Colorado Republicans plan to vote in early January on whether to give the party’s formal endorsement to Donald Trump’s reelection bid ahead of the state’s Super Tuesday presidential primary in March, GOP officials told Colorado Politics on Wednesday.

Under a proposal introduced last week by former Monument Councilwoman Darcy Schoening, the state GOP would throw its support behind Trump – and call on his primary opponents to withdraw from the race – nearly two months before Colorado voters register their preferences at the ballot box.

While the move would be unprecedented, Colorado Republican Party Chairman Dave Williams said the state party’s prohibition on taking sides in a primary likely doesn’t apply to the presidential nominating process, paving the way for endorsing Trump.

Schoening collected the number of signatures needed to call a special meeting of the party’s central committee on Tuesday, she said, but intends to keep gathering names in hopes of securing commitments from a majority of the committee’s members.

Williams said the party is looking at holding the meeting online in the first week of January but won’t set the wheels in motion until Schoening submits the petition, which she said could happen by the end of this week.

Schoening said it’s obvious that Trump will be the nominee and wants Republicans to stop wasting energy on candidates who don’t have a chance.

“As you know, President Trump is leading in the polls by such a significant percentage that his opponents don’t have the time or resources to beat President Trump,” Schoening said in an email distributed by the state party last week. “Those resources and time must be immediately allocated to President Trump so that we may begin fighting Biden and the Democrats.”

According to the Colorado Secretary of State’s Office, either six or seven Republicans are slated to appear in the state’s March 5 presidential primary, depending on rulings in a pending lawsuit that seeks to bar Trump from the ballot on constitutional grounds.

Other than Trump, the Republican candidates who have qualified for the Colorado primary are Georgia pastor and CEO Ryan Binkley, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson and Ohio businessman Vivek Ramaswamy.

In order to gain access to the Republican ballot, candidates had to pay a nonrefundable $40,000 filing fee to the Colorado GOP under new party rules adopted earlier this year, though Williams noted that Christie and Hutchinson opted for the discounted $20,000 fee that includes a commitment to show up for a fundraiser in the state.

Schoening acknowledged that the party can’t force anyone from the ballot, calling the resolution’s provision “symbolic” but added that she hopes Trump’s rivals face facts.

Trump swept Colorado’s 2020 presidential primary with 92% of the vote against nominal opposition.

Among those signing on in support of Schoening’s resolution are a slew of elected officials and party officers, she said, including U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Silt; state Sen. Rod Pelton, R-Cheyenne Wells; state Reps. Brandi Bradley, R-Larkspur, Ken DeGraaf, R-Colorado Springs, and Scott Bottoms, R-Colorado Springs; state Board of Education member Stephen Varela; state GOP Vice Chair Hope Scheppelman; and state GOP Secretary Anna Ferguson.

Not every Republican is on board.

“It’s appalling, actually, and not just because of the bait-and-switch aspect of it,” Pitkin County GOP Vice Chair Freida Wallison, a former county chair, told Colorado Politics, referring to the possibility of the party accepting payment from candidates and then telling them to drop out.

“We shouldn’t be in the business before our primary of suggesting what the field should look like, in my view.”

Wallison maintained that even if the state party’s neutrality requirement is vague enough to permit adopting Schoening’s resolution, it could still run afoul of stricter county bylaws, potentially putting Republican officers in a tough position.

“The pertinent provision is broad,” she said in a text message, citing her county’s rules. “‘No Republican candidate for any designation or nomination for public office shall be endorsed, supported or opposed by … the Executive Board prior to the primary, unless such candidate is unopposed.'”

Added Wallison: “I suspect that other counties’ bylaws are similarly broad on neutrality. So, Darcy Schoening and Dave Williams are asking for the members of the state central committee to violate their own counties’ bylaws.”

Schoening said she got the idea for the resolution earlier this month when the Ohio Republican Party voted to endorse Trump, becoming the first state GOP to render a formal endorsement this cycle. Schoening added that she decided to bolster the measure by asking Trump’s fellow candidates to quit the primary.

Ohio’s party approved its endorsement nearly unanimously – with just a single vote against it – but Schoening said she anticipates some opposition in Colorado.

“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.”