The 2025 race for Colorado GOP Chair is heating up. Last week, Brita Horn, a former Routt County treasurer, announced intentions to challenge incumbent Dave Williams for the role, and today the Colorado GOP’s director of special initiatives, Darcy Schoening, announced her candidacy.
“For far too long, Colorado Republicans have suffered loss after loss — whether through the ballot box, or the loss of our values and freedoms,” said Schoening in a news release. “I joined the Colorado GOP more than a year ago as the Director of Special Initiatives, a role created to help protect Colorado families from the ongoing destruction caused by the increasingly leftist lurch of the Colorado legislature and their leader, Governor Polis. In that time, this position has been built from the ground up through hard work and dedication with one, central goal in mind: fight for Colorado by way of local policy, outreach, and initiatives important to Republicans and Colorado families. In the time I’ve served in this role, together with the push for expanded local autonomy and parental advocacy that I have spearheaded, I’ve played an important role in advancing conservative values throughout our great state. And in these travels, the need to find those willing to roll up their sleeves, bring people together, and fight for Colorado has never been more apparent. I proudly stand in that gap; in fact, I live there — and I love it.”
Schoening co-founded the El Paso County chapter of Moms for Liberty, ran unsuccessfully for the Republican nomination for House District 20, and served briefly as a Monument town trustee. Schoening’s political career has been marked by her animosity towards transgender people, who she often describes as having a sexual fetish. As director of special initiatives, Schoening authored a number of controversial emails attacking LGBTQ candidates in the 2024 election.
Schoening supported Williams during the leadership challenge from Eli Bremer and Todd Watkins last year over the Colorado GOP’s endorsement of primary candidates, including Williams. While the majority of the candidates endorsed by the Colorado GOP in 2024 lost their primaries, the party still took credit for Republican victories.
“We did all that,” said Horn, who supported the attempted ouster of Williams last year, during a Jan. 7 appearance on the Jeff and Bill show. “The grassroots people — in spite of them — when they were doing pre-primary, what was it, 15 of 16 [GOP-endorsed candidates] didn’t even make it. The only one that made it that I understand is Lauren Boebert, who was already a congresswoman, just going to a different district. We did it in spite of that. What I saw, hand over fist, time after time, were all the volunteers that were willing to get the work done outside of the party. So, of course, they’re going to take our wins, but they were definitely ours. And the people who did the work know who did the work.”
In addition to her time as Routt County treasurer, Horn serves as a Lincoln Club of Colorado director, chairs Maggie’s List in Colorado, a political action committee founded to support conservative women in politics, and is a 2014 Leadership Program of the Rockies graduate.
U.S. Rep. Gabe Evans (R-CO), has been vocal in his criticism for Williams. “I’ve already called for him to resign,” he said during a Dec. 31 appearance on Jeff and Bill. “I try not to get too much into the Republican Party infighting, but, I mean, he didn’t do anything to help me get elected.”
Horn hopes to stop the extreme rightward shift in the party from Williams and Schoening and their supporters. “We’re hearing from everybody that is so disenfranchised because they have figured out this way, this other side, this last two years of just minimizing and reducing our numbers because we have to go through some kind of purity test, to pass their test and all the issues that have been going on for the last two years. We’ve gotten no accountability for it, no transparency for it. It’s time for something new. It’s time for a bit of hope.”
Horn also advocated for more inclusive GOP. “If we’re going to do traditional values, we’re certainly not going to go down the religion path because this organization isn’t about religion,” she said. “That isn’t one of the purity tests. I’m going to keep saying that we have to be able to be broad strokes and have different people in different areas for our greater Colorado, for the greater good.”
Schoening plans to ramp up the culture war. “Colorado Republicans can rest assured the principles and values they hold so dearly will always have a committed fighter to back them up, day in and day out,” she said. “And Colorado Democrats are now on notice – as Chair, I promise you will continually be challenged with your desires to tear down traditional families, harm our children and further erode our freedoms.”
Williams has not stated whether he will seek another term, and did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment. In addition to Horn and Schoening, social media posts in conservative Facebooks have speculated that Colorado GOP Vice Chair Hope Scheppelman might be considering throwing her name into the ring, but she also did not respond to an emailed request for comment.
