Colorado Republican Chairman Dave Williams faced mounting calls to step down Saturday amid a push by the GOP chair of one of the state’s largest counties to oust him from the top party position.

“It is an aggressive move, but what Dave has been doing for the past few months is just unacceptable anymore,” Jefferson County GOP Chairwoman Nancy Pallozzi told Colorado Politics after launching a petition on Friday to force a vote to fire Williams.

“He is not speaking on behalf of the Republican Party. He is speaking for himself,” Pallozzi said.

Williams told Colorado Politics he isn’t going anywhere.

Pallozzi said she believes Williams crossed a line last week with a mass email from the state party attacking Pride Month, sent days after the LGBTQ community kicked off the annual observance.

“The month of June has arrived and, once again, the godless groomers in our society want to attack what is decent, holy, and righteous so they can ultimately harm our children,” read the email, titled “God Hates Pride” and signed by Williams. The email referred to LGBTQ people as “creeps,” “degenerates,” “godless” and “reprobates.”

The state GOP also posted a call on social media to “Burn all the #pride flags this June.”

“This last email — that was it, we’re done,” Pallozzi said. “It was disgusting. I don’t encourage burning the Pride flag. It was a message that should not have been sent out by the Republican Party.”

“Resign!” urged Republican state Sen. Barb Kirkmeyer, the party’s 2022 nominee in the 8th Congressional District, on Saturday in a social media post addressed to Williams.

“Instead of focusing on what unites us, under the leadership of Dave Williams the message from the state GOP has been one of division fueled by hateful narratives,” Kirkmeyer said.

“Dave Williams uses state GOP funds that are supposed to be used to defeat Democrats to further his own candidacy, attack Republicans, and just recently to deliver his latest message of hate,” she said. “It is past time to part ways with Dave Williams. His tactics are undermining our ability to lift up Colorado.”

Williams, one of two GOP candidates for the open congressional seat held by retiring U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn, has drawn steady criticism from fellow Republicans for using his position heading the state party to support his campaign.

On Friday, Pallozzi issued a call for Williams to resign and announced she was gathering signatures from Republicans who support the position.

“It is clear Dave Williams’ leadership does not align with the majority of Colorado Republicans, especially after this last email message,” said the release, which claimed support from multiple unnamed county GOP chairs and party officials from each of Colorado’s 64 counties.

“We are asking Mr. Williams to immediately resign his position as chairman of the Colorado Republican Party. We urge him to step down to allow us to bring in a new chair who will help build our party, support all our candidates and county organizations, and bring unity.”

Pallozzi said that by noon Saturday she had already obtained more than the required number of signatures from members of the state GOP’s central committee to convene a meeting to consider whether to boot Williams from office.

Under the party’s bylaws, 25% of the committee’s membership must call a special meeting of the governing body. If that happens, an affirmative vote from 60% of those in attendance would remove a party officer.

Pallozzi said she plans to release a list of Republicans who support the move on Monday and file the petition the same day, if Williams hasn’t resigned by then.

Williams said he’s happy to talk about the points he made in his emails.

“We look forward to the discussion over their defense of Pride Month and its harmful agenda against children while notifying their constituents of their publicly aligned Pride position with radical Democrats,” Williams said in a text message.

“We aren’t worried about these discussions, and if people want a special meeting, we will accommodate,” he added.

Several Republican congressional candidates who are also members of the GOP state central committee told Colorado Politics they either have already signed Pellozzi’s petition or plan to before she releases it.

State Rep. Richard Holtorf, an Akron Republican running in the crowded 4th Congressional District primary, noted that he’s been calling on Williams to resign for months and recently has encouraged county GOP officers to initiate a petition like the one Pallozzi is circulating.

“I am glad to see Jeffco stepping up,” Holtorf said in a text message.

One of Holtorf’s congressional primary rivals, state Rep. Mike Lynch of Wellington, said in a text message that he was representing Colorado at a national conference, so he was “kinda unplugged” from the latest turmoil surrounding Williams but planned to add his name to the petition.

“I will be in support of any effort to remove the feckless head of the Colorado Republican Party,” Lynch said.

A spokesman for state Rep. Gabe Evans, the Fort Lupton Republican running in the 8th CD, and State Board of Education member Stephen Varela, one of six Republicans running in the 3rd District, said both congressional candidates support removing Williams and had signed the petition.

Todd Watkins, the El Paso County GOP’s vice chairman, told Colorado Politics he supports firing Williams as chairman. He added that he’s long considered Williams’ dual roles as party boss and congressional candidate to be a disqualifying conflict of interest.

“Dave has proved it. You can’t do both,” Watkins said. “You can’t be the chair of the party and run for Congress at the same time. He has absolutely used his position in charge of all the finances, all the resources, and diverted them to his campaign.”

Watkins said the state party’s email targeting Pride Month raised the stakes.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Watkins said. “Tell me now how I, as a Republican in Colorado, can defend myself now that my leader has said this on behalf of all Republicans? How can I convince you I’m not a Christian nationalist and not a right-wing extremist? To condemn everybody because they partake in some particular lifestyle? That seems like an extreme judgment coming from a political party that is in a superminority in this state.”

Added Watkins: “He used his position as chair to propound religious purity. That goes beyond ideological purity. We’re a poltiical party, not an ecclesiastical organization Dave is not a prophet. He does not speak on behalf of the almighty.”

El Paso County Republican Chairwoman Vickie Tonkins, a longtime Williams ally, told Colorado Politics she has no intention of signing Pallozzi’s petition.

“Of course not,” Tonkins said in an email. “It is a Trump-hating witch hunt as they try to carry on the disastrous work of Kristi Burton Brown!”

Burton Brown, Williams’ predecessor as state party chair, took issue with Tonkins’ characterization of Williams’ critics.

“I think the State Central Committee has every right to consider their options,” said Burton Brown, a candidate for the State Board of Education from the 4th CD, in a text message. “And none of this has anything to do with hating Trump. Every county chair will be supporting him as our nominee this year.”

Boulder County GOP Chairwoman Tara Menza said she plans to meet over the weekend with other the county’s other Republican officers but anticipates she’ll sign on to the effort to remove Williams.

“We’re still in the talking about the game plan phase,” she said. “My problem right now is we don’t have a successor identified. You can’t just call on people to resign.”

Menza made it clear, however, that she disapproves of Williams’ latest moves.

“We do have to be sensitive with party politics, but I’m not on board with hate and division, not on board with it at all,” Menza said.

“We have more LGBTQ voters in Boulder County than in most places, and Dave alienated our entire base. Especially when our county party has worked really hard to be part of the community,” Menza said. “This isn’t the way to do it. We’re a big tent, we support individual rights, and Dave is just throwing that out the window, and I don’t appreciate it.”