Last Friday, Weld County GOP Chair Hunter Rivera was arrested during a child sexual predator sting operation. Many Republicans, including gubernatorial candidate Barb Kirkmeyer, for whom Rivera had worked as an aide, expressed shock and disgust and called for his immediate resignation.
The state Republican Party, however, expressed similar sentiments, but also revealed that there were concerns about Rivera’s behavior even before he was elected as the Weld Party chair in 2024. And yesterday, a Weld County GOP activist and ally of Acting Party Chair Eric Grossman put a disturbing point on that claim — alleging that “credible evidence” of Rivera sexually harassing an underage student existed years earlier, in 2020.
The Colorado Republican Party’s statement on Rivera indicates that GOP leaders had concerns about him, not only before he was charged criminally, but before he was elected Weld GOP Chair in 2024.
“It is also important to recognize that concerns surrounding Mr. Rivera’s leadership and conduct within party affairs did not begin with these allegations,” stated the Colorado Republican Party. “Questions and controversy surrounded the internal processes leading to his election as Weld County Chairman in 2024, with many Republicans expressing concerns at the time about transparency, procedure, and the direction of local party leadership. More recently, delegates at the 2026 Republican State Assembly overwhelmingly voted to censure Mr. Rivera and several others over actions viewed as contrary to the will and principles of the broader Republican grassroots. Following that censure, Interim chair Grossman removed Mr. Rivera from the State Republican Executive Committee. These facts matter because they demonstrate that concerns about judgment, leadership, and accountability had already been raised within party circles well before these criminal allegations became public.”
Acting Chair Grossman did not respond to a text message request for clarification as to the specific “concerns about judgement” that he or other party leaders had.
Weld party activist Cody LeBlanc, who was Grossman’s co-plaintiff on their lawsuit against former GOP Chair Brita Horn, shared some much more specific and disturbing details with podcasters Chuck Bonniwell & Julie Hayden yesterday.
“His senior year of high school, [Rivera] was 18 years old, running for mayor in Windsor to replace Kristie [Melendez, who was leaving to run for county commissioner]. At that point is when we found out that there were some skeletons in the closet,” said LeBlanc on the podcast. “I can’t go into too many of those details, just because they were never proven and it’s just hearsay at this point, but there was credible evidence at the time and the parent of another child that went to school with him had come forward and talked to other candidates for Windsor mayor. And these people were all aware of the history and what had happened. What was shared privately was that there was, for lack of better terms, at the very least, sexual harassment of a younger student his senior year while he was also running for mayor in Windsor. So while he may have only been 18 at the time, I’m not one to make excuses. Anybody who’s over the age of 18 going after a child, that’s problematic. So that was clear. And now we’ve seen this just continue.”
The Colorado Times Recorder also reached out to both LeBlanc and Melendez for comment, but they have yet to respond. This article will be updated with any response received.
State Director of the American Conservation Coalition
Rivera was a volunteer for the Colorado Republican Party and a paid employee of the American Conservation Coalition (ACC), working as its state director.
ACC describes itself as “founded by young conservatives” with a mission as “mobilizing young people” to “build the conservative environmental movement.” It’s a multi-million dollar operation with 501c3 and 501c4 nonprofit organizations and a political action committee. It also has close ties to Colorado; both of the state’s most recent Republican statewide office holders, Cory Gardner and Heidi Ganahl, serve on the group’s advisory committee and c4 board, respectively.
Rivera’s duties as state director, according to the Colorado state director job description included membership recruitment and branch development, event planning, as well as state-level lobbying and advocacy. The ACC “start a branch” page lists options for colleges and high schools. Following publication, an ACC spokesperson offered the following statement via email:
“ACC does not have high school chapters in the state of Colorado, nor is there a record of the individual in question recruiting on behalf of ACC at high schools in the state. We want to be as clear and transparent as possible during an open investigation.”
Multiple Roles Within the Colorado GOP
In addition to serving as the chair of the Weld County GOP, Rivera was National Committeeman for the Colorado Federation of Young Republicans.
He also worked with the Republican members of Colorado’s congressional delegation, accompanying them to events and co-authoring op-eds, such as this one with Gabe Evans, advocating for an “all of the above” approach to energy. Rivera also penned a column praising Evans’ energy policy, and recounting their tour of various production facilities. Evans was one of several GOP elected officials who endorsed Rivera in his campaign to be the Weld GOP chair. While others, including Kirkmeyer and Congresswoman Boebert, have since posted their own comments on Rivera’s arrest, Evans has yet to issue a statement, instead choosing to share the Weld GOP’s post on his own social media channels.
The ACC cut ties with Rivera after news of his arrest broke, issuing the following statement on its website:
“The American Conservation Coalition (ACC) has a zero-tolerance policy for misconduct of any kind. We are deeply disturbed by the allegations against Hunter Rivera. Mr. Rivera no longer works with ACC.The safety and well-being of our grassroots members, staff, and partners are of the utmost importance. We are praying for our members in Colorado and everyone impacted by this news.”
UPDATE: This article has been updated to include a statement from an ACC spokesperson clarifying that ACC has no high school chapters in Colorado nor has any records of Rivera recruiting at high schools.
