May 20, 2024 11:57 AM UTC

Ramey Johnson's State House Campaign Epitomizes Colorado GOP in 2024

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• by: Colorado Pols

Republican “Zombie” Ramey Johnson has long been a recurring character in this space because of her seemingly never-ending quest to win election to something. Her sad sack 2024 campaign is her 11th such effort since 2000, which makes running for office more of a hobby than a serious undertaking…

And that makes her the perfect embodiment of a modern Colorado Republican.

As Mike Littwin noted last week for The Colorado Sun, the 2025 state legislative session will begin without a single Republican member who has ever personally experienced being part of a majority in either chamber. That’s a striking tidbit, though it makes more sense when you stop to ponder the idea. Colorado Republicans almost seem content to be stuck in perpetual irrelevancy at the State Capitol, with members such as Reps. Scott “There is No Bottoms,” Brandi Bradley, and Ken “Dildo” DeGraaf focusing their energy on making asine remarks on the House Floor rather than proposing legislation that contains any hope of creating a consensus.

This brings us back to Johnson, the 78-year-old Lakewood resident who is currently the GOP hopeful in State House District 30. Johnson will almost certainly lose in November to whichever Democrat emerges from the June 25th Primary Election (either Rebekah Stewart or Kyra deGruy Kennedy). Johnson is on the ballot in HD-30 because Republicans couldn’t or wouldn’t find anyone else capable of presenting a serious challenge to Democrats. “Serious” is the operative word here; when you have an unserious group of elected officials in the legislature, it should be no surprise that you end up with comical candidates running to join them.

For example, Johnson this morning announced a new endorsement of her candidacy via her “X” account…from a Lakewood aromatherapy massage business owner. We’d tell you what it says, but the font used in the message is difficult to decipher:

This is certainly odd, but it’s not quite as sad as the banner that Johnson and friends are carrying around town in which the new House District number (30) has been pasted over the old number (23).

The “Re-Elect” part is particularly funny, since Johnson only served one term in the state legislature back in 2002 (not to mention the fact that voters would be “re-electing” Johnson in an entirely different House District than the one in which she originally served).

We suppose it is nice that Johnson is willing to take the baton from herself and seek a spot in the legislature for the [checks notes] fifth time. But it’s not hard to look at Johnson’s candidacy and then understand why Colorado Republicans are stuck with an historically-small minority in the State House (just 19 of 65 members).

Republicans aren’t exactly sending their best. Or maybe they are. Either way, it’s a problem.