Just when it appeared Colorado Republicans could not go any lower after another round of devastating defeats in 2022, an understandably frustrated but terribly misguided group of activists could make the party permanently irrelevant.

Driven by the deep antipathy unaffiliated voters have for Donald Trump, Republicans lost every statewide race for governor, U.S. senator, attorney general, secretary of state and state treasurer along with the newly created 8th Congressional District. Democrats now have massive state legislative majorities with a 22-13 State Senate and a 46-19 House of Representatives.

A group calling itself the “Save Colorado Project” is demanding that current Colorado Republican Chairwoman Kristi Burton Brown be removed for “treachery” and that the party purify itself by eliminating “RINOs” (Republicans In Name Only) who have allegedly collaborated with Democrats.

They are seeking to take control of the Colorado Republican State Committee which will meet in March to elect new state party officers. They want to eliminate the Republican primary election in 2024 and confine Republican nominations to being decided by just a few thousand activists who participate in the caucus-assembly process. 

This would eliminate more than 900,000 registered Republicans who do not go to caucuses from having any role in their party’s nomination process since there would be no primary election.

More than 1.6 million unaffiliated voters, who determine the outcomes of general elections, would be denied the ability to choose to vote in the Republican primary while still being able to vote in the Democratic primary. 

It is no mystery what kind of message that sends to unaffiliated voters: we don’t want your votes even though Republicans are only 26% of the electorate.

The “Save Colorado Project” correctly points out that total Democratic control of state government has dramatically increased crime, drug abuse and homelessness and spurred a precipitous decline in the state’s quality of life. But they seem intent on making sure that this insidious Democratic control is permanently enshrined by making the Colorado Republican Party as narrow and irrelevant as possible.

Notably absent from their list of grievances is the albatross which has undeniably defined Colorado Republicans for three consecutive election cycles: Defeated former president Trump who continues to falsely claim the 2020 election cycle was stolen from him and who now has dinner with extremists who advocate white supremacy and anti-Semitism.

The pathetic saga of criminally indicted Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters has amplified Trump’s stolen-election conspiracies in Colorado and further tainted Colorado Republicans. Two of her co-conspirators in her scheme to illegally tamper with election equipment have now cut plea deals in exchange for testifying against Peters in her upcoming criminal trial in March.

Under the heading of “you can’t make this stuff up,” Peters says she is considering running for Republican state chair. Ironically, her criminal trial is set for March around the same time a new chair will be elected. Now this could be a historical first! A new state chair is elected in absentia due to being in a courtroom on criminal charges, or maybe even in jail at that point.

The “Save Colorado Project” seems blindly unaware how much the Colorado electorate has changed in the past 10 years, during which 800,000 people moved to the state. After decades of being a purple state whose voters were one-third Democratic, one-third Republican, and one-third unaffiliated, Colorado is now roughly 46% unaffiliated, 28% Democratic, and only 25% Republican. 

A large majority of those unaffiliated voters despise Trump and voted against Republicans in the past three elections. Trump lost Colorado by 14 points to Joe Biden in 2020 and Republican statewide candidates lost by similar margins in 2022.

During their recent 90-minute “press conference” to announce their agenda, “RINOs” were called “whores, traitors, liars and ass wipes.” Even beyond calling for her defeat, GOP Chairwoman Kristi Burton Brown was maliciously and personally attacked. Of course, all of this character assassination was done in the interest of party purity and unity.

Colorado Republicans have a long road back to start winning elections again once Trump no longer defines the party, but this crowd would ensure it will never happen. 

Dick Wadhams is a former Colorado Republican state chairman who worked for the late Republican U.S. Sen. Bill Armstrong for nine years before managing campaigns for Republican U.S. Sens. Hank Brown and Wayne Allard, and Republican Gov. Bill Owens.