Dave Williams, the chairman of the Colorado Republican Party, won top-line designation Saturday in the GOP’s 5th Congressional District primary amid complaints the former state lawmaker has used party resources to promote his campaign and bash a primary opponent.

Williams will face at least one other candidate in the June 25 primary for the seat held by retiring U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn, the Colorado Springs Republican who announced at the beginning of the year that he wouldn’t seek a ninth term representing the heavily Republican district.

Republican Jeff Crank, a podcaster and executive with the Koch network’s Americans for Prosperity, qualified for the primary ballot by petition this week, while state Sen. Bob Gardner, R-Colorado Springs, is awaiting word on whether petition signatures he submitted on Tuesday are sufficient.

Williams received just over 70% of the delegate vote at the Republicans’ district assembly at Vista Ridge High School in Colorado Springs, easily clearing the 30% threshold required to win a spot in the primary.

Two other potential candidates — anti-tax crusader Douglas Bruce, a former state lawmaker and author of Colorado’s Taxpayer Bill of Rights, and Army veteran and first-time candidate Joshua Griffin — fell short in their attempt to make the ballot, with Griffin finishing in second place and Bruce in third. Crank received a handful of write-in votes, party officials said.

The boundaries of the congressional district roughly coincide with El Paso County. While the district’s electorate has shifted to the left in recent years, voters have only elected Republicans to the seat since its creation in 1972.

Noting in a speech to cheering delegates that he vowed to fight against both “the establishment in our own party” and the state’s ruling Democrats when he was elected party chairman last year, Williams called out congressional Republicans who voted on Friday to pass a $1.7 trillion spending package.

“Those people are going to continue to ruin our country, to sell us out on immigration unless we send fighters to Washington, D.C.,” Williams said.

“That’s the problem,” he added, “‘say anything’ politicians who pay lip service to values that you care about but then don’t deliver on the issues that we hold dear.”

Comparing himself to Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan, Williams told delegates that he intends to go Congress to “tell the swamp: ‘No more!'”

Williams and Crank have run in Republican primaries for the congressional seat before, but both lost to Lamborn, who was first elected in 2006. Williams, who sued unsuccessfully to add the phrase “Let’s Go Brandon” to his name on the ballot, came in second in the 2022 primary, while Crank finished in second place in 2006 and 2008.

Williams, who touts a recent endorsement by former President Donald Trump and calls himself an “America First” candidate — using a phrase popular among Trump’s followers — came under fire during the assembly for his past work as an executive at a family-owned company that imported thousands of tons of plastic products from China over a 12-year period.

Assembly delegates were barraged on Saturday with texts and geographically targeted digital ads picturing Williams and Chinese leader Xi Jinping alongside a headline reading “Dave Williams: America Last, China First.”

The ads, paid for by the recently launched Restoring Standards PAC, linked to a recent KCNC-TV story detailing Williams’ employment history as registered agent and vice president of MKW Global Sourcing, a company owned by his in-laws. The company logged more than 1,000 imports from China between 2008 and 2020, according to a website that tracks shipping containers through the U.S. Customs Service.

Williams declined an on-camera interview but issued a statement calling the report “fake news.”

Bruce cited the TV report in an email to delegates on Friday that included a reference to “The Manchurian Candidate,” a 1960s thriller about an American politician who was brainwashed by the Chinese.

“You can decide whether Dave’s background is an unusual connection,” Bruce wrote, adding, “I have no ties to China.”

In a flier he distributed at the assembly, Bruce accused Williams of having a conflict of interest by spending state party funds to help his candidacy.

According to a campaign finance report filed this week, the Colorado GOP spent nearly $10,000 on a mailer sent last month to voters in El Paso County that attacked Crank, presidential candidate Nikki Haley and The Gazette newspaper. The party also paid a similar amount in February to a political consulting firm run by Williams’ campaign manager.

Crank had left open the possibility that he might also go through the assembly but notified GOP officials on Friday that he’d decided against it. If he had gone the assembly route, Crank would have only needed support from at least 10% of the delegates to keep his berth in the primary after already qualifying by petition.

The Colorado Secretary of State’s Office has until late April to determine whether petitioning candidates submitted the required number of signatures from fellow party members. It takes 1,500 for congressional candidates in order to qualify for the primary.

Delegate Crystal Overstreet said she was supporting Crank in the race because, she said, “He exemplifies integrity.”

Overstreet said she believes Williams has run a dirty campaign, noting that he paid for attack fliers aimed at Crank with party funds.

“Dave is going for the gut punch,” Overstreet added.

If Crank is elected, she would like to see him work on top Republican issues, such as fixing the immigration system.

Troy Courkamp arrived at the assembly bearing a large Trump flag and decked out in stickers adorned with phrases like “Keep Right.” He said he was backing Williams in the 5th CD race and called Trump’s endorsement a big deal but added that Williams was his choice even before Trump announced his support.

Calling himself a pro-life and pro-gun voter, Courkamp said he was pleased with Trump’s work to change the balance on the U.S. Supreme Court, which led to Roe v. Wade being overturned.

Courkamp said he wants Williams to tackle election reform if elected, including a push to return to hand-counting ballots at the precinct level. He also said he supports more gridlock in Congress if it slows national spending.

Before the district assembly commenced, delegate Brandon Mimiaga said he hadn’t yet made up his mind yet and preferred to hear from the candidates, as opposed to reading what he characterized as a sanitized version of their beliefs online.

“I like to get it in their own words,” he said.

Democrats are scheduled to pick their party’s 5th CD primary lineup in an online assembly on April 6. Candidates in the running for the nomination are John Edgar, River Gassen, Joe Reagan, Adam Gillard and Orlando Avion.

— Gazette reporter Mary Shinn contributed