State Rep. Dave Williams won top-line designation Saturday on Colorado’s Republican primary ballot in the 5th Congressional District, guaranteeing that U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn will face at least two GOP challengers in his bid for a ninth term.

Williams, a three-term state lawmaker from Colorado Springs, was the only candidate to emerge from the Republicans’ district assembly in Peyton, where he won 422 delegate votes, or 74%, in a contest against two mostly unknown, first-time candidates, neither of whom cleared the 30% needed to advance to the June 28 primary.

“If you want to keep the establishment and the status quo, where nothing gets accomplished and our values are constantly undermined, then vote for the guy in the back right there,” said Williams, pointing over the crowd of cheering delegates toward Lamborn in the gymnasium at Falcon High School after his wife, Emily, and conservative commentator Michelle Malkin had nominated Williams.

“But if you want a right-wing conservative, America-first, grassroots fighter with a spine who won’t back down from the corrupt politicians and the deep state, then vote for me,” he added.

Williams said in his speech that the heavily Republican, El Paso County-based 5th CD – which hasn’t sent a Democrat to the U.S. House since its creation in 1972 – should send a lawmaker to Washington who leads the fight on conservative issues, citing Republican U.S. Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, Madison Cawthorn of North Carolina and Lauren Boebert of Colorado as role models.

“I’m going to be just like Lauren Boebert, though not as pretty,” Williams cracked.

Lamborn and challenger Rebecca Keltie, a Navy veteran who ran for the seat two years ago on a third-party ticket, have both qualified for the primary ballot by petition, while business owner Andrew Heaton is awaiting a ruling on signatures he submitted in March.

According to state election officials, Lamborn submitted 2,297 valid signatures from fellow Republicans to make the ballot, and Keltie turned in 1,679 – both over the 1,500 needed to qualify by petition.

“The more, the merrier,” said Lamborn, who has faced primaries in all but two of his eight successful runs for the seat, in a text message.

Two other potential Lamborn challengers, Christopher Mitchell and Brandon Mimiaga, came up short in their attempt to make the ballot at the assembly, with Mitchell receiving support from 133 delegates, for 23.3% of the vote, and Mimiaga receiving 15 votes, or 2.6%.

Lamborn, Keltie and Heaton had all been planning to compete for delegate votes at the assembly but announced this week that they were skipping it due to questions about the delegate selection process and difficulty getting up-to-date lists of delegates from the El Paso County Republican Party.

In an unprecedented move, Vickie Tonkins, the county party chairwoman, swung back at Lamborn Thursday night in a blistering email sent to district delegates, drawing a reminder from the state GOP that party bylaws require party officers to remain neutral in primaries.

“This victory shows the real reason why Doug Lamborn broke his promise and skipped the assembly vote. When Lamborn’s true RINO record is exposed, the voters reject him,” Williams told Colorado Politics in a text message, using an acronym popular among conservatives for “Republican in name only.”

Keltie, who attended the assembly as a delegate but didn’t have her name placed in nomination, told Colorado Politics that she isn’t surprised Williams swept the vote against a pair of political newcomers.

“It’s hard to have a dance with a party of one,” she said, adding that she felt sorry for the delegates who were “robbed of their free choice of better-qualified candidates” because she and the other petitioners didn’t participate in what she termed the county GOP’s “twisted games.”

Republican delegates also nominated University of Colorado Regent Ken Montera and State Board of Education member Steve Durham to the primary by acclamation, since neither incumbent faced opposition.

In a virtual assembly also held on Saturday, 5th CD Democrats set up a primary for the congressional nomination between David Torres and Michael Colombe and nominated Ronald Casados for CU regent and Joseph Shelton for the state education post.