The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel broke a very significant story on Oct. 11 that exposed how deeply the Colorado Republican Party has plunged into irrelevance.

Sentinel Political Reporter Charles Ashby wrote how the Arizona Republican Party — not the Colorado Republican Party — was spending money on behalf of Jeff Hurd, Republican nominee for Congress in Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District, and for Gabe Evans, the Republican nominee in our state’s 8th District.

The Arizona GOP is not suddenly diverting its attention from being a competitive swing state in the presidential race, not to mention their tight race for the U.S. Senate. Nor does Arizona have some kind of selfless affection for Colorado Republicans. 

But the Arizona GOP is a competent organization that can fill the breathtaking void left by an incompetent and increasingly irrelevant Colorado Republican Party.

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Presumably, entities such as the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) are moving money to Arizona it otherwise would have sent to Colorado in order to help Republican candidates in tough but winnable races. The NRCC exists solely to help elect Republican candidates to U.S. Congress and to preserve the historically narrow U.S. House Republican majority.

One can only conclude the NRCC does not trust the Colorado GOP to spend money in support of Republican candidates for Congress in the two competitive races. And why should they?

Under the “leadership” of Dave Williams, Colorado’s state party has demonstrated nothing but hostility to both Hurd and Evans. Williams violated more than 100 years of strict state party neutrality in competitive primaries and endorsed and financially supported failed stolen-election-conspiracy candidates against Hurd and Evans. 

Williams also endorsed himself and spent state party money on his own failed campaign in the 5th Congressional District Republican primary where he lost by a 2-to-1 margin to Jeff Crank. Williams later “reimbursed” the state party for the money spent on his campaign, which is questionable under Federal Election Commission (FEC) laws.

As of the last report filed with the FEC for the month of September, there have been no expenditures by Williams and the state party in support of Republican candidates Hurd and Evans.

But the most egregious example of mismanagement by Williams is how he handled contributions to the state party by the Protect the House 2024 PAC led by former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.

As the name implies, the PAC was created by McCarthy to raise money to support Republican incumbents in competitive races across the nation that will determine who controls the U.S. House of Representatives.

The Protect the House 2024 PAC was formed in early 2023. It entered into joint fundraising agreements with 20 state parties, including Colorado, and it targeted 30 incumbent Republican members of Congress in tough reelection campaigns — including U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert in the 3rd District.

The Protect the House 2024 PAC sent a total of $255,835 in contributions to the Colorado GOP last year when it appeared Boebert was facing an uphill race for reelection in 2024 after winning by just 564 votes in 2022. Boebert later left the 3rd District in order to run in the much more heavily Republican 4th District, where she is now considered the probable winner.

Before she switched districts, the Boebert campaign directly received $159,903 in contributions from the Save the House Majority 2024 PAC led by former Speaker McCarthy.

But even with Boebert gone, the 3rd District remains a competitive open seat because of the vast amount of money raised by the Democratic candidate, Adam Frisch of Aspen, when he nearly unseated Boebert. Also, the newly created 8th District is now one of the closest congressional races in the nation.

Not one dime of that $255,835 has been spent to support Hurd and Evans, which is another reason why the Arizona GOP was enlisted to fill that void.

Nor has the state GOP spent any money on building the traditional Colorado Republican Victory operation, which has been critical to state legislative and congressional candidates in getting out the Republican vote and identifying supportive unaffiliated voters.

The well-funded statewide Victory program got 106,000 more Republicans than Democrats out to vote in 2010 and 110,000 more Republicans than Democrats out to vote in 2014. But those days are now long gone.

In short, there is no statewide Republican Victory program in 2024. Candidates and county parties are on their own in getting Republicans out to vote.

Jeff Hurd and Gabe Evans are running strong campaigns that can win on Nov. 5. And when they do, it will be despite the Colorado Republican Party.

Dick Wadhams is a former Colorado Republican state chairman who worked for U.S. Sen. Bill Armstrong for nine years before managing campaigns for U.S. Sens. Hank Brown and Wayne Allard, and Gov. Bill Owens.