STRIKE UP THE BAND … It is, after all, March Fourth.

The celebration started a few days early in Colorado, when John Philip Sousa IV, the grandson of the composer and marching band icon, was on hand to endorse a pair of longshot Republican candidates – Greg Lopez, the former Parker mayor running for governor, and Casper Stockham, who lost a bid to unseat Democrat Diana DeGette in the 1st Congressional District last time around and is giving it another go this cycle.

A PAC formed by Sousa was a driving force behind neurosurgeon Ben Carson’s presidential run a couple years ago. After  Carson blazed across the GOP presidential firmament like a comet, eventually landing in President Donald Trump’s cabinet as secretary of Housing and Urban Development – with a mighty fancy dining room set, it turns out – Sousa renamed his organization the Stars & Stripes Forever PAC and has been working to “enact a conservative agenda.”

At an endorsement event streamed by Lopez on his campaign’s Facebook page, Sousa described one reason was there.

His PAC, he said, reaches out “to African-American and minority communities and let them know they’ve been lied to since Lyndon Johnson. Democrats don’t do anything for them. They promise a lot three months before the election and deliver nothing the two to six years after the election.”

That’s why he’s been talking to communities of color about school choice, abortion and economic truths, he said, and that’s why he was endorsing the two Republicans. to “do what I can to help get the groundswell really going so both these guys end up victorious in November.”

SPEAKING OF ENDORSEMENTS … They’ve been cropping up all over the place as caucuses approach. Just in the last week, these are some that have been unveiled:

? U.S. Rep. Ed Perlmutter endorsed Robert Rodriguez, one of six candidates running for the Senate District 32 seat held by term-limited state Sen. Irene Aguilar, D-Denver.

? NARAL Pro-Choice America endorsed Jason Crow, one of four Democrats challenging U.S. Rep. Mike Coffman in the 6th Congressional District.

? Progressive Democrats of America’s local chapter endorsed Levi Tillemann, another one of the Democrats challenging Coffman.

? Blue Rising Colorado, a state small donor committee, endorsed Cary Kennedy, one of five leading Democrats running for governor.

? Jason Kander, a former Missouri secretary of state and one of the Democratic Party’s rising stars, endorsed Jena Griswold in her run against Colorado Secretary of State Wayne Williams, a Republican seeking a second term.

? Former state Sen. Gail Schwartz, a former congressional candidate, endorsed Phil Weiser, one of four Democrats running for attorney general.

? Ken Salazar, the former interior secretary. senator and attorney general, endorsed Ashley Wheeland, one of two Democrats mounting a primary challenge against state Rep. Paul Rosenthal, D-Denver. A couple days later, Wheeland also won an endorsement from former Senate President John Morse, D-Colorado Springs, one of the two Senate Democrats recalled by voters in 2013 over his role passing gun control laws earlier that year.

? Former University of Colorado Regent Tom Lucero endorsed Nic Morse, a former congressional candidate and one of two Republicans running for the Senate District 15 seat held by term-limited state Sen. Kevin Lundberg, R-Berthoud. A former chair of the Larimer County GOP, Lucero ran for Congress in the 4th Congressional District in 2010 and ran for a state House seat in 2016.

? Marcus Fotenos, a former student body president of the University of Colorado in Boulder and a speaker at this year’s CPAC event, endorsed Republican Chance Hill, a candidate for the open CU regent seat from the 5th Congressional District. Hill, so far, is unopposed in his run.

? Run for Something, the national group encouraging young, progressive candidates to, er, run for something, included three Colorado candidates in its latest round of endorsements, backing Patrick Dillon in his race for Berthoud town trustee; Barrett Rothe in his run challenging state Rep. Kevin Van Winkle, R-Highlands Ranch; and Meghan Nutting, one of a half dozen candidates running in House District 5, which is represented by term-limited House Speaker Crisanta Duran, D-Denver.