An El Paso County Republican thinks it’s high time the state GOP throws its formal support behind former President Donald Trump in Colorado’s upcoming presidential primary.

A proposal circulated online this week by former Monument Councilwoman Darcy Schoening urges members of the Colorado Republican Party’s central committee to adopt a resolution endorsing Trump and calling on the other GOP candidates to drop out ahead of the state’s Super Tuesday primary on March 5.

“The primary is fast approaching, and President Trump will be the nominee,” Schoening wrote in a letter to central committee members. “I am calling on you to fully support him and call on the other candidates to resign now. No further time, resources, or energy shall be wasted on candidates trailing by double digits.”

Schoening’s proposal is a virtual mirror image of an effort making its way through Colorado courts to bar Trump from the ballot under a constitutional provision that prohibits insurrectionists from holding federal office. The Colorado Supreme Court heard arguments this week from both sides, who each appealed aspects of an earlier ruling by a Denver District Court judge. The lower court found that Trump engaged in an “insurrection” when he incited supporters to block Congress from certifying President Joe Biden’s 2020 election but nonetheless determined that the amendment’s precise language doesn’t apply to the presidency.

The Colorado Republican Party joined the lawsuit on Trump’s side, arguing that it should be up to voters to decide which presidential candidates to nominate and send to the White House.

The resolution submitted by Schoening would turn that argument on its head, making Trump the party’s choice before voters have a chance to weigh in.

It’ll take signatures from one-quarter of the central committee’s membership to call a special meeting to consider Schoening’s resolution, which she proposes holding over Zoom.

She told Colorado Politics on Dec. 7 that she’d already gathered about half of the required 103 signatures, with more coming in by the hour.

The move would be unprecedented, veering sharply from the state party’s longstanding position against taking sides in primaries, but state GOP officials told Colorado Politics that it could be permissible under party bylaws.

Colorado Republican Party Chairman Dave Williams said the party’s pre-primary neutrality rules don’t “perfectly fit” the state’s presidential primary. Instead, he said, the rules describe scenarios involving whether candidates qualify for the primary through the caucus system or by petition, neither of which are routes to the presidential primary ballot.

Williams added he anticipates that if the special meeting is called, the central committee will first consider whether the rules allow the state party to make an endorsement. If the answer is yes, members will then decide whether to adopt Schoening’s resolution.

Pitkin County GOP Vice Chair Frieda Wallison, a former county chair, told Colorado Politics she opposes the resolution, believing it “certainly violates the spirit” of the neutrality requirement.

“I really want to make sure that Republican voters have their say,” she said. “I think that’s a pretty fundamental principle.”

At this point, five Republican candidates stand to appear on Colorado’s presidential primary ballot – Trump and his leading challengers, South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, businessman Vivek Ramaswamy and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.

To make the ballot, each of the candidates has to be a Republican in good standing and pay a $40,000 filing fee to the state GOP, following a party rule adopted earlier this year that established the fee, which is nonrefundable.

Another Republican candidate who suspended his campaign earlier this week, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, ponied up a discounted $20,000 after agreeing to participate in a fundraiser with the state party, but Williams said the party won’t hold him to that, now that he isn’t still running. But he won’t get his money back, either, Williams added.

Schoening said that if any of Trump’s opponents withdraw in response to the party adopting her resolution, they can ask for their money back, but she added that she doubts they’ll get it.

“They can demand to be repaid,” she said in a text message. “But I don’t see that happening. If they drop out, as Burgum did, then their campaigns just failed.”

As far as Schoening is concerned, the others have already failed, and they’re only delaying the inevitable.

She noted that the party doesn’t have the power to eject anyone from the ballot, calling the resolution “symbolic.”

“No one is forcing them to drop out,” she said. “Their campaigns just haven’t gone anywhere.”

Shoening said she was inspired to bring the resolution after the Ohio Republican Party formally endorsed Trump on Dec. 1, becoming the first state GOP to do so this cycle. She said she came up with the provision calling on Trump’s competitors to quit.

While the Ohio party approved its resolution nearly unanimously, Schoening acknowledged that her Colorado resolution isn’t a slam dunk.

“There are still a lot of establishment Republicans who laughably believe Haley or DeSantis has a chance,” she said. “They’re so anti-Trump that some on the (central committee) will never coalesce around Trump. So it’s important to remember, this is a discussion still.”

But Schoening said she considers the urgency of defeating President Joe Biden a good reason to consolidate the party behind a nominee as soon as possible. She added that she would have pushed for the same resolution backing another candidate if someone else held an advantage as large as Trump’s.

“Any day spent humoring the rest of the field is another day wasted, not advancing President Trump past Biden and into the Oval Office,” she said in the letter to central committee members.

“This is common sense,” she added. “The likelihood of anyone advancing past President Trump is abysmal, and we as the Colorado GOP must stand with him early and aggressively, to defeat Joe Biden.”

Although the race for the Republican nomination appeared to be a jump ball a year ago, in recent months Trump has pulled into a massive lead in national and early state polls.

According to fivethirtyeight.com’s national polling average on Dec. 7, Trump has the support of nearly 60% of Republican primary voters, with DeSantis trailing at about 13%, followed by Haley at 11% and the others in low single digits.

Trump’s lead is only slightly less overwhelming in a handful of early primary states, including in Iowa, where Trump averages about 46% support with DeSantis and Haley jockeying for second-place with nearly 20% apiece. In New Hampshire, Trump is polling at 45%, with Haley a distant second at 19%, followed by Christie at about 12% and DeSantis at about 8%.

The site doesn’t list any polls measuring support in Colorado’s GOP primary.

When he was the incumbent in 2020, Trump won Colorado’s GOP primary by a crushing margin, taking 92% of the vote over nominal opposition. Former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld finished in second place with about 4%, followed by former U.S. Rep. Joe Walsh of Illinois, who had withdrawn before the vote but received about 2%. Three other candidates whose names probably wouldn’t ring a bell trailed with 1% or less.

Biden holds a strong lead this year over his Democratic challengers in national polls, averaging 66% support to 8% for author Marianne Williamson and nearly 6% for Minnesota Rep. Dean Phillips, according to fivethirtyeight.com.

Colorado Democratic Party Chair Shad Murib told Colorado Politics that the party has no plans to put its thumb on the scale in the Democratic primary ahead of Super Tuesday. He noted that the party has approved all the primary candidates who meet statutory requirements and isn’t charging a hefty fee like the Republicans are this cycle.

“I’m not surprised that the Colorado GOP is looking to make their role as Donald Trump’s lapdog official,” he said. “I hope the other candidates ask for their money back. We encourage every Republican tired of their party supporting someone who vows to be a dictator on Day One, calls for an election to be overturned, and turns Americans against each other to join our party and reject Trump.”

Ernest Luning has covered politics for Colorado Politics and its predecessor publication, The Colorado Statesman, since 2009. He’s analyzed the exploits, foibles and history of state campaigns and politicians since 2018 in the weekly Trail Mix column.