With Colorado Trump campaign manager Patrick Davis  relying on the “robust operations” of the Colorado Republican party, it’s particularly newsworthy that GOP county and district officials are resigning from their elected positions and leaving the party.

In the past week, Patrick Crowder, vice chair of the Rio Grande Republican Party, and Craig Steiner, chair of House District 43 Republicans, said good-bye to fellow Republicans.

Steiner, who’s a long-time GOP activist, Central Committee member, and former Douglas County GOP chair, resigned on Friday, writing on Facebook:

…I believe over the last week the Republican Party lost all remaining pretense of principled conservatism while the national party simultaneously lost any credible claim to being the party of the “rule of law.”  The nominee is a nutcase who can’t even stop defending the National Enquirer the day after the Convention. And in a way I haven’t seen in past elections, this race has turned people I know into people I barely recognize. It’s disheartening.

Though I’ve considered myself a Republican since I saw Reagan debate Carter at age 9, today with sadness I updated my party affiliation.

As I am no longer a registered Republican, I have submitted my resignation as chairman of Republican House District 43.  I have also submitted my resignation as a member of the Colorado Republican Central Committee.

After Steiner, who did not immediately return a call for comment, came Crowder, who tweeted Sunday that he’d resigned his vice chair post and become unaffiliated.

Asked why he left the GOP, Crowder said, “Trump is scraping out everything that the Republican Party has stood for and building a wall in its place.”

“A lot of farmers are concerned about our beef and potato exports,” he continued, telling me about recent conversations at a GOP fundraiser. “There’s a lot of concern about what’s going on.”

Crowder doesn’t see “core Republican principles,” including “sanctity of life” and economic positions, “reflected in our nominee.”

Steiner and Crowder are elected party officials who’ve left the GOP, but other party stalwarts and activists continue to resist pressure to peel off the #NeverTrump label. More on these folks in another post.

Meanwhile, if you hear of more Colorado Republican officials who’ve left the party, please let me know.
Original Publication