There are few certainties in politics, but in Highlands Ranch, Republican candidates for the general assembly have always been able to count on one thing: an endorsement from the Colorado Chamber. For at least seven straight elections, the Chamber backed the GOP in House District 43. This year however, instead of endorsing Republican Matt Burcham, the Chamber decided to stay on the sideline.
Chamber spokesperson Cynthia Eveleth-Havens confirmed that their Political Action Committee decided against making an endorsement this year, and that the Chamber has endorsed continuously for the past decade. News reports show the Chamber endorsed Republican Frank McNulty prior to state Sen. Kevin Van Winkle’s four terms in the House. Eveleth-Havens did not provide details of the Chamber’s decision not to endorse Burcham, but did note that “candidates earn our endorsement based on their individual interviews with the Chamber PAC and the unique issues facing their districts.”
In the Republican primary earlier this year, the Chamber endorsed Douglas County Commissioner Lora Thomas over Burcham.
Burcham lists only two organizations on his endorsements page: the Colorado Republican Party and Rocky Mountain Gun Owners.
Burcham was one of the core members of the far-right election fraud conspiracy group U.S. Election Integrity Plan. Some of his first work for the USEIP was sharing press releases from a group of far-right legislators, including then-Representatives Kevin Van Winkle and Dave Williams, promoting the Dominion Voting election fraud conspiracy theory and calling for an investigation. His posts to USEIP’s chat platform indicate that his involvement with the group launched his political participation.
He posted to the group that he would be heeding President Trump’s call to go to Washington, D.C. on Jan. 6, 2021, and later shared video from the Jan. 5 rally the night before.
During a Dec. 9, 2020 livestream of a Legislative Audit Committee hearing on election integrity, Burcham expressed the unfounded belief that mail-in ballots and electronics voting machines allow for cheating.
“Me personally, I’d like to say let’s forget the machines overall,” said Burcham. “Let’s go to all paper, right? Let’s go all in-person, on-paper. Let’s just go back old-fashioned and remove all those different things you can cheat with.”
According to public voting records, Burcham cast his ballot by mail every year from 2013 through the 2022 primary, and again by mail for this year’s primary.
Reached via email, the district’s incumbent state Rep. Bob Marshall offered the following statement:
“In choosing to not endorse the Republican candidate in Highlands Ranch for the first time ever, I am pleased that the Colorado Chamber of Commerce recognized that I have been one of the top three pro-business Democrats in the state house,” said Marshall. “I am also gratified that unlike many other business interests, they chose to not back people who are so fundamentally unAmerican in their thinking that they advocate to scrutinize and suppress military voters who have been voting absentee since the Civil War and would engage in recruiting people to attend the January 6 attempt to overthrow our constitutional Republic.”
Burcham did not respond to an email request for comment. This article will be updated with any response received.
