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August 10, 2021 11:02 AM UTC

Eli Bremer for Senate, Or Whatever

  • 31 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

 

Eli Bremer and some dirt

We finally have a notable Republican campaign announcement for 2022 (sorry, Erik Aadland)!

Former El Paso County Republican Party Chairperson Eli Bremer made it official today with a rather silly online ad that he will seek the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate in 2022.

As Justin Wingerter reports for The Denver Post:

The 43-year-old Republican competed in the modern pentathlon at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing and has worked as an Olympics announcer for NBC since, including during this year’s Games. He also serves on a congressional committee that is studying possible reforms to the U.S. Olympic system.

Bremer has never run for public office but was the El Paso County GOP chairman from 2011-2013 and his family has deep ties to Colorado Springs politics. His father was a county commissioner and his wife currently is. His uncle, Paul Bremer, was a presidential envoy to Iraq in the 2000s.

This is the point where you think to yourself, Oh, THAT’S why I recognize the name ‘Bremer.’ If you have a particularly good memory for Colorado politics, you might also recall that Eli’s father, Duncan Bremer, was one of the six Republican candidates who ran for a vacant seat in Congress in CO-05 in 2006 (that GOP Primary was ultimately won by current Rep. Doug Lamborn). Bremer’s wife, Cami Bremer, is also a first-term commissioner in El Paso County.

Eli Bremer’s most recent political experience included a two year stint as Chair of the El Paso County Republican Party. In 2020, Bremer was involved in a spat with then-State Party Chairman Ken Buck about a district assembly that may have unfairly excluded at least one Republican candidate and might have opened up Buck to charges of perjury.

Bremer competed in the modern pentathlon in the 2008 Olympics, which [checks Wikipedia] involves running, swimming, jumping a horse, shooting a pistol, and fencing (presumably not all at once). Bremer has since done Olympic television commentary for the modern pentathlon, which resulted in this completely bizarre Facebook post from last week about Bremer taking a cautious approach to a story about a coach who may have punched a horse (there’s NO WAY we could make this up).

Via Eli Bremer’s Facebook page

Bremer has long expressed interest in the 2022 Senate race, telling Ernest Luning of the publication formerly known as the Colorado Statesman in June that he was “very, very, very, very serious” about the idea. Bremer is now the most prominent Republican candidate for U.S. Senate mostly because nobody else in the GOP has been even “very” interested in challenging incumbent Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet.

With former state lawmaker Clarice Navarro apparently backing away from making a Senate run in 2022, that leaves the Republicans with only right-wing radio host/ambulance chasing lawyer Dan Caplis as a potential candidate with an ability to gather any sort of serious resources for a 2022 campaign.

In other words, Eli Bremer is probably the frontrunner for the GOP Senate nomination. That’s good news if your name is Michael Bennet, but less exciting if you are a Colorado Republican.

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31 thoughts on “Eli Bremer for Senate, Or Whatever”

  1. On LinkedIn, Eli Bremer describes himself as a "Business Consultant." And his current position appears to be "Team Captain" for Pure Performance, Shaklee Corporation's athlete sponsorship program.

    Olympian, sports and political TV Broadcaster, Graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy, MBA from the University of Colorado, and MSS from The George Washington University.

    I am a serial entrepreneur who leverages my relationships to build businesses and business opportunities. I have strong connections with business, military, and political leaders in Colorado and nationwide. I also have a strong network of US Olympians in many sports as well as numerous international athlete connections within my sport.

    I enjoy working on opportunities that have a large impact and potential for high growth. Though my business portfolio appears highly diverse, all my activities are focused and work together in ways not often apparent at first sight.

    Anyone know what the MSS degree might be?  Masters in Sports Sciences?  Master of Social Services? MS in Systems (computing field).  Masters in Strategic Studies? 

     

    2. Answer on the "MSS" degree … on the campaign site, the degree is described as "a Master of Professional Studies (MPS) in Political Management from The George Washington University. "

      No, I don't see any explanation of the discrepancy.  And it seems odd.  I can't recall being confused enough to write down a degree different than what I was awarded.

    1. The very first 45 I ever bought . . .

      (. . . like just about everything in my life, I did it trying to impress a girl . . .)

      . . . it would be another three years of unimpressed girls before I got my very first album — Who Came First.

  4. Republicans have some potentially good candidates for Senator. I'd include state senators Kevin Priola, Bob Rankin, Don Coram.

    But why would any of them want to run when the party is this toxic? And being common sense conservatives, none of them could get the nomination anyway.

  5. Bremer has more of a moral compass than  any of the other R candidates. He tried to get Lowderman’s corruption exposed. He helped to source this story. 
     

    Of course, I don’t want him to win a Senate seat… but it would be sweet if he’d primary Doug Lamborn. 

      1. Look, Eli has supported a bunch of stuff I disagree with.  He is an unapologetic supporter of Trump which I cannot stand.  But he isn’t your typical Trumpkin.  Eli is SHARP.  Like wicked smart.  And if you chat with him he doesn’t just state some random cliched shit…he’ll tell you not just what he believes but why.  And he tries to surround himself with people who disagree so that he doesn’t fall into trap of having an echo chamber.  Plus he has made a bit of a pre-political name for himself as being an honest straight shooter who calls out corruption.

        Other than the support for Trump and differing ideological foundation this is all really similar to another close family friend of ours who is on the Dem side.  Just as I have a ton of respect for that friend and love picking his brain I feel the same way about Eli. 

        1. Supporting Trump probably makes Bremer a realist- within the CO GOP, it’s a prereq for surviving a primary. Unfortunately. 

          Even though Colorado delegates went for Cruz at the 2016 convention, IIRC.  
          What happened to all those Never-Trumpers, anyway? 

        2. I'm confused … how can an honest straight shooter who calls out corruption be an unapologetic supporter of Trump??????????????  How can someone educated under the USAFA honor code put up with Trump as Commander in Chief?

          Policy aside, Trump's Sad!-ministration exhibited a startling amount of corruption, starting with the secret inauguration spending, through blatant conflicts of interest in apparent violation of financial contracts (GSA rental agreement for Trump Hotel), exploiting power for nepotism, condoning Hatch act violations, and cover-ups or delays to frustrate oversight. WAPO documented 30,000+ "false or misleading statements" directly from Trump's statements and writing, and many more from those working for him.

            1. Look, I’m not going to pretend that my thoughts on this are well organized or that I am unbiased.  Neither is true, and I’m going to be really up front on that.  I like Eli, I’m going to vote (assuming he makes it to the general) and possibly donate to Eli, but I cannot be a surrogate for Eli.  For I cannot put a good gloss on his support for Trump as I disagree so fervently with it.  

              So why vote and support for him if I can’t be ok with his support for Trump?  The obvious biggest reason is that I am biased by the fact that I have been friends with him for over a decade.  Just as my personal friendship with Jared colors my views of him regardless of what positions he takes so does my personal friendship with Eli.  That’s just the way we humans are wired and I’m not going to pretend that I am different.  

              So then what for people who are not friends with him?  Because, obviously, not everybody can know a person running for high office or have a long term friendship with them.   I’ll be blunt: if you cannot support somebody because they voted for Trump, you aren’t going to vote for Eli.  Period.  He supported Trump, and that means he simply isn’t in competition for your vote or your support. 

              But here then is the rub that I have been struggling a lot with as one of the few remaining NeverTrumpers: we NeverTrumpers lost.  We lost badly.  The GOP is not going back to what it is was, let alone the direction some of us wanted it to go before Trump.  For the foreseeable future, anybody who has a shot within the GOP is going to have to had a history of supporting Trump. 

              So that puts what remains of the NeverTrumpers in a difficult position.  If we extend NeverTrumpism beyond Trump to anybody who stayed on Trump’s good side, we are stuck voting for Democrats for the foreseeable future.  Even if the Democrats do ever increasing stuff we disagree with and become ever more intolerant of non-progressive views. 

              I don’t believe that the Independent part of the country, or the state of Colorado, is going to be willing to take any opposition it has to Trump to that extreme of voting for the Dems no matter what they do.  Hell, I’m not even sure I am going to that extreme and I am about as hostile to Trump as it gets.  So then the analysis becomes if we are going to have a Trump supporting GOP for the foreseeable future, what would we want it to best be?

              And to that question I think we’d want the GOP to be more principled and less populist.  With the intellectual horsepower to distinguish between the two.  And I think ultimately, if you look at Eli’s career to date, he has largely taken the side of opposing both populism and also entrenched incompetent power to date while trying to think things out. 

              Is that perfect?  No.  Is that what I would have done?  Not necessarily.  But as a really good friend of mine on the dem side has side to me, if you want a politician who does what you want, try running for office – and winning – yourself.   

              I never ran for office.  And if I did at any point in the foreseeable future, I’d never win.  So the question isn’t what I would agree with.  It is whether Eli making it to the general and winning would push the political conversation in a positive general direction. 

              I believe it would.  

              1. Sadly, Elliot, it doesn’t matter what you or any Republican thinks or wants if your party remains the Trumplican party. The only thing that will matter is what Fat Donnie thinks and wants.

                “I am the team” I heard him say.

                1. Aren’t you presuming that Donald Trump thinks?  Trump is ultimately principleless.  Beyond that though, I’m not under a delusion of thinking that GOP cares much what I think. Instead, the question for me is whether I can consistently vote for Dems – simply because I fervently disagree with Trump – when I disagree with much of how the Dems are conducting themselves.

              2. So I guess the question I would pose to you to pose to your friend is, put in the same position as Sen. Mitt Romney and Sen. Tom Cotton  on January 6, 2021, would his "moral compass" have directed him to join Romney or Cotton on their votes to certify the election results.  It is a very important question because he is hoping to be there and cast that vote in January of 2025. 

                Frankly, how that question is answered would trump any friendship that I have with anyone who is seeking my vote.

                1. That is a fair observation.  Ultimately, I think the answer to that question doesn't matter if it is in private.  It matters if it is in public. 

                  And yeah, the answer to that question could, if it came back a certain way, cause me to have even more thinking to do. 

              3. Thank you. That is both well said (written) and human.

                Not voting for anyone who supported and still supports Trump would appear to create electoral problems for R candidates who do not have enough friends who can just look away. 

                Heidi Ganahl, Rose Pugliese, and some others in Colorado, for example. My R friends and neighbors who identify as never-Trump (so called) seem to have decided to just look the other way and stick with whichever candidate has the R.   

                I left the party over less. 
                 

                 

  6. Eli is one of the smartest people I know.  I learn something new nearly every time I talk to the guy.  

    I prefer smart people with attention to detail holding elected office over people who lack those characteristics.

    1. Brains and competence are good things.  But unless they are married to a moral compass, the results can be disastrous.

      Examples: Lavrenti Beria, Adolf Eichmann and the swine who devised the designated hitter rule.

  7. I listened to Bremer’s “first radio interview” on Peter Boyles’ show yesterday.  He may be “wicked sharp”, but I wasn’t impressed with his tone, delivery, or message.  He was clearly reading answers to questions that I suspect he was given in advance.  Furthermore, one of his big anti-Bennet talking points was that Bennet “has only passed one piece of legislation” – what?  Even the guest host, Jimmy Sengenberger, appeared taken back by that one.  I have no idea what he meant there, but here’s Bennet’s record so far.  

    Michael Bennet, Senator for Colorado – GovTrack.us

    I don’t think Bremer will be much of a challenge for Bennet.  

    1. For Eli to win (assuming he makes it to the general), Colorado has to have a shifting ground of not being cool with one party domination.  Without that, this is a blue state and Bennet remains the justifiable heavy favorite.  

      1. I have  not yet been here twenty years and I am too lazy to go look, but it feels like Colorado was ok with one party rule for a long time.  I am not referring to the time the KKK ran the Capitol, but the R domination that came after. 

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