If Dave Williams is booted from his position as leader of the Colorado Republican Party this weekend, it will be no surprise, given the fate of the six Colorado Republican chairs over the past 13 years. All six were run out of office, the last four after just one term each. Will Eli Bremer, who today announced his intention to replace Williams, be the leader to end the nearly decade-long streak of one-and-done chairmen?
In fact, it was Williams who led the faction that drove out the previous Colorado Republican leader, Kristi Burton Brown, last year.
Now the Republican Party is at it again with Williams on the chopping block. Here are the past six GOP leaders in Colorado.
Kristi Burton Brown. Burton Brown, after serving as Vice Chair under Ken Buck, defeated former Secretary of State Scott Gessler to be elected to lead the state party in 2021. Hardly a year later she found herself in the crosshairs of fellow Republicans who baselessly accused her of rigging the 2022 party assembly voting against MAGA election deniers. In December of 2022, about 100 Republicans — including indicted Mesa County’s Clerk Tina Peters — gathered in front of party headquarters and called for her ouster, due in part to her “treachery.” One rally speaker, Anil Mathai, said, “We have a Republican Party that is full of whores!”
Ken Buck. In 2019, Buck took on double duty as a congressman and the state chair of the party. He won his election with a fiery speech in which he said Republicans would recall Democrats from office. They did not. As state GOP candidates continued to slide into electoral oblivion, the buck had to stop somewhere and it stopped with the head of the party. Also, Buck was in the center of in an intra-party spat concerning a primary election ballot dispute between candidates in an El Paso County district. Along with the state central committee, Buck intervened to force a local party officer to place a veteran party activist on the primary ballot despite that candidate’s failure to meet the required threshold. That episode ended with state courts ruling against Buck and the party in that dispute, staining Buck’s tenure as chair.
Jeff Hays. Hays won in 2017 with the backing of Wayne Williams and Cynthia Coffman, with his opponent supported by Anil Mathai and El Paso Republican Vicki Tonkins. He presided over one of the GOP’s worst elections ever in 2018, summarizing the results in his election night speech: “it’s tough to put lipstick on this pig.” The grassroots faction subsequently picked up steam and drove Hays from power after a single term.
Steve House. House declined to run for reelection after he was nearly deposed by fellow Republicans Cynthia Coffman, Becky Mizel, and Tom Tancredo in 2015, in part, it appeared, for not selecting radical Republican Ted Harvey to serve as executive director. That controversy included accusations of blackmail and allegations of an affair contributing to the drama.
Ryan Call. Call was voted out of office in a GOP uprising after a tumultuous two-term tenure, during which he was on the hot seat for playing favorites in primaries and creating an “Independent” Super PAC that his GOP critics saw as a vehicle to attack fellow Republicans. He was also vilified by Republican activists for opposing the recall of a Democratic state senator in Westminister. Call has since for been disbarred for transferring $280,000 from a pro-Trump PAC he was running to himself.
Dick Wadhams. Wadhams’ 2011 good-bye letter to Republicans sounded as if it could have been written today. He wrote that he was tired of GOP activists who see “conspiracies around every corner.” Wadhams possibly holds the distinction of being among the first Republicans to call fellow Republicans conspiracists.
