A sharply divided Colorado Republican Party elected former House Minority Whip Richard Holtorf to fill the state GOP’s vacant vice chair position Monday night during an online meeting that laid bare ongoing disputes that have consumed the state party for more than a year.

Roughly 400 Republican state central committee members cast their votes for the party’s No. 2 job nearly two hours into a special meeting held on the Zoom teleconference platform to replace Darrel Phelan, the state GOP’s previous vice chair, who attributed his abrupt resignation last month to his frustration over state chair Brita Horn’s refusal to let him help run the party.

Horn, Phelan and Russ Andrews, the state party secretary, won election to their positions in March after running as members of a slate that explicitly pledged to reverse party policies put in place by their predecessors, including former state GOP chair Dave Williams, who attended Monday night’s meeting.

The online meeting — streamed live by the party on YouTube — included multiple calls to postpone the vote and instead fill the vacant vice chair position at an upcoming, in-person meeting. Attendees also complained that the meeting’s organizers were ignoring attempts by committee members to participate in the disjointed and sometimes testy discussions.

Holtorf, a cattle rancher from Sterling and one-time congressional candidate, narrowly defeated Mark Hampton, founder of Parker Conservatives and a self-identified voice of the party’s grassroots, with 204 votes to Hampton’s 193, or 52% to 48%.

“We need to be a big tent party, not a puritan party chasing away fellow Republican Party members,” Holtorf said before the vote. “Building bridges between our divided factions is critical. Mending fences, not cutting fences, is essential.”

Holtorf, who ran against state party-endorsed U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert in last year’s crowded 4th Congressional District primary, said the state GOP has to return to its longstanding practice of staying neutral in primaries.

“We have a unique opportunity, if we choose to seize the moment unified around a strategic pathway that leads us to victory in this cycle,” Holtorf said. “This includes supporting all Republican candidates, not just the ones we like as state GOP leaders, or we think are Republican enough. Districts are different. Every candidate who follows the rules should have a fair and equal opportunity to gain the vote of the electorate.”

Holtorf, a retired colonel with 29 years of service in the Army, said he hoped to bring “strategic leadership” to the role, outlining plans to recruit candidates and help them win with financial support and coordination across races.

“Imagine the idea of working together instead of being in silos and working, perhaps, against each other,” he said. “This is called synchronized operations in the military, and I know how to do it.”

Added Holtorf: “We need to focus on our candidates, not our bickering and infighting.”

Hampton’s message was more confrontational.

“We’re standing at a crossroads, a seminal moment for the Colorado Republican Party,” he told central committee members. “You’re going to cast a vote that either locks us into the same old broken machine or finally shifts us into forward gear. And let me be crystal clear: if you’re clinging to the rear-view mirror still, you’re headed straight into the ditch.”

Hampton took direct swipes at Holtorf, citing the former state lawmaker’s middling grades on a conservative group’s legislative scorecard — “that’s a failure on repeat,” Hampton said — and faulting his opponent for suggesting during the primary that Boebert “dressed like a prostitute.”

“I’ve been brutally blunt with politicians,” Hampton added. “I’ve been critical about compromising conservative values and principles, but I’ve never said anything vile like that.”

Colorado’s Republican congressional delegation split ahead of Monday’s central committee meeting, with Boebert throwing her support behind Hampton and the other three, U.S. Reps. Jeff Hurd, Jeff Crank and Gabe Evans, endorsing Holtorf.

Hampton also blasted Holtorf for his role last summer chairing a disputed meeting of state GOP central committee members that attempted to impeach Williams and his fellow party officers and replace them with other Republicans, including Horn, who was elected vice chair at the meeting. A judge later ruled that the meeting, held at a church in Brighton, hadn’t complied with state party rules so would have no effect.

“He chaired the infamous, improper meeting to overthrow our last state chair,” Hampton said, referring to Holtorf. “That was a disgrace and one of the most divisive things that could have been done in our own party.”

Hampton said he understood his approach won’t endear him to all Republicans.

“I’m not running to be liked,” he said. “In fact, I think there’s a lot of people that would tell you right now they don’t like me, and that’ll probably continue. I’m running to get this party back on track.”

Following the vote, Holtorf appeared briefly on screen to thank his supporters and opponents alike.

“I want to extend my hand to serve all in every capacity that I can as your vice chair,” Holtorf said. “Whether you voted for me or not is not relevant. So I want to thank everybody for allowing me to have the privilege of serving as your vice chair.”

Hampton took to Facebook Tuesday morning to deliver a lengthy critique of the central committee meeting, calling the proceedings “political malpractice.”

“It was a clown car pileup so spectacular it could’ve been directed by Bozo himself, and Mad Magazine penning the script,” Hampton said, maintaining that throughout the meeting committee members tried to speak, raised their hands, waved signs and “begged to be acknowledged” but were “completely ignored, as if they were extras in the political Hunger Games.”

Hampton urged his followers not to “mourn last night’s disaster, celebrate it,” adding that he was. “It exposed the rot. It woke up more of the base. And it lit a fire under a movement that no Zoom Muppet Show can stop.”

Freed from being “buried in their bureaucratic mess,” Hampton said, he looked forward to spending the next year and a half building a “true grassroots machine” that can win control of the state party at its next reorganization in 2027.

“We’re not here to manage the decline of the Colorado GOP. We’re here to take it back,” he concluded.

Horn was unavailable for an interview Monday night or Tuesday, her spokesman told Colorado Politics, but she released a statement welcoming Holtorf to his position.

“We are excited to have Vice Chairman Holtorf on board,” Horn said. “With 469 days left until Election Day, we can now return our focus to the proper role of the party – winning elections.”