El Paso County is a vital Republican stronghold in Colorado. It’s essential that Republicans work together if we want high voter turnout, community connections for our candidates, and effective messaging.

I’ve been in state party leadership for the last four years, and El Paso County Republicans have been in the news for all four years for some kind of fight. I spent my teenage years in the county, so I know and love people on both “sides,” and plenty who feel caught in the middle – on no “side,” but the conservative, Republican side.

In January 2023, things finally came to a head. Nearly 100 members of the Republican State Central Committee (SCC) reached out with yet another concern about El Paso County. These members were from all across Colorado, and they wanted to ensure that the upcoming election in El Paso – where the local party would elect officers to lead them for the next two years – would be a safe, legal, and fair event. I called a Central Committee meeting to let our nearly 500 members decide whether we needed to bring in a trusted neutral party to run El Paso County’s election.

After hearing from multiple people in El Paso and across the state, the SCC voted yes. Yes, bring in a neutral party to run the election. A court of law had found in 2022 that Chairwoman Tonkins had altered a voting list in an assembly. Some of her supporters had threatened El Paso members with a firing squad when they voted differently and spoke out in meetings. The SCC (obviously) doesn’t support these kinds of actions, and the body decided to ask Gregory Carlson, a professional Parliamentarian, to run the election.

Chairwoman Tonkins, working with former Rep. Dave Williams, sued the State Party, expending tens of thousands of dollars from El Paso Republicans in the process. As we warned would happen in our briefing to the court, the court agreed with the state party that our SCC had every right to order a neutral, trusted election. State law is very clear – and has been for decades – that Republicans get to solve our own conflicts; not the courts.

During the court process, I went on the radio and sent emails, urging all voting members in El Paso to attend the official meeting. Thankfully, at the last minute, Chairwoman Tonkins canceled her own meeting and came to the official one.

At that meeting, a multitude of excellent candidates for county officer and bonus member ran. I’m grateful for each of them. Chairwoman Tonkins and her slate prevailed. What’s more, they prevailed in an election that was fair, transparent, and neutral. Now, instead of governing under a cloud of accusations of a “rigged” election – that surely would have come had Chairwoman Tonkins run her own election – she and her fellow officers can serve for the next two years with the public assurance that the election was unquestionably transparent and fair.

Here’s the bottom line: I’ve said during this whole process that votes must be respected. That includes the vote of the SCC to bring in a neutral party to run the election. It also includes the vote for Chairwoman Tonkins. She has been given yet another opportunity to bring conservatives together; to support all Republican candidates; to turn out the vote in our largest Republican county. My hope is that she and her supporters take this opportunity to change the atmosphere at El Paso Republican gatherings. Keep the passion; keep the spirited debates; keep the constitutional conservatism at work. But lose the intimidation tactics. Lose the attraction to playing only for one side. Stop splitting the party in two. Don’t censure fellow Republicans and look for new ways to punish our own. Be the conservative, charismatic uniter people elected you to be.

And for anyone on the other side who is tempted to continue lobbing public attacks at Chairwoman Tonkins – stop. She was re-elected in a legitimate election. Find a way to work with her team inside the party, or work for conservative Republican values in another venue. But do it from a positive, uniting outlook. The voters in El Paso County spoke, and everyone – thrilled, unimpressed, or disappointed – needs to accept the answer and find your own path to promoting freedom, electing Republicans, and making Colorado the best state to call home.

Kristi Burton Brown is state chairwoman of the Colorado Republican Party.