By Heidi Ganahl | Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice
There is an election in under 30 days, on Saturday, March 29, to decide the leadership of the Republican Party in Colorado for the next two years, including the critical 2026 midterms.
Voters include about 500 Republican Party activists that hold the position of county chair, vice chair, secretary or bonus member, along with various elected officials across the state.
There are four confirmed candidates — Brita Horn, Kevin McCarney, Lori Saine and Darcy Schoening — and two that are rumored to run, Danielle Neuschwanger and Dave Williams (Williams has announced a decision not to run). There is always a chance that someone else could be nominated from the floor as well, or announce prior to the printing of ballots.
The race hinges on a fork in the road for the party, to opt out or not? There are two issues at play here, it’s important to understand them.
The FIRST ISSUE is around Prop. 108. Former Colorado Sen. Kevin Lundberg, chairman of the Colorado GOP lawsuit committee, recently explained, “Prop. 108 allows unaffiliated voters to vote in the primary for either major party in Colorado. Since all party-affiliated voters are still only allowed to vote in their party’s primary or participate in nominating assemblies (for minor parties), this primary system is considered a semi-open primary.
That ballot initiative was approved by a narrow majority vote in the 2016 general election and was first applied to primary elections in 2018. It is instructive to note that the counties with a plurality of Republican voters rejected Prop. 108 in the 2016 vote.”
Approximately 2.1 million voters in Colorado — out of the 4.6 million or so registered active voters — are unaffiliated, meaning they are not registered with a political party. In the last two election cycles, polling and data suggest they’ve voted about 60% Democrat and 40% Republican.
Unaffiliated voters currently receive both major party ballots and return only one, with their choice recorded, but votes kept anonymous.
Approximately 25% of the 2.1 million unaffiliated voters, as of November 2024, participated in the Colorado state primary, and it was split pretty evenly which ballot they selected (which party they decided to vote in the primary).
In the 2024 Colorado general election, unaffiliated voters made up 45.6% of all who voted on Nov. 5, 2024.
So, this is a big deal. Back to the lawsuit filed in July of 2023. Its basis is that political parties are private organizations and should not have to allow non-party members to vote in their elections to select nominees and it’s supported by a legal standard established by the U.S. Supreme Court’s Jones case in 2000. They are currently conducting depositions for the court hearing later this year.
The decision around supporting or not supporting this specific proposition lies in your opinion of allowing unaffiliated voters to help pick the nominees for both significant parties. Some say “pick a side” to our unaffiliated friends, while others say, “join the fun” and suggest we welcome the participation to grow our tent.
NEXT ISSUE…
When Prop. 108 was passed by the voters, which later became SB 17-305, it stated that if a Party “opts out” with a vote by 75% or more of the party central committee, primary nominations can only take place at “assemblies or conventions.”
This is the vote that folks are talking about in the chair race — will the new chair support this effort or not? This is a big deal. It would dramatically change how Republicans select their nominees for the general election in our state, all the way down to county commissioner.
And, if voted in, it would only apply to the Republican Party. None of the 2 million or so unaffiliated voters would receive a Republican ballot, but they would receive a Democratic ballot to vote in their primary. Even the 1 million or so registered Republicans won’t receive a primary ballot or be able to vote for Republican primary candidates at the polls — there will be no Republican ballot in the primary, all nominees will be selected at assemblies.
This raises questions about how approximately one million Republicans would participate in the nomination process. Would we anticipate that all registered Republicans attend various local assemblies across the state? Additionally, who would cover the costs associated with organizing these assemblies? Currently, Republicans can vote in the primary without incurring expenses, such as assembly fees, childcare or travel. This would be a shift away from this existing system.
Also, these assemblies are only typically attended by several dozens to hundreds of delegates for county offices, state House, state Senate, district attorney and congressional assemblies, and several thousand for statewide races.
So two questions need to be asked of the candidates for chair of our party before March 29, in order to make an informed vote:
- Do you support the legal effort to overturn Prop. 108 that would stop allowing unaffiliateds to vote in Democratic and Republican primaries to select their nominees for the general election?
- Do you support the opt out, oppose it, or will you be neutral and let the party’s Central committee of about 500 decide the question?
We’re asking these questions of the candidates, and will report back, so you can make a more informed decision on who to support as the chair of the Republican Party for the next two years. Once you decide, you’ll need to reach out to your county GOP chair, vice chair, secretary and bonus members to let them know how you’d like them to represent you and vote on March 29.
Editor’s note: Opinions expressed in commentary pieces are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the management of the Rocky Mountain Voice, but even so we support the constitutional right of the author to express those opinions.