October 21, 2021 10:34 AM UTC

Eli Bremer Picks Up "GOP's Biggest Loser" Endorsement

• 2 Comments
• by: Colorado Pols

Ernest Luning of the Colorado Springs Gazette’s political blog reports news that apparently someone in Eli Bremer’s campaign thought was good, though upon examination it’s not really news at all unless it’s, you know, bad news:

Jeff Hays, a former chairman of the Colorado Republican Party, on Wednesday endorsed fellow Air Force Academy graduate Eli Bremer for the U.S. Senate seat held by Democratic incumbent Michael Bennet.

“I have known Eli for over 10 years and worked with him extensively. Eli has been a devoted friend and trusted advisor when I succeeded him as the El Paso County GOP chair as well as when I served as the Colorado state GOP chair,” said Hays in a statement.

While there would normally not be anything newsworthy either way about the endorsement of a former Colorado Republican Party chairman with close ties to Eli Bremer’s El Paso County stomping grounds, in the case of former Colorado GOP chairman Jeff Hays we’re talking about one of the more significant failures to hold that position in the past decade. In 2019, Hays resigned from his post following the Colorado GOP’s disastrous losses in 2018, in which Republicans lost all three statewide constitutional offices and saw their minority in the Colorado House shrunk to its smallest since at least the 1950s–all told, the worst results for Republicans in Colorado since FDR was President. The Denver Post reported at the time:

The party suffered defeats in practically all of Colorado’s contested races amid a national “blue wave” in November, with Democrats taking full control of the state legislature and keeping the governor’s office, among other victories. In the days after the election, Hays described the results as “disappointing.”

“This will be hard, and it will take more creativity and tenacity than our party has mustered in the past 20 years to achieve our goals. There may be some tough times ahead,” he wrote in an open letter in November…

Hays was definitely right about “tough times ahead” for Republicans, in which Hays’ successor Rep. Ken Buck tried and failed to moonlight the job of running the state party while serving in Congress and leading Colorado Republicans to another flat-out disaster in the 2020 general elections.

During his tenure as state party chairman, Jeff Hays also found himself defending Republican state lawmakers like Sens. Randy “Boob Grabber” Baumgardner from allegations of sexual harassment during the historic “MeToo” movement-driven backlash against such behavior at the Colorado Capitol. Let’s just say that Hays’ comments on the matter…did not age well:

HAYS: Absolutely, they tried the same stunts at a different level in the state senate during the last session, where they had a bunch of accusers that were claiming some of our state senators had unwarranted touching or made offhanded comments that were offensive. And it was the same kind of thing.

It’s this French Revolution — you know, ‘You stand accused. And the accusations — those are so serious. We must–.’ Well, you know, people lie all the time. I get lied to every day in this business. I get lied to by women. I get lied to by men. There’s no sanctimony in having that extra X chromosome… [Pols emphasis]

As you can see, Jeff Hays is a real charmer! But we’re obliged to point out that Eli Bremer himself does find some “sanctimony” in “that extra X chromosome,” at least with respect to transgender people in sports.

A fun stroll down memory lane. The real endorsements truly are the friends we meet along the way.