Nancy Rumfelt got her start in Colorado politics back in 2021 as a right-wing school board candidate in Colorado’s Thompson School District – one of many conservatives across the country opposing COVID-19 mitigation policies and LGBTQ-inclusive curricula in public schools. Now, Rumfelt and numerous other Republicans are leveraging their histories of anti-LGBTQ activism as they vie to win seats in Colorado’s legislature.
During a June 10 interview on Ryan Schuiling Live, a conservative talk radio show, Rumfelt said that pro-LGBTQ policies passed by Colorado Democrats were part of the reason she decided to run for higher office.
“It goes back to many of the regulations and laws coming out of the state capitol, things where you must use the pronoun, you don’t have to tell the parents what’s going on with their child. And just this movement towards this refusal to recognize parents,” Rumfelt said on air. “Parents are responsible for everything about their child, and it’s being forced into the school districts, where in my opinion, it’s pitting teachers, school administration against the parents, because the state is inserting itself and saying, ‘no, school districts, you are going to override the parents.’ And I think that impacts. The ability of parents to really be involved in the education, and to even question what is being taught in the schools.”
“There’s so many times that we have curriculum,” Rumfelt continued, “But it’s really difficult to really understand what is in that curriculum and what’s being taught. And as soon as you start questioning it, Ryan, immediately, you know, the teachers union and others start throwing names at you, you’re a Christian nationalist.”
During her tenure on Thompson’s school board, Rumfelt frequently stirred up controversy with remarks her colleagues have said show a history of bias against transgender students, including wearing a shirt with the words “Real Women Rock” to protest the inclusion of transgender athletes in women’s sports. In one post to X (formerly Twitter), Rumfelt claimed that children were being indoctrinated by a “horrific gender cult.”
During her bid for reelection in 2023, Rumfelt’s activism earned her an endorsement from Truth & Liberty, the far-right Christian nationalist ministry run by Colorado televangelist Andrew Wommack.
Now, Rumfelt has earned endorsements from other prominent anti-LGBTQ activist groups. One of them is Colorado Parent Advocacy Network, a conservative school activist group which recently helped instigate a federal investigation into Cherry Creek Schools over alleged anti-white discrimination.
Erin Lee, the leader of conservative Christian group Protect Kids Colorado, which successfully gathered signatures to put anti-trans initiatives on Colorado’s ballot this year, recently announced in a Facebook post that she was supporting Rumfelt, among other candidates.
“I’m very excited about CPAN endorsing me,” Rumfelt said on air. “I’ve worked closely with them as well as with Protect Kids Colorado. And I think that’s one of the reasons why I’m running is I realize as a school board member that the only way to really try to affect change for public education is it needs to be stopped at the state Capitol where so many of these crazy laws are coming from.”
HD51 is currently represented by state Rep. Ron Weinberg (R-Loveland), who is not running for reelection following allegations of harassment and sexual misconduct by multiple Republican women including Rumfelt. The bipartisan House ethics committee formally admonished Weinberg for his behavior in March. Next week, GOP voters in this district will decide whether Rumfelt or Amy Parks should face former Loveland Mayor Jacki Marsh. Parks is a political strategist and the former partner of longtime GOP leader Hugh McKean, who held the seat until his death in 2022.
Rumfelt says she’s betting her name ID from having won two school board elections in the district will help her win the primary.
“House District 51 is encompassed completely by the Thompson School District. So I’ve already won two elections here. And so that’s why I also know that I know I will win in November,” Rumfelt said. “My opponent has not run for election for anything and won. And so I think that’s a very important distinction. Especially right now, and we need to maintain this seat being red.”
While Parks has not won a true election, after McKean’s death, she was picked by a vacancy committee to serve out the rest of his term.
Rumfelt also has to contend with Parks’s establishment connections; campaign finance records show Parks has raised more than three times as much money as Rumfelt.
Top Circulator for Anti-Trans Petitions Runs in CO Springs
Multiple other Republican candidates in Colorado legislative districts this year are hinging their campaigns on anti-LGBTQ activism, with many specifically connected to Protect Kids Colorado.
As Protect Kids Colorado gathered signatures for its ballot measures earlier this year, the group’s internal documents listed Adriana Cuva, a candidate for House District 18, as among the top 10 most successful volunteer petition circulators.
“I know my area is very fiscally conservative. They like limited government. They also like the freedom to thrive. And most of them that I walked and had them sign the Protect Kids Colorado petitions, which I was the co-captain for all of El Paso in the southern region, were very grateful for that. So those are the issues that I will focus on in my district, the things that matter,” Cuva said at an El Paso County candidate forum at Church for All Nations in April.
Cuva previously ran for Colorado Senate District 12, but lost in the primary to Stan VanderWerf. This time, Cuva has no primary opponent, meaning she will go on to face incumbent state Rep. Amy Paschal (D-CO Springs) in November. Paschal won the district by over 3,000 votes in 2024.
Candidates Endorsed by Anti-Trans Initiatives’ Leader Take Aim at Establishment
Other Republican candidates with contested primary elections have, like Rumfelt, have been unofficially endorsed by Protect Kids Colorado Executive Director Erin Lee. In each of these races, Lee has weighed in to support hardline conservative candidates fighting establishment counterparts supported by the Colorado Conservative Leadership Fund, a corporate-funded PAC.
“So many candidates *USE* the things I have sacrificed my life to fight for as campaign talking points but have never showed up,” Lee wrote on Facebook. “Politics are gross. The establishment is gross. It felt important for me to highlight some fighters who’ve walked the walk.”
Among them is Bob Davis, who volunteered last-second to run against 4-year incumbent Republican Anthony Hartsook in House District 44. Davis says that he decided to run because Hartsook’s votes were not in line with those of ultra-conservative legislators like Scott Bottoms and Brandi Bradley.
“My understanding was people want a new choice because the voting record was really not on the conservative side, and I have details, but in general, it lines up like this. There’s more than enough times where I look at legislation and I kind of scratch my head and wonder, well, why was it voted that way [by Hartsook]? I don’t know. Let’s go look at all the conservatives,” Davis said in a recent interview on KNUS Radio’s The Jeff & Bill Show. “Let’s look at Brandi Bradley and Scott Bottoms, and just the vast majority of the conservative side of the Republican Party, and I see they’re all in one column of votes and then here [Hartsook] is on the other. And that has happened quite a few times in areas of parental rights, Second Amendment rights, privacy issues, growing government, adding some medical bills that just keep increasing medical costs. And that’s the number one driver of our budget problem, so I can understand why folks have decided we would like an alternative.”
On his campaign website, Davis writes that he “supports Protect Kids Colorado & the three Ballot Initiative Questions voters will find on their ballots in November.”
Davis likely faces steep odds in the primary, with his late entry giving him little time to gain momentum over Hartsook.
Lee also endorsed incumbent state Sen. Lynda Zamora Wilson (R-CO Springs), who is fending off a primary challenge from Terri Carver, a former Republican state representative. Interestingly, in Carver’s response to Ballotpedia’s candidate questionnaire, she cites her work circulating petitions for Protect Kids Colorado in both 2024 and 2026 as a qualification for her candidacy.
Lee’s attack on “the establishment” is echoed by at least two decidedly non-establishment legislators, both of whom support the PKC ballot initiatives. Earlier this month, both Reps. Bradley and Ken DeGraaf (R-CO Springs) posted on X about a caucus meeting at which longtime GOP consultant Tyler Sandberg supposedly warned House Republicans to avoid talking about “parental rights or anything to do with pro-life,” in order to have their campaigns backed by the GOP dark money groups.
In addition to being supported by spending from the Colorado Conservative Leadership Fund, Carver is also endorsed by Wilson’s predecessor Paul Lundeen, who now works as an Energy Fellow for the Common Sense Institute. Additionally, Carver has been endorsed by the state Chamber of Commerce, the Gazette editorial board, and several Colorado Springs elected officials.
Jason Bias, running for HD54 against Nina Anderson, was not on the initial list of candidates endorsed by Lee. But she said in a Facebook exchange with him that “When the establishment is spending money to fight you, we KNOW you’re the right choice!”
Lee has also endorsed state Rep. Scott Bottoms (R-CO Springs), who is leaving his seat to run for governor.
Colorado’s primary election is on Tuesday, June 30.
Gay Republican Activist Says PKC Leader Went Too Far Right
Rich Guggenheim of the anti-LGBTQ group Gays Against Groomers, running as a Republican for SD25, was actually a founding member of PKC when it launched in 2024. But he’s since disaffiliated with the group.
After saying that he and Lee “don’t talk to each other anymore,” Guggenheim said in an interview with radio host Ryan Schuiling that “I, from the very beginning, have told her, you need to reach out to the Democrats and you need reach out across the aisle and reach out to the unaffiliateds. And instead, what happened? She aligned with Scott Bottoms. She aligned with Brandi Bradley, she aligned with Victor Marx, she aligned with Brave Church. And I love Scott Bottoms and I love Ken DeGraaf, you know, I think there’s those three legislators in the Capitol that, they banged the drum the loudest about gender ideology. But this isn’t, this is how I see the fight going down now. This is going to be portrayed as a radical, right wing conservative Christian and this is going to be something where these ideas are now the underdog because of the way alliances were formed.”
Last year, Guggenheim announced a run for Colorado’s 6th Congressional District, but terminated his campaign after less than a week, writing on Facebook that battling with pro-LGBTQ activists “could not prepare me for the way I was treated by county and state leadership within the Colorado GOP.”
“I might not be the model Republican for the evangelical Christians, and that’s fine. I don’t care what you believe. I tell Christians the same thing that I tell trans people and vegans. You have every right to believe whatever it is you want to believe, but you don’t have the right to impose those beliefs on others and so believe it. Live your life, be happy,” Guggenheim said on air. “But if you’re gonna sit there and you’re going to tear down other Republicans that don’t align with you, even though they’re still Republicans and they’re 60%, 75%, 80%, even 90% on the same page as you, this is why we see Democrat seats going unopposed. This is why people don’t want to run. This is why people don’t want to donate to the campaigns. This is why people don’t want to volunteer for a campaign.”
Guggenheim, who has no primary opponent, is challenging incumbent state Sen. William Lindstedt (D-Broomfield). The seat leans heavily Democratic, with the last Republican who ran for SD25 in 2022 losing by over 20,000 votes.
Sean Beedle contributed to this reporting.
