-term chairman of Colorado’s most populous county, Jeff was a loyal and dependable ‘deplorable’ whose efforts in his county brought in a record breaking Republican voter turnout on November 8th,” Balink wrote. “The Colorado Trump Team supports Jeff Hays for Colorado GOP Chairman, our preferred candidate.”

Balink, who has also been working with the Trump transition team in Colorado, signed the email “Robert C. Balink, Statewide Co-Chair, 2016 Colorado Trump Campaign.” A Trump logo featuring the red and yellow “C” from the Colorado flag and the campaign slogan “Make America Great Again!” appears at the bottom of the email.

The Balink email set off a round of controversy on social media, with Hays and Athanasopoulos supporters claiming their candidate best deserves the Trump mantle.

Neville said she isn’t planning to make an endorsement in the state chair race and adds that she made that clear to Hays weeks ago when he contacted her asking for her support. “I’ve told that to George, too,” she said.

Neville said she wasn’t contacted by members of the Colorado Trump campaign before the Balink email went out.

“I deliberately was not endorsing anyone in this race because my goal is to bring unity to the party,” Neville said. “I want to see us put our differences aside and work together in the upcoming election. This email is not helpful.”

In an email signed “Disappointed,” Neville on Friday morning asked Balink and Colorado Trump campaign officials Robert Blaha and Patrick Davis, among others, if they can “rectify this.”

“That’s just frustrating,” she told The Statesman. “I’m frustrated.”

A spokeswoman for the Colorado Trump campaign didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

– ernest@coloradostatesman.com