The Leadership Program of the Rockies (LPR), Colorado’s premier conservative training course, has announced their 2025 participants. The list includes prominent activists, school board members, conservative think-tank employees.
According to LPR’s website, “classes are limited to 65 high-caliber students selected from legal, economic, business, political, nonprofit and civic professions into a nine-session curriculum led by an elite team of local leaders and nationally recognized experts.”
Here’s a look at some of 2025’s “high-caliber students.”
Rich Guggenheim
Disney adult Rich Guggenheim is the Colorado chapter leader for Gays Against Groomers, a group that believes any form of gender-affirming healthcare is child abuse or “grooming.” Guggenheim has led several sparsely-attended rallies across Colorado and co-sponsored an anti-trans ballot initiative that failed to gather enough signatures to make it onto the 2024 ballot. Guggenheim’s zealous efforts to oppose the existence of transgender people have spilled over into his professional life as an employee of the Colorado Department of Agriculture. In February, according to documents obtained via a Colorado Open Records Act request, Guggenheim received a letter of corrective action, after being placed on a performance improvement plan, from the director of the Division of Plant Industry for his anti-trans social media posts.
“The specific issue that necessitated taking this action were the complaints I received from four individuals concerning your statement posted on your personal platform X, formerly known as Twitter, account stating, ‘As a manager, in my job, new hires are on a one year probationary period. If he tried that with me, by the end of week one, I’d simply say ‘you know, I appreciate your time, however, this isn’t going to work out.’ And dismiss without cause. It’s perfectly legal in Colorado,’” wrote Wondirad Gebru. “You said in our meeting to discuss the situation that you were not referring to your position at CDA, but when other users pointed out that you work at CDA, you did not clarify your reference or correct their information. In your statement that you posted, you have made various assertions that are not accurate and misrepresent your position as a manager of a program within the agency.”
David Illingworth II
David Illingworth served a controversial tenure as member of Woodland Park’s Board of Education before losing his bid for reelection in 2023. Illingworth built a reputation for sending bellicose and belittling emails. In 2022 Illingworth weathered a recall attempt that included having his then-employer, the 4th Judicial District, prosecute a petition gatherer who called the police and reported a seemingly impaired Katie Illingworth harassing petition gatherers. The petition gatherer, Sam Peck, was acquitted during her trial.
Aaron Salt
Aaron Salt serves on the Academy School District 20 Board of Education, the Pikes Peak Library Board, and works as the Chief Operations Officer for the Woodland Park School District. Salt is an alumni of the conservative training program the Leadership Institute. During Salt’s tenure on various boards he has weathered controversies over books, pride flags, and the hiring of an Alliance Defending Freedom Blackstone Legal Fellow as the Pikes Peak Library District’s senior director of human resources.
Michael Tsogt
Michael Tsogt currently serves as a policy analyst for Advance Colorado, the conservative think-tank behind the controversial school choice ballot measure Amendment 80. Last year, Tsogt was the lucky recipient of a sole-sourced, $40,000 contract from Colorado Springs School District 11 during their board of education elections. Tsogt graduated from the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs in 2022 with a political science degree and was a Koch fellow in 2019.
According to the Oct. 11 announcement from LPR, “The Army for Freedom welcomes the new 2025 class of influencers as they dive into the timeless principles of freedom!”
