Pueblo Republican Tamra Axworthy said Tuesday she’s done contesting the legislative vacancy election won last month by Judy Reyher and probably won’t challenge Reyher in a primary – even while charging Reyher was “selected under a cloud of suspicion” and ripping the former Otero County GOP chair for “embarrass[ing] our party with racially charged offensive remarks.”

“The past few weeks have demonstrated why good people decide not to run for political office,” wrote Axworthy, executive director of Pueblo’s A Caring Pregnancy Center, in an email to GOP officials and the media. “The process is set up to favor the establishment, ??leaving outsiders at an automatic disadvantage, and it was no different with the recent selection of Judy Reyher to fill the (House District 47) vacancy seat.”

A Republican vacancy committee picked Reyher over Axworthy on a 6-5 vote in late November to serve out the term of former state Rep. Clarice Navarro of Pueblo, who resigned her seat after the Trump administration appointed her to run the Colorado Farm Service Agency.

The next day, Axworthy filed a protest with Republicans, contending that six of the committee members had assured her in writing she’d won their votes in the secret ballot.

Jace Ratzlaff, Navarro’s husband and one of the vacancy committee members cited by Axworthy as a supporter, however, told Colorado Politics he was furious with Axworthy for sharing a private text message with the public and insisted Reyher had won the election fair and square.

A Republican county official re-canvassed the ballots after Axworthy lodged her challenge and told her the vacancy election results would stand, according to an email obtained by Colorado Politics.

Axworthy charged this week that the process was “rigged” and blasted Republicans for certifying the results and scheduling Reyher’s swearing-in – it’s set for 10 a.m. Monday, Dec. 18, in House chambers at the Capitol – while complaints about the election, including one filed by another member of the vacancy committee, were still pending.

“Most good people don’t run, because they know that party insiders will always look out for themselves and their agenda,” Axworthy said in her statement. After saying she more than likely won’t run against Reyher in next year’s primary, she added, “You should never say ‘never,’ but how can anyone decent run for office when the deck is so stacked against outsiders who wish to serve in an honest, and in this case, non-bigoted way??”

Within days of her election, Reyher came under fire for a series of social media posts and comments to The Denver Post criticizing African Americans and Muslims, among others, but she rejected the attacks and vowed to “fight back against the smears.”

In her Facebook posts and the interview, Reyher called African Americans “hatred filled beings,” suggested they’re “pussies looking for free (stuff),” questioned whether former President Barack Obama was born in the United States and cheered the gumption of a Confederate flag manufacturer. “I hated the black half of Obama as much as I hated the white half,” she said.

Blaming “hate-filled left-wingers” and “out-of-state groups” Reyher said are trying to discredit her in order to win her House seat, she declared she plans to “dutifully serve all of my fellow Coloradoans with class and distinction. … The people elected a fighter, and I am proud to say I am that fighter.”