June 24, 2019 01:51 PM UTC

Grady Nouis Announces Another Statehouse Run

• 2 Comments
• by: Erik Maulbetsch

(Just what Colorado Republicans need! — Promoted by Colorado Pols)

Former statehouse candidate Grady Nouis, announced last week that he’s running for office again in 2020. Nouis, whom the Denver Post described as having been “in the orbit of groups and events associated with far-right views,” lost his 2018 race to Rep. Tracy Kraft-Tharp (D-Arvada).

Nouis has recently moved north to Milliken in Weld County and now hopes to claim House District 48, currently represented by the term-limited Rep. Stephen Humphrey (R-Ault).

Nouis’ 2018 campaign was notable for his attendance and support of several far-right rallies organized by hate and extremist groups, as well as news coverage of his own criminal history.

At a rally in June of 2017, Nouis repeatedly shouted the N-word at an African-American couple. Reporting on the same video in which he shouted the N-word, the Post noted that “later in the video, Nouis can be heard saying of a confrontation between an African-American counter-protester and an African-American police officer that there’s “nothing better than a little black-on-black crime.”

The Colorado Secretary of State shows Nouis as having an active 2020 campaign committee, though it still lists his previous district (HD29). According to its latest campaign finance report, the Grady for House committee spent $1181 between December 2018 and April of this year. Nearly all of that amount went to retaining Scott Gessler’s law firm, Klenda, Gessler & Blue.

Although Nouis’ committee is the only individual campaign to report payments to Gessler’s firm for this election cycle, it is also working with the House Republicans’ independent committee, Values First Colorado, as well as one of the several groups attempting to recall Governor Jared Polis.

According to Nouis’ statement on his campaign website, he prayed and fasted for six months before deciding he “can no longer stay on the sidelines and watch the Colorado I love fall further into despair.”

Prior to his self-described six-month social media hiatus, Nouis posted about his failure to make the ballot to fill a vacancy on the Westminster City Council.

Nouis cites his own party’s poor performance on the recently released Republican Liberty Caucus 2019 scorecard as another reason for his decision to return to the political arena.

After reviewing the Republican Liberty Caucus 2019 scorecard released just days ago I have become even more concerned. The report shows that 24 out of the 40 current Republican legislators scored a D grade or lower on the evaluation of 72 bills regarding the principles of Individual Liberty, Free Markets and Limited Government. It’s not hard to see why Colorado has fallen off the cliff in 2019 when you have so many Republicans aiding Colorado’s socialist government growing agenda. Shockingly, one “Republican” scored an F, 17%.

It’s unclear if Nouis will be the only Republican candidate for HD48. Nouis campaign site states that he is “privileged to be your Republican State Representative candidate for Colorado House District 48 in Weld County.” However, in a Facebook comment exchange following his announcement, former 2018 congressional candidate Mark Barrington asked Nouis if he will have a primary, to which Nouis replied “No idea, Mark.”

The possibility of a Republican primary is significant in HD48, one of the reddest districts in Colorado. Last year’s election was the first time Rep. Humphrey has had a Democratic challenger in any of his three campaigns. Even in the so-called “blue wave” year, Humphrey won with over two-thirds of the vote.

A call to Rep. Humphrey inquiring as to whether or not he’s endorsing Nouis, who says he “couldn’t be more proud to carry [Humphrey’s] torch into 2021 and beyond,” was not returned. Nouis likewise did not return a call requesting comment. This post was originally published at the Colorado Times Recorder.