Former President Donald Trump may be a long-shot bet to win Colorado, but you wouldn’t know it from the 100 energized Republicans who attended Sunday’s “Trump Rally” in Greeley.
Speaking atop a flatbed trailer transformed into a stage with a microphone set behind straw bales spiked with American flags and adorned with pro-Trump banners, a series of Republican candidates called for the ouster of Democrats nationally and locally and a return to Republican control.
Hunter Rivera of the Weld County Republican Party, which sponsored the rally, introduced the speakers, starting with Yazmin Navarro, who’s running for the Colorado State Board of Education, representing the 8th Congressional District, north of Denver.
“They are going to come after our charter schools,” said Navarro, who faces Democrat Rhonda Solis. “They are going to come after our parental rights, which they are already stripping away.”
Phoebe McWilliams, who followed Navarro, also feels threatened by Democrats locally and nationally. “I don’t like what’s going on in my city, my country, and my state,” said McWilliams, who faces Democratic state Rep. Cathy Kipp to represent Senate District 14. … “It’s a Communist takeover.”
“We need to get off our asses, get out there, and vote,” she implored. “We need people to vote.”
Scott Bright, another state GOP Senate candidate told the group that he wants to “make a difference for the people in Colorado and Weld County.”
Bright is running for the competitive Senate District 13 (SD13) seat that was once occupied by Kevin Priola, who surprised fellow Republicans by switching parties and becoming a Democrat in 2022. Bright faces Democrat Matt Johnston in this year’s election.
“We need to bring the seat back to the Republicans,” Bright told the crowd. “It belongs there. It was stolen from us. We’re going to get it back.”
Asked after the rally if he thinks his support of Trump will help him win what’s expected to be a tight race in SD13, Bright said “yeah,” arguing that Trump won the district in 2020, and Bright thinks Trump will do even better in SD13 this year than he did in 2020.
Bright dodged the question of whether Trump won the presidential election in 2020, saying there are ways to “improve our election processes,” but he wants to look forward; the election is “done, certified,” he said, and “Joe Biden is the President.”
Next up was Ryan Gonzalez, a candidate for Colorado’s House whom Rivera described as a “fantastic conservative candidate.”
“We need to learn the lessons from 2022 what happens when Republicans stay home and choose not to vote,” warned Gonzalez, standing above “Colorado for Trump” and “Women for Trump” banners draped from the stage below him.
In 2020, Gonzalez lost a tight race against Democrat Mary Young to represent House District 50. He faces Young again this year to represent the same district.
Despite speaking at the pro-Trump rally, Gonzalez said he distances himself from the former president.
“I distance myself from him,” Gonzalez said after the rally. “I’m my own person; I’m my own candidate. Trump’s not here knocking on doors. He doesn’t know the issues.”
Asked if he was nonetheless going to vote for Trump, Gonzalez replied, “Yes.”
Gonzales himself didn’t know enough about the issue of Obamacare to have an opinion on whether he’d try to boot Colorado out of it if elected to the state Legislature. “I know some of it; I would have to have more information,” he said.
One of the last speakers at the rally, which took place on the property of Roche Constructors, a commercial construction company in Greeley, was Eric Rinard. He’s running against Democrat Elliot Hood for the at-large University of Colorado regent seat, meaning he’ll be on all the ballots statewide.
“Right now freedom is maybe one election away from extinction,” he said as rallygoers waved Trump flags and held Trump yard signs. “So we’ve got to make sure that Donald Trump wins the presidency.”
