President Donald Trump had only a two- or three-seat majority in the U.S. House of Representatives when he was sworn in. Incredibly, Colorado GOP Chair Dave Williams could have single-handedly denied the nation the votes our new president needs to advance his Make America Great Again agenda. Williams infamously spent tens of thousands of dollars in Republican donor money for pre-primary attack mailers — against three of Colorado’s four new U.S. Congress members: Jeff Hurd (CD-3), Jeff Crank (CD-5), and Gabe Evans (CD-8). If he would have succeeded in destroying Evans and Hurd before the primary, Williams’ chosen candidates — Janak Joshi in CD-8 and Ron Hanks in CD-3 — probably would have lost the general election in these very close races, and Trump’s MAGA would have been lost, too.

Colorado’s new Republican members of Congress all say they got no support, financial or otherwise, from Williams and the state Republican Party in their races.

Undeterred by his failures — including losing 14 out of the 18 races in which he endorsed as well as being trounced in his own race by Crank in CD-5 — Williams now is working his new scheme. He has concocted a toxic stew of six new bylaws that would essentially transform the party into an oligarchy controlled by the chair and his palace guard, the 25-member executive committee.

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Williams is prepping a ghost regime to carry on his autocracy after he leaves the chairmanship following the State Central Committee’s (SCC) March elections for new officers. But will he leave? Although he hasn’t announced he’ll run, here’s a clue: Williams has called an unprecedented Zoom meeting for Jan. 30, where he hopes the 400-member SCC approves his bylaws punishing and purging dissenters. He’s not waiting until the party reorganization meeting in March because by then the 64 counties will have elected new officers and SCC “bonus” members, who may thumbs-down his tyrannical new bylaws and vote against them — and against him. By sneakily calling the vote before the March meeting, he’s betting the same SCC members who elected him two years ago will fall in line for his repressive new rules.

Williams is using the January meeting as a popularity test. If he can pass the most dastardly bylaws that rid the party of rebels and punish his enemies, he’ll run again. If not, he’ll do what he’s been doing unsuccessfully: lobby for a job with the Trump administration.

Amendment 6 is Williams’ revenge purge of nearly all elected Republicans —  statehouse representatives, senators, Board of Education members, CU Regents and district attorneys — as voting members of the SCC. It’s also  payback to our new congressional representatives (Lauren Boebert, Hurd, Crank and Evans) who called for Williams’ resignation months ago when his spending a pile of party money against them (all except Boebert, whom he endorsed) came to light. Williams knows he has a scant handful of fans among the Republicans in the statehouse and probably almost zero among the other electeds.

Stalwart Republicans tangle at the Capitol with Democrats bulldozing our rights often into the wee hours. Tens of thousands of regular Republicans voted for these patriots; only a few hundred party delegates voted for Dave Williams. These are the true grassroots, not Williams and his crew. Yet Williams wants to strip all but a few of them of their votes.

One little snag: his plan to scrub their votes violates Colorado election law (CRS 1-3-103 (2) (a)) (https://codes.findlaw.com/co/title-1-elections/co-rev-st-sect-1-3-103/) that mandates these electeds are voting members of the SCC (all except the DAs who are included in current SCC bylaws). Will Williams get away with defying Colorado election law?

He’d also purge upstarts — JeffCo Chair Nancy Pallozzi, El Paso Vice Chair Todd Watkins and others who “organized failed litigation” challenging his iron rule last summer. Amendment 5 would let him kick them off the SCC unless they reimburse the party for the $100,000 in attorney fees Williams admitted (in his Jan. 14 Zoom) he spent in court. Here’s the epic irony: the party itself organized failed litigation by filing the first lawsuit to stop the Pallozzi/Watkins meeting (https://www.coloradopolitics.com/elections/2024/colorado-gop-sues-county-republican-officers-to-block-effort-to-remove-dave-williams-as-party-chair/article_190de84c-45ff-11ef-a9d3-037642d61242.html). Williams lost that lawsuit when the judge lifted his restraining order and declared the rebel meeting perfectly legal. Will he pay the party back the $100,00?

Another proposed bylaw shifts crucial decision-making authority from the SCC to the chair’s 25-member executive committee, and another one makes it harder to remove officers by increasing the SCC vote required from 60% to 67%.

On Jan. 30, the SCC members have a choice: approve Williams’ new bylaws transforming the Colorado GOP’s very nature to an oligarchy of the elite that punishes and persecutes reformers and dissenters; or, uphold foundational values of the Republican Party — freedom of speech, respecting the voices of all members, and rejecting totalitarian control by the few. What would the nation’s Founders do?

Joy Overbeck is a longtime conservative Republican activist and Douglas County precinct committee person who was elected to county and state GOP assemblies for many years. Her commentary has appeared in Townhall, The Washington Times, The Daily Caller, The Federalist, American Thinker, Complete Colorado, Rocky Mountain Voice and others. She was formerly a radio show host on KOA and KHOW. Follow her on Facebook at Joy Overbeck and on X @joyoverbeck1.