Following an inquiry by the Colorado Times Recorder, a spokesperson for Douglas County Clerk Sheri Davis said she is no longer scheduled to appear alongside two election deniers at a private meeting of the Parker Conservatives next week. Her office did not respond to CTR’s inquiries as to who invited her to speak, and whether she had any concerns about agreeing to appear with Cook and Smith.
Mark Hampton, a leader of the Parker group, had announced on April 20 that its May 7 meeting would feature Shawn Smith, Mark Cook, and Davis.
Smith, one of Colorado’s most aggressive election deniers, fought with US Capitol police on Jan.6 and has called for the hanging of Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold. He currently works with MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell’s conspiracy group, Cause of America.
Cook is an election denier who, along with Smith, coached former Elbert County Clerk Dallas Schroeder on how to break into his county’s ballot scanner to scan its hard drive. He now travels the country in an RV spreading conspiracy theories about election hacking, which he calls the “Hand Count Road Show.”
According to the Parker Conservatives, Cook, Smith, and Davis were going to discuss elections at the group’s May meeting, which was described as a “private event exclusively reserved for members, affiliates, and guests of the conservative community. We maintain a closed-door policy to ensure a focused and confidential environment for our discussions. Media representatives are expressly not invited to these gatherings.”
Ever since the 2020 election results confirmed Biden’s win over Trump, Colorado has been a hotbed for election denialism. Election fraud conspiracy activists organized widely and effectively, so much so that Shawn Smith and other leaders of one local group, U.S. Election Integrity Plan, were hired by MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell to promote their conspiracies nationwide.
Another conspiracist, Joe Oltmann, is largely responsible for the Dominion Voting machine election rigging conspiracy, which resulted in Fox News paying nearly $800 million to Dominion rather than face its defamation claims in open court.
All of them have been vocal supporters of Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters, who is currently serving a nine-year prison sentence for her role in leaking secure election data to election conspiracist websites. Davis’s now-canceled appearance alongside Smith and Cook was surprising given that she campaigned by contrasting herself against Peters as an experienced moderate bureaucrat.
Hampton, who runs Parker Conservatives, is also an outspoken supporter of Peters. In a post to the group last year, he took issue with an open letter penned by numerous Republican county clerks condemning Colorado GOP leaders for their support of Peters. Among the signatories of the letter was Davis.
Hampton did not respond to multiple requests for comment. This article will be updated with any response received.
Reached via phone, Cook sounded unaware of the upcoming meeting, but upon hearing the event announcement, simply said, “oh, ok.” He declined to answer any questions about what he would discuss or advocate for until this reporter watched a three-hour presentation he gave to conservatives in Arapahoe County earlier this year.
After watching it, this reporter submitted several follow-up questions to Cook via email asking for proof or clarification of his various claims. In the presentation, he alleges a massive conspiracy involving the “mainstream media,” the FBI, CIA, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, and the Department of Homeland Security, all working together to rig elections for the benefit of an unnamed “election cabal.” In addition to asking for additional information on the alleged conspiracy, the Colorado Times Recorder also asked for proof of his claim that postal workers sell undeliverable mail-in ballots to fraudsters, potentially for $100 each. Cook did not respond to any of the questions sent to him, but offered to schedule a meeting to go over the material ten days from now. This article will be updated with any other response received.
The Parker Conservatives’ May 7 meeting will take place at Deep Space Lounge in Parker, at 6 p.m., but it’s only for “members, affiliates, and guests of the conservative community.”
