Trailblazers among us: Meet the RMV award winners changing Colorado from the ground up

By Jen Schumann | Rocky Mountain Voice

At the Mountain Majesty Gala last month, the room was on its feet. Eric Trump had just wrapped his keynote, a message aimed straight at the grassroots: Colorado is yearning to be red. But the loud applause that night wasn’t reserved only for the headliner. 

It also came when everyday Coloradans—organizers, volunteers and first-time leaders—were called up for something new: the first Trailblazer Awards. 

It was for the people doing the work when no one’s watching. It was a moment to take in, struck not just by who received the awards—but why. These weren’t political celebrities. They were parents, satirists, engineers and organizers. 

Most had never sought attention. But they’d earned it.

Here are the stories of Trailblazers from all corners of the state who remind us what it means to take action before the crowd shows up.

Shirley Bauer: The heart of Delta County

When Shirley Bauer retired from nursing and moved to Cedaredge, she had no intention of becoming a leader in the local GOP. But after growing frustrated with the Democratic Party, she decided to get involved.

“I started as a volunteer, and became a precinct person and a delegate. Serving on many committees also gave me a broad view of how we all worked together to get our message out.”

Bauer started setting up meet-and-greets so people in Delta could talk face-to-face with the folks running for office. Pretty soon, she was the one statewide candidates called when they were coming to the Western Slope.

“Democrats outnumber the Republicans 2 to 1 in both the House and Senate and push their agenda aggressively. While Republicans work very hard to add amendments and slow down bad legislation, it’s difficult. If we want to protect this state from further harm, we must elect good conservative candidates starting at the local level.”

Bauer was one of the first to raise the alarm over HB24-1039—a law that let kids as young as seven pick new names at school without their parents being told right away.

“It’s a horrible law,” she said. “Our efforts helped. Eventually, the school board crafted a policy that softened the impact.”

The recognition at the gala caught her off guard.

Heidi Ganahl congratulates Shirley Bauer of Delta County, honored for her years of grassroots leadership and legislative advocacy on education issues.

“What a wonderful blessing and honor to represent Delta County and be one of 7 chosen people to receive the Trail Blazer Award. I truly can’t thank you enough.”

Scott Shamblin: The satirist who throws down

Scott Shamblin had testified on the same bill year after year, only to watch it get shot down. So he tried something new.

“I decided I had nothing to lose and called up a friend and we wrote the first satire testimony that went viral. I realized people really enjoyed it, so we kept going.”

After he exposed House Speaker Julie McCluskie’s remarks on abortion saving the state money through ‘averted births’ on her Medicaid Funded Abortion bill, one of his videos was featured by Matt Walsh, 5 different Newsmax shows and a number of other national media outlets.

He also permanently enshrined her remarks about the bill at JulieMcCluskie.com. Later Speaker Julie McCluskie confronted him leaving the Capitol one day. He captured the moment plainly: “She said, ‘You really like to throw down, don’t you?’ Yes McCluskie, I do like to ‘throw down.’”

Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon,” Shamblin said, quoting Saul Alinsky with a grin. “So ridicule well, and ridicule often.”

But there’s principle behind the performance. “Principles come first. Without a principled foundation for your beliefs you will topple like a house built on sand. Aside from that, you can just do things! You don’t need permission. Learn the system, and then beat the system.”

Scott Shamblin receives the Trailblazer Award from Heidi Ganahl for his bold use of satire and viral testimony at the Colorado Capitol.

The Trail Blazer award, for Shamblin, spurred a moment of reflection. “While recognition is not the goal, it feels good to be recognized for my work. It also opened doors to a lot of great conversations with new and different people after the Gala.”

Natalee Tennant: Grassroots fire and unfiltered truth

Natalee Tennant didn’t plan to start a statewide movement—she just couldn’t sit still while the state unraveled around her.

“I just had a vision, and I got tired of nothing happening and watching our state crumble before my eyes,” she said.

By late 2023, Tennant was fed up. So she helped pull together a rally that December—not knowing what kind of turnout they’d get. But nearly 1,600 people showed up. The trucks, the flags, the energy—it felt like something real was taking hold.

“It was a beautiful day. So patriotic,” she said. “That day lit a fire in me. I thought we’ve got to keep this going. We have to do more of this.”

The rally led to the birth of Never Surrender National, a grassroots platform that now has more than 4,600 Colorado members. But for Tennant, growth isn’t the goal—integrity is.

“I’m not here to reinvent the wheel. I want to gather the people,” she said. “Let’s promote other good conservative groups out there… let’s focus on people that are doing great things.”

Social media influencer and activist Natalee Tennant is honored by Heidi Ganahl at the Mountain Majesty Gala for her role in growing Colorado’s conservative youth movement.

Known for speaking plainly and pushing hard conversations into the open, Tennant said she’s not afraid of controversy.

“I’ll say the quiet part out loud,” she said. “We need to speak about the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.”

That posture hasn’t always made things easy. From moderating online communities to navigating Colorado’s caucus and assembly system, she’s learned the value of persistence.

Her message to others: don’t overthink it—just get involved.

“Find your thing. If it’s kids, get with a group that’s fighting for them. If it’s your school district, show up. Stop sitting behind the keyboard. Get active.”

She doesn’t pretend the work is easy—especially learning the political process—but she’s quick to say it’s worth it.

“Knowledge is power. Assembly and caucus weren’t easy, but the reward at the end was understanding how it all works. That’s what keeps you going.”

Chuck O’Reilly: Watchdog of the invisible elections

Chuck O’Reilly has made it his mission to expose one of the state’s quietest democratic failures: nonpartisan elections that most voters don’t even know are happening. He described them as, “an election where there is no primary and candidates do not identify with a political party.  These elections are held by the various Fire, Water, Metro and other Special Districts that are primarily funded by property taxes paid by the property owners / voters that live in the respective districts.”

O’Reilly also outlined the struggle of engagement for these elections, “Most districts fail to adequately communicate with their taxpayers about Self Nomination Forms and Application for Absentee Ballots.” 

A Douglas County resident, O’Reilly asserts, “The elections for my fire district are almost a secret event.”

He points to staggering figures. One to three percent of property owners are electing board members who control millions—sometimes over a billion dollars in public funds.

“Our goal is to inform the taxpayer that they could actually be a candidate for board seats to which they are paying property taxes and sales taxes.” 

The biggest hurdle he’s faced in this mission? “Our biggest challenge was to identify the rigorous process to get elected to the Regional Transportation District’s (RTD) Board.”

Through his work with RMV and Republican efforts, he’s trying to shift that power back to informed citizens.

Trailblazer honoree Chuck O’Reilly with Heidi Ganahl. O’Reilly was recognized for exposing gaps in Colorado’s nonpartisan special district elections.

“RMV has given me an opportunity to communicate to conservatives in Colorado.”

He also wants to see more alignment between GOP leadership and the grassroots. 

“To be successful, the state and county GOP parties must start listening to and working with the various grassroots groups. Doing so gives the GOP the role of a leader instead of being a follower.”

Pueblo Conservative Movement: Turnout, teamwork and tenacity

Michelle Gray, Christy Fidura and Randy Thurston took the stage at the Mountain Majesty Gala to accept the Trailblazer Award on behalf of the Pueblo Conservative Movement—a team whose work didn’t just raise eyebrows last November. It changed the scoreboard.

“We were able to get a 91.8% turnout of Republicans in Pueblo, which has just never been done before,” Gray said.

They flipped a county commissioner seat. Flipped a district attorney race. Trump took Pueblo County by more than 4,000 votes. For a place most folks had long stopped watching, that shift didn’t come from luck—it came from hard work, one conversation and one front porch at a time.

Gray is cautious about sharing too much of their strategy—but the foundation, she said, is simple: trust, consistency and making sure no voter falls through the cracks.

“We try to touch Republicans at least five times,” she said. “If the candidates are out doing their job, we’re backing them with full-on get-out-the-vote work.”

That effort played out in waves. Letters. Texts. Calls. Doors knocked. Voter lists monitored in real time. “We had people coming into the office every day—anywhere from 50 to 100,” she said.

Volunteers came from all backgrounds. Some stuffed envelopes. Others dropped off signs or answered phones. “We find the right fit for everyone,” Gray said. “And we make sure they know their time matters.”

But the biggest shift wasn’t tactical—it was cultural. For years, conservative groups in Pueblo worked in silos, sometimes even at odds. That changed in 2024.

“We all have to learn to stay in our own lane—but work toward a common goal,” she said. “Now we talk. We coordinate. And we’re more productive because we’re finally working together.”

Michelle Gray, Christy Fidura and Randy Thurston of Pueblo celebrate their Trailblazer win alongside Heidi Ganahl. Their movement flipped key races in 2024.

Gray hopes other counties will take note—not by copying every detail, but by understanding what unity can unlock.

“If all 27 counties in CD3 worked together, we could do amazing things,” she said.

She also believes Pueblo’s shift wasn’t just about Republicans outperforming expectations. It was about voters—regardless of party—feeling like someone was finally listening.

“I don’t think the Democrats are hearing their people in Pueblo. We are,” she said.

Bill Lehman and COIFFE: The engineers of election trust

Lehman expected a landslide victory for Trump in the 2020 election, and said the “late night halts,” followed by the “improbable graphs of election results” made it “obvious that manipulation was behind it. And I wanted to understand the nature of it in the election process.”

That desire to understand led him to get more involved—“from poll watcher to computer judge”—and dig into the mechanics of how elections really work.

Through the Colorado Institute For Fair Elections (COIFFE), Lehman teamed up with Bob Cooper, Marc Gitlitz, Mark Milliman, Michael Raisch, Michael Cahoon, John Murino and others to focus on data, analysis and reform.

The group is concerned about Colorado’s ‘Gold Standard’ elections, and sees the voter rolls as priority number one. “The biggest reform would be to do a reset of the Voter Roll… to eliminate the fraudulent registration records currently within the Voter Roll.”

Lehman also supports removing universal mail-in ballots and going back to single-day, paper ballot, hand-counted elections at the precinct level. He sees it as the only way to get results that are fully accurate, secure and declared without delay.

He also challenges how people talk about the issue. “Rather than attributing a human characteristic (‘integrity’) to a process,” he said, “we need to substitute that word with the word ‘validity.’”

“Sometimes it’s hard to feel like we make a difference in the grand scheme of things,” Lehman said. “So it’s nice to get recognition.”

COIFFE members Bob Cooper, Mark Milliman and Bill Lehman with Heidi Ganahl, recognized for their election reform work and data-driven activism.

Still, Lehman stays focused on what’s ahead. “There are a lot of dedicated, experienced, concerned citizens who can analyze voting data and clearly show evidence of fraud to anyone with an open mind and critical thinking skills.”

Mesa County Republican Women: Learning by doing, together

When Cathy Ventling first got involved in local politics, she wasn’t thinking about awards. She just wanted to help fix what she saw breaking down in her own community—starting with the school board.

“I watched the district keep running into the same problems. Then a few good candidates came along, and I thought, ‘Okay, maybe we can help push this in the right direction.’ That’s what got me started.”

Eventually she joined Mesa County Republican Women and found a group willing to take action.

“They were doing the luncheons, showing up, organizing. That was more than anybody else I could see. I felt like they had a shot at making a real impact.”

What followed was steady growth: more communication, more structure and more measurable results. Ventling credits the group’ on s collaboration with Road to Red as a turning point.

“We were just standing on a ladder, and they shot us into orbit. We went from being scattered and limited in what we could reach to actually becoming effective. And we’re going to keep building on that.”

Her focus is all about outcomes, not recognition.

Carla Alley and Cathy Ventling of Mesa County Republican Women with Heidi Ganahl. Their tech-forward voter engagement strategy earned them the Trailblazer Award.

“We’re volunteers. And none of it’s easy. I don’t need the recognition. But I will say—it’s nice when someone notices the effort. It gives you that much more motivation to keep going.”

Ventling believes the most meaningful growth happens when people stop waiting for perfect conditions and just dive in.

“There’s always a long list of tasks. It’s not enough to just join a group. You’ve got to do the work. It’s messy. But the results are worth it.”

The trail ahead

Some Trailblazer recipients weren’t able to attend the gala, but their impact was no less felt. Pat Tucker was recognized for her tireless fundraising work, helping elect conservative candidates across the state. And in El Paso County, Julianne McPadden has become someone new conservatives can count on—always ready to welcome them and help them find their place.

And in southern Colorado, Trish Leone’s been a steady force in the grassroots—known for her energy, her consistency, and the kind of spirit that keeps a movement going. 

From Cedaredge to Pueblo, Delta to Douglas, the signal is clear: Colorado’s conservative base isn’t waiting for a top-down fix. It’s organizing. It’s training. It’s winning local ground.

Every one of these folks could’ve stayed home. Any one of these folks could’ve stayed home. Most people do.

But they didn’t stay home. They stepped in, pushed for answers, and took risks—especially when it was uncomfortable.

The Trailblazer Award wasn’t just recognition. It marked a pattern: in Colorado’s changing political landscape, action—not polish—is what’s moving the needle.

They showed up. And in ways big and small, Colorado is already changing.