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Dave Williams makes it official: He won’t seek another term as Colorado GOP chairman

By and 03/01/2025 | updated 1 year ago

Colorado Republican Party Chairman Dave Williams announced on Friday that he is not seeking a second term helming the state GOP, saying he has “chosen to move in a different direction” but vowing to continue working to advance the grassroots conservative agenda.

The former state lawmaker from Colorado Springs acknowledged in an email to Republicans that his tenure atop the party has been rocky — the state GOP spent much of last year embroiled in a full-blown civil war amid efforts by Williams’ critics to remove him from office — but said state Republicans accomplished plenty under his leadership, including reversing years of setbacks that saw Democrats win historic majorities in the once-purple state.

“This experience has certainly had its fair share of ups and downs, but by the grace of God Almighty and the support of many grassroots patriots like you, we have come a long way, proving the naysayers wrong time and time again,” Williams said.

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“After much prayerful consideration,” he added, “I have decided not to seek reelection as chairman of the Colorado Republican Party.”

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Republican sources told Colorado Politics on Friday that Williams has landed a job with the Trump administration but couldn’t provide specifics. Williams didn’t respond to an inquiry about his future plans.

Prior to his announcement Friday, Williams had declined to say whether he would seek reelection to the post.

Colorado Republicans are scheduled to elect statewide officers at a biennial reorganization meeting of the party’s state central committee on March 29 at a church in Castle Rock.

So far, four Republicans have formally launched bids for the state chair position: Darcy Schoening, the state party’s director of special initiatives; former Routt County Treasurer Brita Horn; former Mesa County GOP Chairman Kevin McCarney; and former Weld County Commissioner and former state Rep. Lori Saine, R-Firestone, who announced her run on a podcast Thursday night.

The state party is suing Horn and McCarney, along with four other Colorado Republicans who helped spearhead the failed effort to oust Williams and his fellow officers. At a meeting last summer organized by Williams’ critics, Horn was elected state vice chair and McCarney was elected state secretary, though the meeting was later ruled by a judge to have violated party bylaws.

In his email to Republicans on Friday, Williams said that in the two years since his election as chair the party managed to break the Democrats’ supermajority in the state House of Representatives, flip the battleground 8th Congressional District seat and saw the party’s voter registration numbers increase after years of declines.

The party also sued to overturn the state’s voter-approved open primary system, which allows unaffiliated voters to cast ballots in either major parties’ primary — the lawsuit is pending — and participated in another lawsuit that unsuccessfully sought to bar Donald Trump from Colorado’s ballot, based on an interpretation of the 14th Amendment’s insurrection clause.

Additionally, he said the state GOP increased its small-dollar donor base, trimmed the party’s expenses and lowered costs for delegates to the state assembly.

“These are great accomplishments, and we have the wind at our backs heading into the 2026 elections,” Williams said. “However, we must guard against those within our Party — especially the Never-Trump wing — who preach unity with their lips yet seize every opportunity to tear down fellow grassroots Republicans they disagree with.”

He added that it would be an “unmitigated disaster” if the party yielded to Republicans who want to “abandon President Trump and his winning agenda.”

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Ernest Luning

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