Another Christmas has come and gone with many Colorado Republicans once again not celebrating how they would have liked to on the heels of November’s midterm election. Not surprisingly, Colorado’s current GOP state chair, Kristi Burton Brown, recently announced that she is not seeking re-election, which means for the fifth time in just eight years, Colorado Republicans will elect a new party leader. With this forthcoming change, hopefully the new chair can lead us out of the self-inflicted abyss that is the least amount of power at the Capitol since before World War II. Instead of lamenting the past, this Republican is more hopeful and offers the following five New Year’s Resolutions for whomever is considering running for the top job:

1) Choose to win

Before moving forward, a choice must be made – we either choose to win or choose to be right, there can be no ambiguity. What does each look like? Simply put, choosing to win means decisively and unapologetically rejecting any and all election conspiracies and political extremism. It means having intellectual honesty to accept our platform is not conducive to today’s voters, especially among those unaffiliated, which comprise approximately 45% of the electorate. What does choosing to be right mean? Simply put, it means embracing the Boot Barn circus and its goals, namely doubling down on far-right issues, relitigating 2020, and closing the open primary system, among many others.

2) Reframe our vision

Nike sells greatness. Coca-Cola sells happiness. Colorado Republicans sell…commitments? Last year Colorado Republicans unveiled the Commitment to Colorado, which on the surface was a well-intentioned list of sound policy proposals. But it ultimately read more as a list of President Joe Biden and Democrat grievances. Where is the grand vision that excites and motivates voters of all ideological stripes, articulating our party’s “it’s always morning in America” attitude? Instead of selling affordability, safety and school choice, we should sell prosperity, defining the GOP in a new way as the Growth + Opportunity = Prosperity party. Every issue stance and policy proposal should connect back to either achieving growth or expanding opportunity for our families, communities, state and country, all of which results in long-term prosperity.

3) Innovate on issues

Within a new vision, we must better address issues that Coloradans care most about. A close reading of Colorado’s exit polling data in The Wall Street Journal’s “How We Voted in the 2022 Midterm Elections” shows that after the economy and jobs, climate change and abortion rounded out the top-3 most important issues facing the country, respectively.

Compromise and climate are two C-words that are not in most Colorado Republicans’ vocabulary and it is to our detriment. The Colorado GOP of 2024 and beyond should convey abortion as “safe, legal, rare… and early”, contrasting with the Democrats’ current stance it be on-demand, everywhere and all the time. Comprise is essential here and would better reflect where two-thirds of voters stand on the issue in Colorado. Ironically, pro-abortion groups targeted moderate voters across the county, using language of personal freedom that clearly resonated and motivated them to vote. We must take back this language and then lead with it. Remember, voters in bright red, conservative states such as Kansas and Kentucky rejected bans or limits on abortion rights this year.

As for climate issues, Democrats have owned this issue entirely. Given its importance here in Colorado, Republicans have a significant opportunity, perhaps our biggest issue opportunity, to move the discussion to the center and therefore win on it. Climate change policy should be reframed as energy independence, clean-energy innovation (like nuclear power), conservation efforts and regenerative agriculture. This contrasts with the Democrats’ Green New Deal that seeks solely to destroy the fossil fuel industry. Remember, before we were the party of Lincoln and Reagan, we were the party of Lincoln and (Teddy) Roosevelt, who’s mostly remembered for his environmental policies of conservation throughout the American West. Let’s lean into that rich history and lead the state and country away from the woke left’s climate policy monopoly.

On the economy and jobs, our messages work as evidenced by exit polling data that showed voters broke 2-to-1 for Republicans when listing it as their top issue. The problem is our messaging is sometimes drowned out by distracting and nonsensical rhetoric from ill-informed candidates. As a result, some voters are not hearing what we actually stand for. Staying on point here is essential for future success.

4) Reinvigorate voter contact

Success at the ballot box comes from success reaching voters. Florida has transformed from mostly purple to dominantly red in just four years. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, after winning his first gubernatorial race in 2018 by a mere 32,000 votes (or 0.4%), went on to win reelection by a staggering 1.5 million votes (or 19.4%) in 2022. Florida’s turn red for the foreseeable future can be attributed to the Miami-Dade Miracle. Miami-Dade County, which voted for Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton by 29.3 points in 2016 and Andrew Gillum, Democratic gubernatorial candidate, by 20.9 points in 2018, swung heavily to DeSantis, by 11.3 points, in November. That reversed a 21-point loss in 2018. How did this happen? Fresh off his win in 2018, county-based Republican committees organized across Florida and knocked on more than 2 million doors, pitching DeSantis’ new Florida and GOP vision. Colorado Republicans should learn from Florida and, after aligning on a new vision and updated issue matrix, roll up our sleeves and get knocking on doors across the Front Range.

5) Identify strong candidates

If there’s one thing that can be learned from Colorado electing only one Republican to the Governor’s mansion in the past 50 years it’s that candidate quality matters. So how did Bill Owens get elected by 0.62% in 1998 and reelected by 29% in 2002? Both sides of the aisle agree Owens had a very likable personality and projected broad appeal, helped by a solid campaign run in which he focused on bread and butter, tabletop issues that resonated for everyone, not just conservatives.

Owens was laser focused on cutting taxes, reforming education and fixing road – issues that at the time appealed both within and outside the Republican Party across Colorado. If Republicans are to be a viable alternative to Democrats anytime soon, we must identify and develop candidates who can not only speak to the key issues of the day, but do so in a persuasive, likable way that resonates from every corner of the state.

Colorado Republicans have only three more months before a new chair is elected to lead us for the next two years. Unfortunately the current list of rumored and declared candidates for chair would not have made it to Resolution No. 5 much less past Resolution No. 1. I hope among us there are those who choose to win, leading the party out of 2004 and into the present of 2024 and beyond.

Hunter Barnett lives in Colorado Springs and is a graduate of the University of Colorado Boulder. He served as one of the four Republican commissioners on Colorado’s inaugural Independent Legislative Redistricting Commission in 2021.