Conspiracist clerk Tina Peters, who faces multiple felony charges for election-fraud-related crimes, answered questions at a pair of screenings of the faux-documentary “Selection Code” last week in Pueblo and Colorado Springs. The conspiracy movie, which stars Peters herself, makes debunked claims that not only the 2020 presidential election but also the 2021 Grand Junction municipal election were stolen from the rightful conservative winners.
A far-right nonprofit group led by members of two prominent Colorado conservative organizations, Colorado Christian University and the Independence Institute, sponsored the events. Americans for America (A4A) collected the money for the event series, “Ten For Tina.”
Reached for comment, A4A President Regina Thomson describes the event as a “in effect, a fundraiser for Tina.”
Thomson, a 2016 RNC delegate, says the group is asking for donations for tomorrow’s event in order to fund a contract to pay Peters to “go out and speak and educate on election integrity issues” starting next year. “Right now as an elected official, any money she gets other than her paycheck she has to file a report with the secretary of state and tell them what she got, and she’s under so much scrutiny that we’re not going to put her in that kind of spot at the moment,” says Thomson. “So we’re looking forward to contracting with her right after the first of the year to go out and speak on the same thing she’s speaking about now, when she’s not an elected official any longer.”
“She’s one of our upcoming projects to go out and speak on election integrity,” says Thomson. “It’s all legal and above board, it’s just that we don’t want her to have a target on her back any bigger than she does until she’s out of office.”
Americans For America is an openly Islamophobic group founded in 2016 by Colorado Christian University founder and former Colorado State Senate President John Andrews. Longtime Independence Institute employee Kathleen Chandler also serves on the A4A board. The group’s website proclaims its opposition to Islam directly.
“We believe Western civilization and its Judeo-Christian heritage are worth defending against all enemies, especially Islamic supremacism,” states the A4A websitesite. “We believe in freedom of religion for religions that believe in freedom – since as the Supreme Court has observed, the Constitution is not a suicide pact.”
This echoes Andrews’ numerous anti-Muslim statements over the years, including this claim from the 2019 Western Conservative Summit: “They may tell you that a good and faithful Muslim can also be a good and faithful American. I’m sorry, I just don’t see how.”
Board member Chandler said via email she was unaware of the event and had not been consulted about A4A’s sponsorship. She did not answer the Colorado Times Recorder’s questions about her own beliefs in the legitimacy of the 2020 election and whether she had any concerns about her organization promoting the Big Lie. Chandler did say her work at the Independence Institute, an organization that helped Arizona Republicans cast doubt on their state’s election results, has nothing to do with her seat on the A4A board.
Reached for comment via text, Peters said in a statement that she was “grateful” for the invitation from A4A.
“I’m very grateful that Americans for America has invited me to be one of the speakers at their event to educate people on elections,” wrote Peters. “I’m always happy to help any organization that cares about our country to get the truth out to the people.”
Asked specifically about the upcoming contract with A4A, Peters said she was unaware of any contract and asked for more information but then declined to respond further.
As a 501c3 nonprofit, donations to A4A are tax-deductible. The organization’s most recent public tax filing shows it raised and spent over $600,000 in 2020.
