Marx’s lead sits outside of mandatory recount threshold

Ministry leader Victor Marx on Wednesday night overtook state Sen. Barb Kirkmeyer in the Republican primary for Colorado governor, securing enough votes that — for now — put the race beyond the mandatory recount threshold.

The Republican primary race between Kirkmeyer and Marx briefly entered mandatory recount territory on Wednesday afternoon, with just a few hundred votes separating the two candidates.

The eventual Republican nominee will face Attorney General Phil Weiser, who defeated U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet in the Democratic primary.

Kirkmeyer’s edge over Marx had been shrinking from about 8,000 votes, or 1 percentage point, to fewer than 700 votes — until Marx took the lead by Wednesday night.

As of the latest tally, Marx was ahead by about 1,600 out of some 498,000 votes cast in their party’s primary. State lawmaker Scott Bottoms remained in distant third.

Colorado law mandates a recount when the difference between the two top vote-getters is 0.5% or less of the highest vote count.

The latest tally puts Marx’s lead — 1,646 to be exact — at 0.8% of the highest vote. That sits outside the mandatory recount requirements, as the gap between her and Marx tightened in the last 24 hours.

Election officials are expected to count more ballots in the coming days. A recount would occur only after the final tally has been certified and assuming the margins stay within the recount threshold.

On X, Kirkmeyer’s campaign acknowledged that the primary fight isn’t over, with the battle now shifting to curing ballots.

“Barb is leading because voters and volunteers across this state stepped up. Now we have one more job: help with ballot cure efforts and make sure this race gets across the finish line,” her campaign said. “Let’s finish this and secure the nomination. Then let’s take the fight to Phil Weiser and the Democrats.”

Also on X, Marx’s campaign offered the same message.

“Right now, before noon on a Wednesday, there are fewer than 1,400 votes separating us from the finish line. That gap is closing. Our volunteers will be going door to door to make sure every single ballot is cured and every vote is counted,” his campaign said. “This is the moment. Everything we’ve fought for comes down to this.”

The GOP primary has played out as a battle between insiders and outsiders for control of a party that hasn’t enjoyed a statewide win in the last decade.

Kirkmeyer, who has held public office off and on since the 1990s, is in her second term in the legislature, representing a district centered on Brighton. She previously served as a Weld County commissioner and oversaw a state agency under Republican Gov. Bill Owens in the early years of the century.

Endorsed by U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert, the state’s senior Republican elected official, Marx burst on the scene last fall and has cut an unconventional path since. Following a childhood marked by abuse and instability, Marx enlisted in the Marine Corps and later founded Colorado Springs-based All Things Possible Ministries, which has raised millions of dollars to pursue international humanitarian missions.

Bottoms, a state representative from Colorado Springs, is a pastor at an Assemblies of God church and vowed to be an “uncompromising conservative,” echoing his record in the legislature.

Heading into the primary, both Kirkmeyer and Bottoms said they wouldn’t support Marx if he won the nomination, calling him unfit for office and a “con man” respectively. Marx, for his part, has said he will back either of his opponents if they emerge to the general election.

The three Republicans running for the office held by term-limited Democratic Gov. Jared Polis have argued that it’s time to break the opposition party’s grip on the state after eight years of Democratic rule, despite Colorado voters having elected only a single GOP governor in the last 50 years.

Ernest Luning contributed to this article.