U.S. Senate See Full Big Line

(D) J. Hickenlooper*

(R) Somebody

80%

20%

Governor See Full Big Line

(D) Joe Neguse

(D) Phil Weiser

(D) Jena Griswold

60%

60%

40%↓

Att. General See Full Big Line

(D) M. Dougherty

(D) Alexis King

(D) Brian Mason

40%

40%

30%

Sec. of State See Full Big Line

(D) George Stern

(D) A. Gonzalez

(R) Sheri Davis

40%

40%

30%

State Treasurer See Full Big Line

(D) Brianna Titone

(R) Kevin Grantham

(D) Jerry DiTullio

60%

30%

20%

CO-01 (Denver) See Full Big Line

(D) Diana DeGette*

(R) Somebody

90%

2%

CO-02 (Boulder-ish) See Full Big Line

(D) Joe Neguse*

(R) Somebody

90%

2%

CO-03 (West & Southern CO) See Full Big Line

(R) Jeff Hurd*

(D) Somebody

80%

40%

CO-04 (Northeast-ish Colorado) See Full Big Line

(R) Lauren Boebert*

(D) Somebody

90%

10%

CO-05 (Colorado Springs) See Full Big Line

(R) Jeff Crank*

(D) Somebody

80%

20%

CO-06 (Aurora) See Full Big Line

(D) Jason Crow*

(R) Somebody

90%

10%

CO-07 (Jefferson County) See Full Big Line

(D) B. Pettersen*

(R) Somebody

90%

10%

CO-08 (Northern Colo.) See Full Big Line

(R) Gabe Evans*

(D) Yadira Caraveo

(D) Joe Salazar

50%

40%

40%

State Senate Majority See Full Big Line

DEMOCRATS

REPUBLICANS

80%

20%

State House Majority See Full Big Line

DEMOCRATS

REPUBLICANS

95%

5%

Generic selectors
Exact matches only
Search in title
Search in content
Post Type Selectors
August 31, 2022 11:59 AM UTC

10 Reasons Why Priola Would Abandon the GOP for Promoting Election Conspiracies

  • 1 Comments
  • by: Jason Salzman

(Promoted by Colorado Pols)

Republican pundit Dick Wadhams says that newly minted Democratic lawmaker Kevin Priola’s decision to leave the Colorado Republican Party because of the party’s support of election deniers has “no credibility” because, in Colorado’s last election, the election deniers “got routed.”

Priola

State Rep. Colin Larson went further last week, calling Priola’s decision “political BS” because “[a]nyone in our party carrying the insurrectionist banner was roundly defeated” in the June primary election.

In a letter explaining his move, state Senator Priola, formerly a Republican, wrote that he didn’t want to be “part of a political party” that “continues to peddle claims that the 2020 election was stolen.”

“I was very struck in his letter about citing the election denier issue as one reason he’s leaving the party. Look what happened in Colorado,” Wadhams told KHOW’s Dan Caplis Aug. 23. “The election deniers, the conspiracy theories got routed. I mean, Ron Hanks, Tina Peters, Greg Lopez. And then I guess there were a bunch of local and state legislative primaries where the election deniers got beat. Colorado is a beacon in defeating election deniers and conspiracies. I don’t understand that. That had no credibility with me at all.”

No credibility? Political BS?

Is it credible for Priola to want to run from the Colorado Republican Party in the race to save democracy? Needless to say, if you’ve been following Colorado politics, the facts support Priola here. But in case you’ve been focused elsewhere over the past several years, I’ll explain.

Wadhams

The defeat of several Republican election conspiracists in Colorado, which likely came at the hands of unaffiliated voters casting ballots in Colorado’s open primary, is a hopeful sign, but it’s objectively false for Wadhams, Larson, and other conservatives to say the Colorado GOP isn’t peddling election conspiracies or that the threat GOP election conspiracists pose is Colorado has gone away.

Here are 10 facts showing that it’s credible for Priola to decide to leave the Colorado Republican Party over concerns about its support of election conspiracies.

  • GOP candidate for governor Heidi Ganahl will not say the 2020 presidential election was legitimate.
  • Ganahl selected Danny Moore, who has an irrefutable history as an election conspiracist, as her running mate, and hired Trump’s coup plotter Boris Epshteyn to advise her campaign.
  • Kristi Burton Brown, the chair of the Colorado Republican Party, who was once the leader of an election conspiracy group, continues to dodge the question of whether the 2020 presidential election was legitimate.
  • Colorado Congresswoman Lauren Boebert is a national symbol of Republican election denialism, saying, for example, in December that “the American people deserve secure and fair elections. Unfortunately, the 2020 election was neither of those things.”
  • Erik Aadland, the Republican candidate in one of the two most contested congressional races in Colorado, said the 2020 presidential election was “absolutely rigged.”
  • At a convention in April, the leaders of the Colorado Republican Party from counties across the state overwhelmingly nominated election conspiracists to run for Senate, Governor, Secretary of State, and state legislative seats, including a slate of candidates around Colorado Springs. Most of these candidates were later defeated in open primaries in which unaffiliated voters participated. But still.
  • Colorado Congressman Doug Lamborn refused to certify the 2020 election results. He’s from Colorado Springs. But still.
  • In January, two-thirds of Republicans in the Colorado Statehouse voted to “call into question” whether the 2020 presidential election was legitimate and to urge the decertification of the 2020 election results. They also thanked state Rep. Ron Hanks (R-Canon City) for being at the Jan. 6 demonstration at the U.S. Capitol, as well as those who joined him there. Representatives Baisley, Rich, Soper, and Woog walked back their votes, indicating regret in different degrees, but they didn’t completely clarify that they rejected their votes on the multiple positions reflected in the measure.
  • Kenneth DeGraaf, a Republican running for Colorado Springs state House seat HD22, promotes election conspiracies on his campaign website, asking “What if Joe Biden didn’t really win the election?” He also writes that he finds Tina Peters’ “arrest for revealing Dominion vulnerabilities disturbing.”
  • Steph Wheeler, GOP candidate for Denver’s House District 2, worked as the sole paid staffer of FEC United, a Colorado-based election-conspiracy group. She also refuses to say whether the 2020 national election was stolen. Wheeler is also a member of and volunteer for the United American Defense Force (UADF), a militia that’s affiliated with FEC United.

The truth is, the headline of this article could be “100 Reasons or More Why a GOP Lawmaker Would Abandon the Colorado Republican Party for Peddling Election Conspiracies.” The facts are overwhelmingly on Priola’s side.

Tweet
Share

Comments

One thought on “10 Reasons Why Priola Would Abandon the GOP for Promoting Election Conspiracies”

  1. And don't forget last April's Assembly:

    Resolution #2: We Require Integrity in Elections.
    Whereas over the last 6 election cycles the people of Colorado, on both sides of the aisle,
    continue to mistrust the accuracy of election results and whereas elections exist to give these
    same people a republican government they choose through democratic means that can be held
    accountable at the ballot box, and whereas illegally cast votes directly cancel out legally cast
    votes, Be It Resolved that the Colorado Republican Party supports each eligible voter actively
    registering to vote, ending automatic voter registration, and insists on the cleaning of county
    voter rolls so that only qualified voters receive ballots who then are required to show state-
    issued ID when voting in person. The Colorado Republican Party also supports locally controlled elections following the rule of law with verifiable counts and processes; rejects Secretary of State administrative rules used inconsistently in opposition to state law and changed in the midst of an election; opposes the use of private funds to assist in the administration of elections; calls for the development of a plan to hold elections during emergencies; and requests forensic audits of election machines and the maintaining of backup images of each hard drive in the voting system on an external hard drive, kept safe for the statutory 25 months or until the completion of all audits. Voting shall be in person on Election Day at the precinct voting center, with voter ID. Mail in ballots shall be permitted only for active-duty military, and registered voters who request a mail in ballot because they are physically unable to vote in person. Ballots should be counted by hand by election judges in each precinct.

Leave a Comment

Recent Comments


Posts about

Donald Trump
SEE MORE

Posts about

Rep. Lauren Boebert
SEE MORE

Posts about

Rep. Yadira Caraveo
SEE MORE

Posts about

Colorado House
SEE MORE

Posts about

Colorado Senate
SEE MORE

65 readers online now

Newsletter

Subscribe to our monthly newsletter to stay in the loop with regular updates!