Colorado State Party Leadership

The following is a letter I just received. Please give it a read. In the comments write if you disagree or agree with Steve Peck’s position. Remember this is our party and sitting back and not engaging is a true disservice to our country.

Dear SCC members,

You’re all aware by now that a battle is brewing between State Party leadership and the members of the SCC who have called for a meeting to remove the Chairman. Many of you may remember that I supported Dave Williams immediately after he announced his intention to run for chair and endorsed him at the organizational meeting where he was elected. Since then, my optimism has faded to concern and now to full opposition. I serve as the chairman of the Douglas County Republicans, which has given me a front row seat to witness the growing problems I’ll lay out for you here. I have come to these positions slowly and with humility and regret.

The job of the state party is to grow the party, share our principles, support Republican candidates, and win elections. Instead, the party has suffered from a series of decisions that make it clear that the Chairman does not have the ethics, strategy, or judgment required for the job.

Ethics. Leadership isn’t based on title; it’s based on trust and confidence. Once trust has been broken, credibility is lost, and followers wander away. When former state party vice chair Priscilla Rahn decided to run for Douglas County Commissioner, she was asked to step down from vice chair because it was a conflict of interest. Unfortunately, Chairman Williams did not apply the same standard to himself and decided not to step down as State Party Chair when he ran for Congress. As many now know, Mr. Williams used money donated for the good of the state party in his own race for Congress. Furthermore, he used the money pre-primary against another Republican candidate who didn’t have the same access to a special postage rate or state party coffers. This is a clear conflict of interest and abuse of position. These decisions speak directly to character.

Strategy. The decision to change 100 years of pre-primary neutrality has led to unprecedented intraparty division. Chairman Williams advocated for bylaw changes that allowed precious state party dollars to be used against other Republicans ahead of the primaries. Take the CD-8 race. Despite the fact that Colorado State Rep Gabe Evans went through the assembly and won 62% of the vote in a three-way race, the state party inexplicably endorsed another Republican and used limited state party dollars to attack the assembly winner ahead of the primary. This created intense discord, depleted resources needed for the general election, and made it impossible for our primary winners to have any functional relationship with the state party. The state party endorsed 18 candidates pre-primary and won 4 races, 22%. This is political malpractice.

Judgment. The decision to use the party email address to put a Christ-like figure with red laser eyes in front of a trans flag and bold lettering that reads “God hates flags” reduced our Creator and Redeemer to a political tool while embarrassing the party.

When members of the SCC called for a meeting to vote on removal, Mr. Williams hid behind party officers to dodge the meeting and marshaled procedural gimmicks to avoid accountability. When that didn’t work, he sued them. This is defensive, divisive, and dysfunctional.

We need to change.

Since he rode down the escalator in 2015, Donald Trump has assembled an remarkable coalition of unlikely supporters and rebranded the entire party. He walked past the kingmakers and powerbrokers who were accustomed to driving candidate selection and policy decisions. Many were threatened by his new style and aggressively resisted it. Others left the party entirely.

Today, Trump isn’t just the leader of a political party, he is the leader of a movement that includes Kid Rock, 50 Cent, Elon Musk, Franklin Graham, Hulk Hogan, Dana White, Bill Ackman, JD Vance’s mother, union leaders, UNC frat boys, Joe Rogan, Amber Rose, Log Cabin Republicans, Zionists, Gold Star Moms, and Moms for Liberty.

Colorado Republicans can build a coalition of support too. The passion of grassroots, coupled with pre-primary neutrality are critical elements necessary to fuel the enthusiasm needed to win statewide. It can be done. Winning is a choice.

I hope you join Todd Watkins, Nancy Pallozzi, and me next Saturday July 27th at the 9:00am in Brighton and vote for removal.

Respectfully, Steven Peck