A former chairman of the Arapahoe County Republican Party resigned on Thursday from the state GOP’s executive committee in a strongly worded letter that criticized state chairman Dave Williams for stoking division in an already fractured party.

“You have used your position to demean and denigrate fellow Republicans,” wrote Rich Sokol, who served as the governing board’s representative from the 6th Congressional District.

Citing Ronald Reagan’s so-called 11th Commandment against speaking ill of fellow Republicans, Sokol added, “You should be empowering and lifting up our elected GOP officials, not tearing them down. There are plenty of Democrats willing to denounce our fellow Republicans; you should not be aiding them in their actions.”

As an example, Sokol cited an email distributed by Williams in June attacking Republican U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn of Colorado Springs for voting to approve a bipartisan compromise to raise the federal debt ceiling.

“Deceptively, Congressman Doug Lamborn broke his word and voted to increase our debt while helping Joe Biden continue to fleece American taxpayers,” read the email, which was titled “Fake Conservatives Sold You Out.”

Williams, who failed to unseat Lamborn last year in a primary, went on to list instances when the lawmaker had condemned government spending.

“No matter what your personal policy position was on the Debt Ceiling compromise, you greatly overstepped your role’s professional bounds with your inflammatory rhetoric,” Sokol wrote in the resignation letter, which was obtained by Colorado Politics.

Added Sokol: “As state party chair, you need to remember the advice that all our moms gave us when we were little: ‘If you have nothing good to say, then say nothing.'”

Williams dismissed Sokol’s criticism on Friday, adding that Sokol has only participated in a couple of executive committee meetings this year, at most.

“Desperate is what I would describe it as,” Williams said in a text message.

He said the GOP’s 6th CD committee would name Sokol’s replacement on the panel.

A former state legislator from Colorado Springs, Williams won election as state party chair this spring, following the Democrats’ near sweep in Colorado’s 2022 election, when Republicans lost every statewide race and gave up seats in the General Assembly.

Since taking the reins, Williams hasn’t been shy about denouncing Republicans on social media and in party-wide emails.

Among his broadsides: Scolding U.S. Rep. Ken Buck, a Windsor Republican and former state party chair, for opposing Ohio Republican Jim Jordan’s bid for House speaker, and formally admonishing a group of GOP state lawmakers and local officials for weighing in on a dispute in the Montana legislature.

“From time to time, it’s the responsibility of any organization to hold its members accountable for harmful decisions they make,” Williams said in an email announcing the reprimand aimed at the officials, adding, “Elected Republicans should know better and understand the stakes.”

The approach is in line with Williams’ rhetoric in the state chair race, when he blamed the Colorado GOP’s string of losses on “feckless leaders who are ashamed of you and ashamed of our principles,” vowing to paint in “bold colors, not pastels.”

In his speech to Republicans at the state chair election, Williams said he wouldn’t just go after Democrats, pledging to keep the pressure on “people like Liz Cheney, Mitt Romney and Mitch McConnell.”

That approach apparently didn’t sit well with Sokol, who wrote in his resignation letter: “Chairman Williams, I believe your job is to help Republicans get elected. That means all Republicans, not just those with whom you agree on certain policy issues. Demeaning elected Republican officials does not help them get reelected, and taking sides on policy issues contested within the GOP caucus does not help Republicans get elected.”

“Our GOP Party is already greatly splintered, and your actions have furthered divisions instead of unifying. How does this help us?” Sokol added.