Darcy Schoening, the Colorado Republican Party’s director of special initiatives, on Monday declared that she’s running for state GOP chair in the party’s upcoming reorganization election.

The state Republicans’ incumbent chair, former state Rep. Dave Williams, hasn’t announced whether he plans to seek a second term running the party. Williams didn’t respond to an inquiry from Colorado Politics on Monday.

Schoening, a longtime Williams ally — he appointed her to her current party role — told Colorado Politics that she doesn’t know for sure whether Williams is running but couldn’t wait any longer to make her candidacy official.

“Colorado Republicans can rest assured the principles and values they hold so dearly will always have a committed fighter to back them up, day in and day out,” Schoening said in a statement announcing her campaign. I promise you will continually be challenged with your desires to tear down traditional families, harm our children and further erode our freedoms.”

A former member of the Monument Board of Trustees and former co-chair of the El Paso County chapter of Moms for Liberty, Schoening has been at the center of many of the controversies that engulfed the state GOP last year, including as author of a stream of attacks on Democratic candidates later disavowed by some of their Republican opponents.

In her announcement, Schoening said she built her newly created position with the party “from the ground up” to help “protect Colorado families from the ongoing destruction caused by the increasingly leftist lurch of the Colorado legislature and their leader, Governor (Jared) Polis.”

Colorado Republicans in November flipped one of the state’s congressional districts and took several Democratic-held legislative seats, ending the Democrats’ super-majority status in the state House of Representatives. At the same time, Vice President Kamala Harris carried the state by double digits over former President Donald Trump, marking the fifth presidential election in a row won by the Democratic nominee.

Schoening said her work with the party since late 2023 led to her decision to run for state chair.

“In the time I’ve served in this role, together with the push for expanded local autonomy and parental advocacy that I have spearheaded, I’ve played an important role in advancing conservative values throughout our great state,” she said. “And in these travels, the need to find those willing to roll up their sleeves, bring people together, and fight for Colorado has never been more apparent. I proudly stand in that gap; in fact, I live there — and I love it.”

Schoening joins former Routt County Treasurer Brita Horne in a chair race that’s expected grow further before Republicans convene on March 29 to pick the party’s leadership for the next two years.

Horne was elected by Williams’ opponents to be the state Republicans’ vice chair last summer at a disputed meeting that was later ruled invalid by an El Paso County district court judge.

The state GOP’s incumbent vice chair, Hope Scheppelman, has let it be known she intends to run for the top job if Williams winds up not running, multiple Republican party officials have told Colorado Politics. Scheppelman didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Both of the state’s major political parties are conducting their biennial reorganizations in coming months, with county party meetings starting in early February, followed by district meetings and the state central committee meetings intoMarch.

Republicans plan to elect their statewide officers on March 29 at The Rock church in Castle Rock. Democrats have scheduled their state reorg meeting on March 8 but have yet to designate a venue, a party official told Colorado Politics.