Nancy Pallozzi, the Jefferson County Republican chair, has taken on a monumental task — restoring the beleaguered party in one of Colorado’s largest counties, where the GOP once ran the show but in recent decades has been relegated by voters to the sidelines.

Pallozzi, who has run unsuccessful campaigns for the legislature, city council and a seat on the State Board of Education, said she realizes it could take years, but she isn’t daunted.

Born and raised in the suburban county on the west side of the Denver metro area, Pallozzi said she grew up steeped in its conservative politics and is sensing that voters could be ready to move back in that direction.

Colorado Politics spoke with Pallozzi at county GOP headquarters in Lakewood in the aftermath of a decision to postpone the party’s sold-out annual fundraising dinner after the scheduled keynoter, South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, came under fire for writing in a forthcoming book about the time she shot and killed a disobedient puppy.

The interview was lightly edited for length and clarity.

Colorado Politics: With election season upon us, what is the Republican Party doing in Jefferson County? You’ve said you’re working to rebuild the party here?

Nancy Pallozzi: I am. I was voted in last February by our central committee, and I came in to rebuild the party. For the past eight-plus years, it’s really fallen apart. We’ve lost every elected office here in Jeffco, with the exception of the surveyor. Bob (Hennessy) is a wonderful man, but that’s one of those elected offices that I don’t really think needs to be a partisan kind of issue. You need to know the field, right? And that’s the same, for me, for the coroner. I don’t feel that that should be a partisan race, either. You either know what you’re doing or you don’t. But it is what it is.

So last year was a year of getting the Republicans back engaged into the Republican Party, and I concentrated on that. We had the school board elections, and they didn’t go as well as we would hope, but we did make some traction with that. We had some good candidates — not necessarily Republicans, but they were conservative unaffiliated candidates, and we will support conservative people whether they’re a registered Republican or not.

We did do one thing very well last year — Prop HH was defeated, because of the vote that I got out from Jefferson County — there were other people that were a part of this as well, it wasn’t just me, it was lots and lots of people helping — but Prop HH was defeated because Jeffco took 48% of that vote. So if we wouldn’t have gotten out and got the vote out last year, it probably would not have been defeated. So, I say kudos to that. We did well with that.

Then this year, we’ve got some great candidates that we’re working with, they’re getting going in their campaigns. The office is going to be more hands-on and helping these candidates. In the past, they’ve just kind of run their own campaign. They need support — every candidate, no matter where you are.

CP: Is that for county offices and in legislative races?

Pallozzi: Yeah, we have every seat filled with a Republican on the ballot, with the exception of district attorney, where I think somebody’s gonna step up on the DA position, but not a Republican. Most lawyers are not Republican-affiliated in any way, which we have found out, but we’ll see what happens with that. So that’s it, in a nutshell.

CP: How did you get involved in politics?

Pallozzi: I’ve been involved in politics my whole life. My father was heavily involved in politics here in Jefferson County. I was born and raised right here in Lakewood. Back in the ‘70s and ‘80s and ‘90s, my parents were the ones that put on a big function — two of them, actually. One was the Festival of the West which was a huge thing that happened here over the Fourth of July — fireworks, the Westernaires, at the fairgrounds — it was so much fun. I grew up at the fairgrounds. I was not a Westernaire, I didn’t do that, but I was in the 4-H program there the entire time, I was very heavily involved in 4-H, and I still am to this day.

The Festival of the West was an event that the county supported, they gave money to do that. But back in 2000, the commissioners decided that they wanted to rebuild the fairgrounds and change it. And that was the last year for the Festival the West, because we didn’t have the facilities, we didn’t have the ability to actually put on this big event that brought in 30,000 people in two days. It was a very family-oriented event, you’d take your lunch, sit down at the picnic tables and hang out, go get some of the Indian frybread, which was the biggest hit over there, and we just had a great time with that.

Also, my parents put on the Jefferson County Fair back in the ‘70s and ’80s. It was not what we have seen recently in terms of the Jefferson County fairs going on, we brought in thousands and thousands of people, it was big time. We had speakers, we had a flyover — my mother did a really great job with that. We had lots of contests. It was things that you can’t talk about now, like the “blind man tractor driving” — you were blindfolded, and the person behind you in a tractor was telling you which way to go around this obstacle course. We did the catch the greased pig contests and stuff like that you can’t do now. But we did back then, and it was lots of fun.

CP: Things like a pie-eating contest?

Pallozzi: All those fun things, absolutely! So that’s kind of where I started in terms of the politics. That was back with the Clements — Bunny Clements and Robert Clements, we have Clements Park named after them. Dan Schafer was part of that, Rich Ferdinandsen, you know, the old-school kind of guys. And they were hardcore, conservative people and I was kind of like another kid of theirs. I was always around them all the time, so I grew up with hearing that, just basically absorbing what they talked about. And I’m still very conservative to this day.

I got involved on an adult level about 20 years ago, and then ran for office. That was a learning experience. Back in the day, it was House District 28, which is now House District 30. And I was running against Brittany Pettersen, she was the legislature at the time.

CP: Was that in 2016, when she was running for a third term?

Pallozzi: Yes, it was her second time running for reelection. And that was an experience. I kind of really learned how dirty it becomes. And obviously, I didn’t win (laughs), she’s now our congresswoman. But that was a learning experience, with that.

I did run for Lakewood City Council, and I lost by only 300 votes — it was against Karen Harrison at the time, and she was a registered Republican. She had done a lot of things with city council that were not conservative values, let’s put it that way, and so I ran against her. I was close, but not close enough.

My background is in teaching — I went to school at the University of Northern Colorado, UNC, and have a teaching degree. I taught for quite some time, and then I went into some family-business type of stuff to help my parents out. But with that, education is still my passion, and I still follow it very much. I ran for State Board of Education in 2020, during COVID, and that was another experience.

I learned a lot with that as well. The Democrat (Karla Esser), she didn’t walk, she didn’t do much, because it was COVID time. I got a lot of backlash because I walked neighborhoods. I was respectful and I did wear a mask to be respectful, but they just couldn’t believe that I’d go knocking at their door, asking for their vote. That’s where I became a little skeptical of what’s going on with elections, because I lost by a substantial amount of votes. I still to this day cannot account for 50,000 votes. I lost by over 100,000 which is not common. I’m still researching it and trying to figure out where this extra 50,000 votes came from (laughs), but that that’s another subject.

But, anyway, that’s kind of where I’m at. I’ve done every position possible in politics. I’ve been a precinct committee person, I’ve been a district captan, I’ve been a chair, an area coordinator. Jeffco is a little bit different, we have area coordinators — I think they created this a long time ago, years ago. We have the precinct level, and then the district captains, who oversee five to six precincts within their area, and then the area coordinator oversees the district captains, and they help coordinate countywide elections. So I’ve held all those kinds of positions, and then the time just got to a point where I said I have to do something, I have to make a difference here and change the direction of this party and that’s where I’m at today.

CP: What happened in Jefferson County? It used to be a bastion of Republican voters and elected officials, but that dominance seems to have disappeared in the past couple of decades.

Pallozzi: If you look at eight years, 10 years ago, we held the sheriff’s office, the DA’s office, we were a majority of the commissioner seats, the assessor, the treasurer — we held those offices.

CP: It was a little longer ago than that, but a majority of the legislative seats, too? And now the party doesn’t have any of that in Jeffco.

Pallozzi: Yeah, we had Laura Woods in the Arvada area. We were doing well, and in the past 10 years, really, the demographics have changed as well. I think that a lot of the older people who supported (Republicans) have moved out or passed away, whatever may be, in terms of that. You’re seeing a big influx of 20-, 30-, 40-year-olds.

CP: Jeffco has always been a place younger folks move to raise their families, but there was something else that happened in the last 10 years, and that’s Donald Trump, who doesn’t do well among suburban voters. Has that had an effect?

Pallozzi: I think in the 2020 election it had a big effect here in Jeffco, and in 2018, because there’s those Never Trumpers out there, and we still have a very large proportion of them here in Jeffco. I think this year is going to be a little bit different with the presidential election. I think we’re seeing a change when it comes to Trump.

CP: How so?

Pallozzi: Well, our voter registration is going up. In the past couple of months, we’ve increased Republican registration by 12,000 people. I have families that are calling me and saying, “How do we change our registration?” I’ve had lifelong Democrats call and say, “Help me through this, how do I change my registration? I can’t support the Democrat Party any longer.” I had a gentleman not far from my house call, and I went over to his house. I showed him how to change the registration online. gave him the physical sheets for those who didn’t want to do it online, and 20 of his family members changed from Democrat to Republican.

So I’m seeing a change. They’re done. They’re tired. We have the crime here. The crime is horrible. We’ve never had that kind of stuff, the homeless and, yes, the migrants are coming in, whether they’re saying that or not. And people are seeing it. Their cars are being stolen. They’re being attacked in places. You know, the safety issue is a huge thing here, and you can’t deny it anymore. And that’s why people are changing, they’re fed up — they’re done.

The city councils have completely taken away all kinds of things within all the cities. Foothills Park and Rec had to stand down, but they were trying to make sure that nobody with a concealed carry license could be on their premises, in any of their parks and rec (facilities). RMGO and some of those groups came in and said, “No, you can’t be doing this,” but they’re trying to infiltrate this to take away a lot of things here for the community.

CP: You’re seeing a backlash to that?

Pallozzi: Yeah, I mean, you saw it at that town hall that happened in Lakewood, with 400 people showing up. They’re upset. Lakewood City Council’s doing a lot of things behind closed doors. And people are mad

CP: Are you going to win back at least a couple of seats in the legislature this year?

Pallozzi: We’re focusing on (House District) 25. That’s George Mumma, who is running in 25 (against Democratic state Rep. Tammy Story). That was Colin Larson’s seat, and it’s a winnable seat — very conservative, very Republican. And so that one we feel is going to be a good one to win back, for sure. And then Robyn Carnes is running for Senate down there as well (against Democratic state Sen. Chris Kolker), in Senate District 16, which goes into Arapahoe County, so it’s a shared, multi-county seat.

Colin Larson only lost by 700 votes, and he made a mistake in his campaign. He was focusing on being the minority leader down at the Capitol, instead of actually going and talking to his constituents, and he fell to the wayside, he was not paying attention to his campaign. And I really feel that’s the reason why. I was watching it, I was actually an election judge down in that South Jeffco polling area, for two and a half weeks down there, and I just didn’t see the Republicans come out.

But that’s the main focus right now, House District 25. It’s not going to happen overnight, to win back the seats now. It really isn’t. And we’re going to be working very hard on the commissioner seats as well.

CP: You’ve said you’re looking at it taking possibly a couple of terms to rebuild the party. If you’re able to come back next year for another two-year term, what’s on deck, what’s your agenda for the next two years?

Pallozzi: Just keep building. We have to have a consistent message. You know, the Republicans are really good at the infighting and tearing each other apart, and I have created a message of unity. We’re going to help each other. We’re not going to be a “RINO” (Republican in name only), we’re not going to be “establishment.” I hate those words. I hate them. We need to be Republicans and support Republicans. And that’s a message that should be going out on the state level as well. Instead, we don’t really have that right now. So we’ll see what happens, come November, with that.

But I am about unity, I’m about working together and creating this great relationship with our constituents out there. And it shows — I’ve got volunteers that I’ve never seen before. People are stepping up, finally, they’re actually helping and working with the party. It’s just a better feeling now. And I just need to continue that to make bring more people in, to become more involved and help. It’s just a consistent message.

CP: It’s not just name-calling, there appear to be substantive differences over the party’s direction. Dave Williams, the state chairman, and his folks say they’ve got the reins and are taking the party in the direction they want to take it, and anyone who’s not on board can get out of the way. How does the party move through the next six months with that kind of strife?

Pallozzi: I will say, I did vote for Dave at the time (for state chair), and I am very disappointed with what has happened with that. He has taken it to a different level that he shouldn’t have, in terms of endorsing Trump. I was not happy with that. We have a little coalition here, the county chairs here in the metro area actually get together once a month and talk and help and support each other, and none of us were happy with that. So he’s upsetting quite a few people.

There’s talks out there that people want to ask him to step down, because he’s running for Congress, there’s a conflict of interest. But as a chairs, we have decided not to support that part. Reason being is, we have our hands full with our own counties and have to deal with that, and he’s going to have to become very active, depending on what happens in the primary. It will make a difference. And so we’re just kind of laying low to see what happens next month with the primary with his race. We’ll see what happens, and then we’ll take it from there in June.

CP: What does the county party do this summer and into the fall?

Pallozzi: We’re now finding out there’s an awful lot of unaffiliated voters that are conservative, and some of them are stepping up and changing their registration, because if they want to get involved with the party, you have to actually be a registered Republican. If they want to be election judges and poll watchers, I can’t have them be appointed without them being a Republican.

One thing I did differently here, is well, in last November’s election, I had the most election judges we’ve ever had hired by the county. I had to have 280 election judges, and I had 260, so I almost maxed out all of my election judges, which has not happened and I’m focused on it. I have a good relationship with the county office. Those ladies — and men — are wonderful ,and we have a very good relationship. We get along very, very well. And they’re happy to see it as well, that we’re starting to engage with the elections process, because we haven’t.

So I’m bringing in some new things that are important. We’ve got to make sure we have safe and free elections. That’s the most important part. And once people get into it — we have an election integrity committee, and they are focusing on different issues with that — but once you get in there, and if you observe how our ballots are being processed once they reach that building, some of those questions that you hear out there, all that chatter going out there about how they’re stealing the elections and this and that, you can’t see anything in there that they would be stealing an election. Jeffco is very good in terms of — they track those ballots, they have a very good protocol, which some of the other counties do not have any of that in play.

I have found some things, when I do my minority reports, I offer suggestions or I tell them what I see needs to have some corrections made on it, and they have actually done that. They’ve put some things into play that I asked them to do.

Somewhere along the way, we’ve got to figure out how we can work with the Post Office with chain of custody for ballots. The reason being is, there are several people who have come out who don’t work for the Post Office anymore, and they’ve explained to us what really happens to those ballots in those processing centers, and they’re not being handled properly. So there’s a concern there. And I’d like to see how we can fix that. We can have election judges or put poll watchers into the Post Office where they have the ballots and make sure that the ballots are safe. The chain of custody has to begin from the very beginning, not just when they get to the ballot box.

CP: What are we going to see from Jeffco Republicans from now until November?

Pallozzi: You’re just going to see a movement like you’ve never seen before in Jefferson County. The candidates are going to be out there. We’re going to be doing everything we can to get some candidates selected. House District 25 is the most doable one, obviously, but we’re working on all of the campaigns. We have some really great candidates — I’m excited about Edward Cox, who is running for House District 27 (against Democratic state Rep. Brianna Titone). He has a political background, he knows what he’s getting himself into. So that’s a race to be watching. And I think we might be surprised. Sam Bandimere is running for Senate, in District 19 (against Democratic state Sen. Lindsey Daugherty), and I think that’s a race to be watching.

You’re seeing some older candidates as well. Ramey Johnson is running for House District 30 (against the winner of a Democratic primary between Rebekah Stewart and Kyra deGruy Kennedy). She has been a past legislator, so she knows what she’s getting into. And she was actually the last Republican that has held that seat, 20 years ago.

Ramey’s got a story in terms of how that all changed, and that was the beginning of the change from the Republican-held positions to Democrats. She has not quit, she’s in it to win it, this race, and she knows how she needs to do it. And I’m helping her, of course — that’s my house district now, so not only am I helping her as chair, but as a constituent. It’s hard as chair, because you have to keep yourself separated, sometimes, and not be lumped in to just being the chair.

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