Colorado Republicans won a dominant victory in 2024 due to the political machine built by the current leadership.

Or at least that’s the story they’re telling — and they’re sticking to it despite the cold, hard reality of the facts.

The legendary, buffoonish “Baghdad Bob” has met his match in crafting a fictitious tale of victory.

Muhammad Saeed al-Sahhaf was the “minister of information” for the regime of dictator Saddam Hussein during the American invasion of Iraq in April 2003. Even as the Hussein regime was collapsing, and American and allied troops and tanks entered the Iraqi capital, Saeed al-Sahhaf, dubbed “Baghdad Bob” in Western media, was telling the international media the invasion was being defeated declaring, “There are no American troops in Baghdad.”

The current leadership of the 400-member Colorado Republican State Central Committee (CRC) must be inspired by this unique communications strategy. If you say something often enough, someone might believe it despite the reality of the facts.

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The current chairman, Dave Williams, has conducted nothing short of an assault on any Republican who does not meet his notion of political purity, which has nothing to do with principles or real accomplishments. It’s his obsession with consolidating his power over a political party riven by divisions he created.

Colorado Republicans are seeking relevance in a state with Democratic dominance not seen since the 1930s, which was driven by a dramatically changed electorate. More than 800,000 people moved to Colorado in the last 15 years. 

They overwhelmingly registered as unaffiliated voters but voted Democratic due to their antipathy toward President Donald Trump, who lost Colorado by four points to Hillary Clinton in 2016; to Joe Biden by 14 points in 2020, and by 11 points to Kamala Harris in 2024.

Williams not only violated a century of strict state party neutrality in competitive primary races by endorsing his favored candidates — including himself in his failed campaign for Congress — he used state party funds to attack Republicans he deemed not pure enough.

Williams was soundly repudiated by Republican primary voters when U.S. Rep. Jeff Crank, U.S. Rep. Jeff Hurd, and U.S. Rep. Gabe Evans were nominated and ultimately elected to Congress.

Meanwhile, Republicans picked up three seats in the Colorado House of Representatives under the leadership of House Minority Leader Rose Pugliese, which eliminated the Democratic “super majority.” Senate Republicans maintained their 12 seats under the leadership of Senate Minority Leader Paul Lundeen, which also denied the Democrats a Senate “super majority.”

But those legislative victories were forged without any tangible support from the Colorado Republican leadership. There were no financial contributions made to those legislative campaigns nor was there any state party GOTV Victory ground game, which in the past was critical to Republican victories.

Amazingly, Williams and his fellow officers now take credit for these congressional and state legislative victories.

Fresh off his campaign to defeat Republican candidates for Congress and his neglect of supporting legislative candidates, Williams now wants to consolidate his power by eliminating those four members of Congress and 34 state legislators from being voting members of the Colorado Republican State Central Committee.

Williams wraps himself in loyalty to President Donald Trump as his justification for his campaign of exclusion, but U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert, who is closest to the president, has emerged as a strong critic of Williams.

The ultimate agenda of Williams is to cancel the 2026 Republican primary election, which would force candidates to go through the sparsely attended caucus-assembly process to win a Republican nomination.

If Williams succeeds in getting the required 75% of the CRC to cancel the primary, more than 940,000 Republicans would be denied any role in nominating Republican candidates. Nearly 2 million unaffiliated voters would receive only the Democratic primary ballot in the mail, there would be no Republican primary ballot.

Rather than several hundred thousand Republicans and unaffiliated voters voting in a Republican primary, only a few thousand Republican caucus attendees would nominate candidates for everything from county commissioner to governor.

Williams brags how Republicans increased their numbers by 10,000 since he was elected in 2023. He either ignores or isn’t aware unaffiliated voters increased by more than 188,000.

Republicans represented 24.2% of the electorate in April 2023 but have now fallen to 23.3% while unaffiliated voters increased their share from 46.3% to 48.6% of the electorate.

Just like “Baghdad Bob” contending Americans were being defeated in 2003, the regime running the Colorado Republican Party is oblivious to what is really going on in the Colorado electorate.

Dick Wadhams is a former Colorado Republican state chairman who managed campaigns for U.S. Sens. Hank Brown and Wayne Allard, and Gov. Bill Owens.  He was campaign manager for U.S. Senate Majority Leader John Thune of South Dakota when Thune unseated Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle in 2004.