In conversations with GOP candidates and Republican voters, we’ve been detecting an undercurrent of frustration – growing more seismic by the day – within their own party. They want to win seats, and have had enough of celebrity seekers and loud minorities speaking for all of them.
Big source of the problem? Colorado GOP Chairman Dave Williams.
We’ll join the chorus of those state Republican officials who want Williams to resign or face a recall. The guy has got to go.
Williams has continually shown poor judgment, while simultaneously running the party and running for Congress. Too often, he’s blurred the lines between his role as state party chairman and his campaign.
And he’s used the state GOP’s email list and resources at his own discretion and whim to promote his Christian faith, his candidacy for Colorado’s 5th Congressional District and attack his primary opponent, Jeff Crank.
He’s too quick in hitting that send button. He doesn’t think it through. And he’s not up to leading Colorado Republicans.
This was made more clear in his recent zingers – and likely final provocations – of anti-LGBTQ Pride emails and social media posts from the party, including one on X, formerly Twitter, calling to “Burn all the #pride flags this June.”
That mass email with the fiery, red-eyed image of Jesus headlined “God Hates Flags,” a nod to the Westboro Baptist Church in Kansas that once waved “God Hates Fags” signs, was a personal and professional low. Even for Williams, chief bootlicker of Donald Trump.
We’re surprised Williams didn’t place a MAGA hat on Jesus’ head.
But, seriously, it’s hateful. Williams must be held accountable for his actions.
His charge that “godless groomers in our society want to attack what is decent, holy, and righteous so they can ultimately harm our children” is just too much.
Colorado’s population currently stands at about 5.8 million with 4.6% identifying as LGBTQ; 25% of them are raising children. That’s a lot of people to hate on.
Williams misses the point that even though he holds a leadership position, but he doesn’t speak for all Republicans, who share different views.
Yet, he appears to be a self-appointed judge of the purity of Republican ideology. If it doesn’t steer hard right, his party mates could very well land on the RINO (Republicans In Name Only) Wall of Shame.
He doesn’t understand that shame never produces good, constructive outcomes. We know this in raising children, motivating students or workers, or calling out colleagues.
Williams has defended his tenure, blaming RINOs for his party’s string of losses in the last election, saying they “can’t stand seeing conservatives who support (Donald) Trump leading the party.”
The Denver Republican Party Executive Committee is just one within a growing collective calling for Williams to resign, saying it “is shocked and saddened at the attempt of Chairman Williams to suppress freedom of speech and dox those who do not agree with him.”
It also claimed Williams violated Republican bylaws by endorsing candidates in contested primaries. The Denver party said Williams endorsed candidates in Districts 3, 4 and 8 and, therefore, undermined election integrity.
Another bad play came when Williams had law enforcement remove Sandra Fish, a political reporter with The Colorado Sun, from the state assembly in April. The move received national attention and was condemned by numerous, prominent Colorado Republicans.
Williams has enough on his plate, campaigning in CD-5. He should just do that.
