By Jen Schumann | Rocky Mountain Voice
Reese Edwards didn’t plan to speak out.
He spent less than a year inside Colorado’s Secretary of State’s office before leaving in 2020, frustrated and burned out enough to walk away.
He wasn’t looking to revisit any of it.
Now, with Jena Griswold running for attorney general, he’s speaking up—and doing it on the record.
“I love democracy with an almost religious belief,” he told RMV. “The idea of people deciding for themselves how they will govern themselves. That’s why I took the job.”
Edwards, who served as Director of Government and Public Affairs, is now going on record with a warning. He says what he witnessed inside the Secretary of State’s office—erratic leadership, blurred lines between political ambition and public duty and a culture that discouraged dissent—raises serious questions about whether Griswold is equipped to lead the state’s top legal office.
He is not speaking alone.
That concern began surfacing publicly last week, when a statement from Edwards—shared by Democrat political figure Deep Singh Badhesha—quickly gained traction online, drawing more than 150,000 views.
The post laid out a workplace Edwards says was defined by bullying, retaliation and efforts to keep staff quiet through non-disclosure agreements—claims he is now willing to put his name behind.
Edwards said six other former senior staffers back up what he’s saying, but wouldn’t go on the record, worried about professional and political blowback. He said they reached a point where staying quiet felt riskier than speaking out.
Signal and the disappearing record
One of the practices Edwards says troubled him most wasn’t something voters would ever see.
It was how decisions—and in some cases, official state business—were communicated behind the scenes.
He described widespread use of Signal, an encrypted messaging app that allows messages to disappear, as a routine part of internal operations.
“The understanding was, the less that could be subject to CORA or public disclosure, the better,” Edwards said. “That was the way it was when I walked in the door. That was the way it was when I walked out.”
“Official state business being done almost exclusively on Signal really deletes the record and the accountability of these offices,” he said. “And what the public has a right to know.”
Edwards said this wasn’t a one-off. It showed up again and again—in how decisions were made and how the office operated day to day.
When public money meets political messaging
He saw the same pattern play out in how taxpayer-funded advertising was handled.
During his time in the office, Edwards said members of Griswold’s own executive team raised concerns that public messaging campaigns were becoming too focused on elevating her personal profile rather than serving a clear public function.
“We urged her as an executive team that she was going too far with the personal drive to have her face attached to everything,” he said. “That was completely swept to the side. She didn’t care.”
Public records back up at least part of that concern.
An August 2022 Axios report found Griswold’s office spent more than $1 million in taxpayer dollars on statewide television ads that featured her directly and boosted her name recognition during her reelection campaign. Over time, total spending on similar efforts was in the millions.
County clerks questioned why that money wasn’t going toward improving election systems instead.
The complaints didn’t stay behind closed doors for long.
It reached the Capitol, where the Democrat-controlled General Assembly passed Senate Bill 23-276—barring election officials from using public funds for ads that feature candidates.
He said the law didn’t reveal anything new—it put guardrails around behavior staff inside the office had already been dealing with.
“The Democratic General Assembly passed a law to ban that kind of behavior in the future,” he said. “That’s a matter of public record.”
He pointed to the handling of the BIOS password exposure as another example—saying the explanation changed early on, including what was initially communicated to Gov. Jared Polis.
“If you’re not straight with the governor from the beginning, what does that say about the rest of it?” Edwards said. “That’s all public record.”
RMV sent a detailed request for comment to both the Secretary of State’s office and the Griswold for Attorney General campaign, but no response was received as of publication.
NDAs and the culture of fear
The most telling part of what happened inside the office, he said, isn’t what’s been said publicly.
It’s what hasn’t.
He said several former colleagues declined to go on the record, worried about professional and political blowback.
“These are people with careers,” Edwards said. “They’re not afraid of telling the truth. They’re afraid of the consequences of telling it.”
In his written statement, Edwards referenced non-disclosure agreements used early in Griswold’s office—before the practice was later restricted by law. He said the idea of an NDA was raised when he left the office, though it was never formally presented to him.
“I understand it was floated,” he said. “But I’m not so naive as to not know why.”
Even without signed agreements, he said people figured out quickly that pushing back came with a cost.
When issues came up internally—whether spending, communications, or legal questions—he said they were often brushed aside. In some cases, people who fell out of favor were cut off or pushed aside without explanation.
“It wasn’t always yelling,” Edwards said. “Sometimes it was just silence. You stop getting included. You stop getting answers. And you understand what that means.”
That kind of environment, he said, doesn’t just wear people down—it shapes behavior.
“When people see what happens to others, they make a calculation,” he said. “Do I speak up, or do I protect my job?”
Edwards said the six former colleagues he is speaking on behalf of reached the same conclusion he did: that going public carries risk—but staying quiet carries more.
“They fear what she might try to do to them if she gets her hands on the most powerful judicial position in Colorado,” he wrote in his statement.
That pressure didn’t just shape internal culture, he said—it showed up in the work itself.
Government staff directed to do partisan work
For Edwards, the line between political messaging and official state work wasn’t just blurred—it was crossed.
He said staff in the Secretary of State’s office were at times directed to produce partisan content tied to Griswold’s personal political messaging, including statements intended for her social media accounts.
“Hey, I need you government staff to draft some quotes supporting vote by mail and attacking President Trump, so that they can go out for my personal Twitter account,” Edwards said, describing the type of requests that were made. “Stuff like that.”
He said those requests put staff in a position they shouldn’t have been in—using government time and resources to produce content tied directly to political narratives.
Edwards acknowledged that roles in public office often involve a mix of policy, communication and politics. But he said there is still a line most offices work to respect.
“These jobs straddle the line,” he said. “But you don’t dial for dollars from the White House. There are just certain things you try not to do.”
In his view, that boundary wasn’t just tested—it was treated as optional.
And over time, he said, that became the pattern.
Why he’s speaking now: Stakes beyond politics
Edwards said his decision to speak now came down to timing—and consequence.
“I firmly believe that barring extraordinary circumstances, this Democratic primary is the race for attorney general given the way Colorado has trended,” Edwards said. “That’s exactly why I’m saying this now.”
“Imagine taking the most powerful judicial office in the state and putting it in the hands of someone who lacks the maturity and judgment to prioritize, to judge cases on the merits,” he said.
He said the attorney general’s role demands judgment and restraint.
He pointed to the attorney general’s role as the state’s top legal authority, responsible for making decisions that affect enforcement, litigation and how state law is applied across Colorado.
“You have to have discernment,” he said. “You have to know when you’re serving the state and when you’re stepping into politics—and not confuse the two.”
Edwards, a self-described Democrat, said speaking to a right-of-center outlet felt “a little bit odd,” but necessary given what he believes is at stake.
But, he said, the calculation was simple.
“We are all Coloradans, and Colorado comes first,” he said.
“This isn’t about politics. It’s about who should hold that kind of power.”
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