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(Big Lie forever — Promoted by Colorado Pols)

Colorado GOP Chair Dave Williams is no stranger to blaming Republican election losses on voter fraud without any evidence. An unapologetic 2020 election denier, Williams now claims that his party’s historic losses in last year’s election are also due in part to Democrats intentionally changing rules in order to allow illegal votes.

In an interview with KNUS radio host Peter Boyles last week, Williams said the following:

“The reason why Democrats are finding success is because I think they’re taking advantage of the boundaries and some of the systematic advantages that they’ve put into elections such as ballot harvesting, such as taking advantage of a lack of enforcement of voter rolls being cleaned up, or even signature verification type stuff.”

Williams was speaking about state legislative races. His mention of “boundaries” is a reference to the newly redrawn state House and Senate districts lines, following 2021’s redistricting via independent commission, a process which was generally seen as having been somewhat favorable to Republicans.

Williams’ shift from claiming outright fraud (as he still says about 2020) to saying Democrats “took advantage” of dirty voter rolls and “signature-verification type stuff,” marks a rhetorical move from the extremist fringe to only slightly subtler dog-whistle language of more mainstream conservatives. None of the claims have ever been substantiated, but vague allegations of inaccurate voter rolls or insufficiently strict signature verification processes leave enough wiggle room to avoid sounding conspiratorial while still hitting the main talking points to satisfy most of the deniers — and undermine confidence in Colorado’s election process.

Host Boyles stands apart from many of his fellow Colorado conservative talk show hosts in that he’s frequently called out Republicans, including Williams, who have engaged in election denialism. Yet he didn’t object in the least during this May 3 interview. Neither Williams nor Boyles responded to email requests for comment. This article will be updated with any responses received.

Williams’ comments contradicted his statement from just minutes earlier, when Williams ascribed the Republicans’ Statehouse losses primarily to poor messaging, with his unsubstantiated election meddling claims as a secondary reason.

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(Back to the future — Promoted by Colorado Pols)

New Colorado GOP Chair Dave Williams won his race by uniting the clans.

As the newly elected Chairman of the Colorado Republican Party, Dave Williams is making the obligatory rounds of the state’s numerous conservative talk radio shows. For the past two weeks, he’s been introducing himself to the party faithful, sharing his vision for revamping the state GOP, and taking some tough questions from the likes of George Brauchler, Deborah Flora, Dan Caplis, Peter Boyles and other mic-wielding Republicans from both wings of his party.

Yet while Williams makes his case on the radio, some prominent Republicans have either announced they are leaving the party, downplayed the significance of chair’s role, or criticized him directly for election denialism and for his links to fringe elements of the party.

Williams’s first on-air appearance, just hours after his election, was on the KNUS show of fellow election denier Randy Corporon, who was elected by state Republicans to serve on the Republican National Committee. Corporon, who also founded the influential Arapahoe County Tea Party (ACTP), was clearly thrilled at Williams’ win. He encouraged him to continue to court grassroots Republicans and invited him to speak at the next ACTP meeting. Williams replied, “I want to make the Republican Party more like the Tea Party.”

Williams was on less friendly ground a week later when he appeared on the Peter Boyles Show. Boyles, who’s been perhaps the loudest right-wing radio voice against election denialism and Trump (a marked departure from his vehement support of Trump’s racist “birther” conspiracy),  asked Williams about the challenge before him:

Peter Boyles: Can you feel the weight of this? You have to bring this thing like the Phoenix bird, out of the ashes?

Dave Williams: Yeah, for sure. It’s a weighty responsibility, especially when there is no other statewide Republican official that you can point to, Heidi [Ganahl], is no longer a regent. And prior to that was Cory [Gardner]. So now it’s fallen to me, to a certain extent, to be the voice of nearly one million Republicans, and that’s something not to take lightly. Boyles responded by asking Williams how he would win over more moderate Republicans.

Boyles: These guys are right-of-center. They’re not the lunatic fringe; they’re right-of-center guys. And how can you win them? Because elections are won in the middle. They’re not won by the Tina Peters supporters or guys that take rifles and shoot copying machines or wherever the hell that Hanks character did. This is not the stuff that’s going to get you across the finish line. How are you going to do it?

Williams: It starts with figuring out what our marketplace wants. We have to go to the voters, whether they’re Republican or unaffiliated, and we have to start asking them, ‘What are the issues you care about most?’

Williams repeated that same message a few days later on KNUS’ Deborah Flora Show:

“We’re not asking the marketplace what they want,” said Williams. “We’re kind of just kind of shooting in the dark, not really knowing what issues they care about. So we have to invest in good old fashioned polling that kind of tells us what issues do these people care about, and we can then align ourselves on those issues – without compromising who we are – and start to make some gains.”

That answer is the second half of the two-part message Williams pushed on all his radio appearances: First he says the party is going to “go on offense” against Democrats personally by “exposing their corruption.” Second, he says he’s going to rely on empirical data to determine the party’s policy priorities going forward.

His focus on polling data appears to be an attempt to push back against his well-established reputation as a far-right bomb-thrower, often against his own party. Boyles pointed out as much during their conversation, noting, “You’re hanging in a coalition right now of some frankly pretty nutty people.”

Williams did not respond to emails requesting comment on his two-point plan; both what evidence of moral and ethical corruption he expects to find on Democrats as well as any details about the upcoming polling project. This article will be updated with any response received.

“Establishment” Republicans have already made similar public statements, such as former chair Dick Wadhams, who previously wrote off the entire field of candidates and then told the Colorado Sun that if Williams delivers on his campaign promises, particularly his offer of a leadership role to Tina Peters, the party would “have no credibility.”

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