Conservative podcaster Joe Oltmann is dropping out of the Republican primary race for Governor in order to pursue a different challenge: leading the Colorado GOP as its next Chairman. He made the announcement today at the Road Church in Colorado Springs which is hosting the Republican Party’s Fifth Congressional District Assembly.
Oltmann told the delegates he is running because there are good candidates in the race, naming state legislators Scott Bottoms and Barb Kirkmeyer and also Teller County Sheriff Jason Mikesell, before acknowledging the presence of Victor Marx, without saying his name.
“I entered this race because there were some policy things that I thought we had to talk about,” said Oltmann. “And we’ve got some really good candidates in the race Scott Bottoms is in the race. Barb Kirkmeyer is in the race. Uh, Jason Mikesell is in the race. And then one to remain unnamed by me is in the race.”
Someone in the audience yells, “Victor Marx!”
“There you go,” replied Oltmann. “We have a broken GOP. Would you agree? Yes. So I’ll tell you what I’m going to do. I had a meeting with all the candidates. We leaked it out so it wasn’t some secret, but I’m going to withdraw from the governor’s race and I’m going to get in the race for the Colorado GOP chair.”
In a Facebook live video posted after the assembly ended, Oltmann said he has endorsed Scott Bottoms before further explaining his reasoning in shifting races. He said that while he is endorsing Bottoms he is “very confident” in Bottoms, Mikesell and Kirkmeyer. He said he has spent a lot of time with all three and describes the trio as “very capable candidates,” noting that if Kirkmeyer is the nominee, he will “support her fully.”
Oltmann is the fifth Republican to declare his intention to replace current Chair Brita Horn, who recently announced that she will step down after the party’s state assembly next week. Her resignation follows a contentious year of internal disputes and power struggles that saw two previous vice chairs quit in frustration. Other candidates for chair include former statehouse candidate Jason Lupo of Monument, former Dougco GOP officer Craig Steiner, Jennifer Qualteri of Denver, who ran against Congresswoman Diana DeGette in 2022, and Protect Kids Colorado board member Jeremy Goodall of Colorado Springs, who also ran for party chair last year.
Reached by phone, Lupo says he intends to step down from the race and is backing Oltmann. Steiner did not immediately respond to a voicemail request for comment. Attempts to reach Qualteri were unsuccessful.This article will be updated with any response received.
Via text, Goodall offered the following statement: “Having been involved in the Colorado GOP since 2006, I have seen and voted in many of these Chairman races. The leadership elections of the State GOP have never been coronations. I look forward to a vigorous and robust contest of ideals and visions for the future of the Colorado Republican Party.”
Oltmann, who previously called for Governor Polis and Secretary of State Jena Griswold to be hanged for treason, and now refers to Polis, Griswold and Attorney General Phil Weiser, all of whom are Jewish, as the “Synagogue of Satan.”
The pivot to aspiring party chair is also notable because Oltmann has for years claimed that there is no difference between Democratic and Republican leadership, referring to them collectively as “the uniparty,” which he believes is kept in power by the “deep state.”
Should the party’s leaders indeed choose Oltmann to take the reins, his election will mark a full return to the election fraud conspiracy theory that the MAGA base embraces but that other elements, namely establishment donors and some candidates, have attempted to avoid, if not refute.
Oltmann’s unsubstantiated claims about election-rigging have cost him dearly in the past. Last year a judge ordered him to pay over $90,000 in fines and legal costs stemming from a defamation lawsuit brought by former Dominion Voting Systems executive Eric Coomer. That amount was in addition to whatever his own legal expenses may be, and the suit itself remains ongoing.
While Oltmann has been involved with conservative media via his podcast, now called Untamed, formerly Conservative Daily, for years, he hadn’t worked closely with Republican politicians until late 2020, when his right-wing advocacy group FEC United, which had its own militia, began helping GOP legislative candidates with their campaigns.
Sean Beedle chronicled his and our extensive coverage of Oltmann here: Joe Oltmann’s Rise to Power in Colorado.
CORRECTION: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated that Oltmann was the first candidate to declare for the party chair. The article has been updated and CTR regrets the error.
