El Paso County GOP sells out fundraiser featuring Marjorie Taylor Greene

Tickets are sold out for the El Paso County Republican Party's annual fundraising dinner Friday featuring U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, the controversial and outspoken lawmaker from Georgia, but many of the county's most prominent party members won't be there.

"If you were able to get in, before we sold out, good for you!" wrote county party chairman Vickie Tonkins in an email to supporters on Wednesday. "This is going to be an awesome event and you are in for a great time. How I wish we could have gotten everyone in that wanted to be there."

Greene is scheduled to deliver the keynote address at the county GOP's annual Lincoln Day dinner at the Hotel Eleganté in Colorado Springs. Tonkins told the party's executive committee earlier this week that the party has sold more than $40,000 worth of tickets for the event, according to participants at the meeting.

"Congresswoman Greene has a major following across the country and is an important figure in our party because she's willing to stand with hard-working Americans while fighting against corrupt politicians like Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi," Tonkins told Colorado Politics earlier this summer when the dinner was announced.

The staunch ally of former President Donald Trump was stripped of her House committee assignments earlier this year in an overwhelmingly party-line vote over earlier, incendiary comments on social media, including calling for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's execution.

Greene has also been suspended from Twitter multiple times — including for 12 hours in late July — for spreading what the social media company classifies as dangerous misinformation about the COVID-19 pandemic, a move the lawmaker blasted as "a Communist-style attack on free speech."

"They hate me because they can’t stop me, especially when I have America-loving Patriots like you in my corner," Greene wrote in a recent email to supporters.

"No matter what Pelosi, her lieutenants, Big Tech or the media throws at me, I won’t tolerate their attempts to rig elections, stifle religious freedom, ban guns from law-abiding citizens, defund our police or allow illegal aliens to be rewarded with citizenship for breaking the laws of the land."

Many of the elected officials who hail from the heavily Republican county will be skipping the fundraiser, Colorado Politics has learned, including Republican U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn, who had a previous commitment, according to a spokeswoman, and several state and local officials who have also said they're unable to make it.

"El Paso County's anti-free speech, anti-first amendment, pro-cancel culture Republicans in Name Only boycotted the dinner," said a county GOP insider who asked not to be identified in order to speak freely.

"In fact, the rank and file Republicans here in El Paso County are so disappointed in these Swamp Creature RINOs that they are now being called Swinos."

Republican candidates from elsewhere in Colorado will be on hand, including U.S. Senate hopeful Erik Aadland and congressional candidate Laurel Imer, whose campaign is buying a table, their campaigns said.

“She is a fearless fighter for America and the America First Movement," said Weston Imer, Imer's campaign manger and son, in a text message. "Like the congresswoman, Laurel has never wavered in her support of President Trump, and we look forward to speaking with her about how our campaigns can work together to Save America.”

A fundraising email sent Thursday by Democratic U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper positions Greene as a foil.

"The Georgia congresswoman who peddles dangerous right-wing conspiracy theories, and has even compared COVID safety measures to the Holocaust is speaking in Colorado Springs tomorrow," the Hickenlooper campaign said. "Greene cozied up to Trump and has raked in a historic amount of cash this year as a result. Now, she’s using her dangerous rhetoric to raise mountains of cash to defeat Democrats in our state."

Tickets to the dinner range from $100 to $2,500, with a VIP reception included for higher-dollar donors. Supporters can also pose for photos with Greene for $30 apiece.

The dinner will be closed to the press, the county party said.

Greene is attending a fundraiser for the House Freedom Fund on Thursday in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, the Jackson Hole News & Guide reported. The event also features U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan, the Ohio Republican who recently headlined the Mesa County GOP's annual dinner, and former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows.

Greene's campaign didn't respond to a request for comment.