December 13, 2024 12:39 PM UTC

Colorado GOP Infighting Escalates to Violent Threats

• 3 Comments
• by: Colorado Pols

If you thought that the Colorado Republican Party was done with its 2024 infighting just because the election is over…

Nah, who are we kidding? Nobody would have thought as much. The metaphorical — and perhaps literal — knives are still out in a State Party that destroyed its own relevancy with a bunch of idiotic calls to action last spring. According to Colorado Republican Party email sent out this week, State GOP Chair Dave Williams says that a fellow “MAGA” believer named Anthony Chavez is threatening he and other Colorado Republicans with violence:

In case you somehow missed this particular circus, the battle over control of the Colorado Republican Party has been waged since March 2023 and resulted in Williams sorta getting fired but then not getting fired after all. Things were so confusing that at one point this fall, Colorado Republicans had two people claiming to be Chairman (with Eli Bremer playing the role of usurper) and two different “headquarters” (Team Williams in Greenwood Village and Team Bremer in Colorado Springs). While Republican in Colorado fought amongst themselves over various grievances, the Arizona Republican Party ended up doing much of the direct mail work for Congressional candidate Gabe Evans in CO-08. Republican groups outside of the State GOP coughed up more than $8 million in order to win three whole seats in the state legislature, which Williams and friends are still touting as a great victory.

Now, back to this week’s email message…

The threats from this Anthony Chavez person are certainly concerning. Full stop.

But blaming Bremer and his supporters for inciting violence is impossible to take seriously:

These same people who attempted a failed civil war within our State Party have been continually lying about your State Party in order to sow division and hate, which is now instigating others to literally threaten to murder your elected leadership. [Pols emphasis]

Williams, of course, was not at all concerned about his own State GOP staff sending out emails last May that all but encouraged violence against LGBTQ Coloradans.

Williams has generally ignored death threats made against Democrats such as Gov. Jared Polis and Secretary of State Jena Griswold — some of which have come from his own supporters. Suggestions of violence from allies such as State Rep. “Boxwine” Brandi Bradley and Congressperson Lauren Boebert have also been shrugged off.

Just this week, the Jefferson County Republican Men’s Club hosted and celebrated a man who was convicted on multiple accounts of assaulting police officers during the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection.

Turning a blind eye to political violence is a thing Colorado Republicans engage in regularly.

All of this makes the final paragraphs from this week’s email hard to swallow:

“If there’s one thing we all should be able to unify against, it’s threats of political violence.” You would think so, wouldn’t you?

But this line sticks out above all others:

Hopefully, these agitators who have been sowing falsehoods and hate will have enough shame to stop their deception that clearly encourages physical harm to others.

By “others,” Williams means only himself and his supporters. “Sowing falsehoods” about LGBTQ Coloradans or scaring parents about schools “transgendering” children? That’s different…only because Williams isn’t a target.