Colorado GOP Central Committee Stands at a Crossroads

This weekend, the Colorado GOP's central committee stood at a crossroads, charting a different kind of political future for state conservatives. In the end, the majority stood up for the rights of Republican primary voters, despite the controversial push by the state party's leadership to disenfranchise them.

Led by state party chair Dave Williams, the leadership pushed for a complicated parliamentary change to make it easier to opt out of the state's 2024 primary and block nearly 2 million unaffiliated voters from participating in selecting Republican candidates for the general election.

However, after an hour-long individual roll call vote, it was clear that their efforts were unsuccessful. The opt-out motion fell well short of the required 75% support, with only 65% of the central committee in favor. According to Williams, this vote only strengthens the party's ongoing lawsuit against the 2016 voter-approved ballot measure that established the semi-open primary system.

“We all understand that this kind of proves the point of the lawsuit, that the state has imposed upon the Republican Party an unconstitutional threshold, and the numbers bear that out,” according to Williams.

Williams and other advocates for a closed primary argue that allowing unaffiliated voters to participate in the Republican nomination process waters down the party's candidates. However, opponents of the opt-out proposal pointed out that nearly half of the state's registered voters are unaffiliated and withdrawing from the primary risks ignoring their voices.

Additionally, the decision would have also barred GOP candidates from gathering signatures to appear on the ballot, leaving the caucus and assembly process as the only way to secure a spot on the ballot for all offices except for president.

Critics argued that this move would only further limit the already diminished voice of Republican voters, as the caucus and assembly process is typically dominated by a select few party insiders. This would ultimately give them more control over the party's nominating process, leaving many voters feeling disenfranchised and disillusioned.

During heated debate on the issue, it became clear that many Republicans still support the party's lawsuit seeking to block unaffiliated voters from participating in the primary, but they do not support canceling the state-run primary and running their own operation instead.

For several years, the Colorado GOP has been considering canceling the primary and relying solely on the caucus and assembly process to nominate candidates, but each time they have failed to gain enough support. Meanwhile, state Democrats have not seriously considered getting rid of their primary since it was adopted by voters.

While supporters of the opt-out proposal point to the fact that the majority of central committee members are in favor of closing the party's primaries, opponents argue that it is not representative of the majority of Republican voters in the state. Former Mesa County GOP chairman Kevin McCarney argued that canceling the primary would disenfranchise nearly 1 million Republican voters.

"You cannot, cannot take the vote away from the people — the Republican people who sent you here as representatives," McCarney told Colorado Politics, adding: "I am appalled at the contempt that this board had for rural Colorado — it is unbelievable."

The ongoing decline in registered Republican voters in the state is a clear sign that the party needs to make changes in order to attract more members. However, the majority of central committee members believe, for now at least, completely shutting out nearly half of the state's registered voters is not the solution.