Colorado Democrats and pro-abortion advocates are raising concerns about Republican gubernatorial candidate Victor Marx.
“Victor Marx not only has the most extreme position on abortion of any Republican nominee for governor in at least a decade,” said Kate Sneed, executive director of the Colorado Democratic Party, during an Aug. 27 press conference. “He has a long history of hateful, divisive comments. He insults women, in particular, Black women, because they protect their reproductive freedoms. It shows how unfit Victor Marx is for Colorado’s top elected office.”
During a campaign event in Gunnison on Aug. 23, Marx equated abortion with another favorite topic of his — spiritual warfare. “This state is under such a spiritual warfare — it’s unbelievable,” he said. “You got people practicing openly occultic activities. This state, they kill babies. Wholesale slaughter. A girl teenager can drive in our state, get an abortion, you have to pay for it. She can drive back over that line and get to her parents and never know. Our state needs to repent. Amen.”
Marx has intensified his anti-abortion rhetoric since becoming the Republican nominee. Last year, during an appearance on the Dan Caplis show, Marx described himself as “pro-life” but acknowledged the limitations of anti-abortion activism in Colorado.
“I’m a child advocate, always have been,” said Marx in November 2025. “It’d be hypocritical for me not to protect children in the womb who are humans. So there’s only two choices — life or death — and I am for life.”
However, Marx also noted Colorado’s laws and constitutional amendments protecting abortion access throughout the duration of a pregnancy. “The people voted … I can’t go in and, you know, do the magical trick,” he said. “But what we can do is help women, help young women who would have an alternative. I worked with Dr. [James] Dobson when the ultrasound machines and that came out, babies started being saved. I think we can help young women and women in general. They don’t have to go all the way to killing a child. There are millions of people that would want to adopt a child right now.”
Marx’s statements then weren’t enough for dedicated anti-abortion activists in Colorado. Shari Bjorklund, co-founder of Mesa County Right to Life, called Marx out for what she saw as a “pro-choice” position on the issue. “Whenever a politician tells you that they’re pro-life and then uses phrases like ‘the people voted;’ ‘it’s in the constitution;’ ‘I’m personally pro-life;’ ‘I hear we need to change hearts and minds;’ that’s a classic deflection by a politician who is ultimately pro-abortion, or at best indifferent,” she said during a Dec. 1, 2025 appearance on Ryan Schuiling Live. “It’s a word-parsing that’s meant to reassure pro-life voters without committing to action. It is a pro-choice position. ‘I’m not gonna do anything about it.’”
Bjorklund’s question and Marx’s angry response were recorded in a video clip that circulated online in conservative social media groups.
Marx previously described abortion in the Black community as a “self-inflicted genocide” during a March 2023 podcast episode with John Amanchukwu, a pastor known for his anti-LGBTQ activism. “Why specifically, in the Black community, is the abortion rate so high?” said Marx. “It goes beyond, you know, a horrific form of birth control. There’s a much more diabolical — and I think [Margaret] Sanger, she was used of the wicked one. But here’s what I’m gonna say: I think that the Black community — and we can say brown — but I’m saying the Black community, the culture, the people group, even the diversity within, was a threat to the devil. Because they bring to the table gifts, strengths, passion. Things that are specific to the Black community — I mean from the inventions, athletics, to courage, to all of it — education, the whole nine yards. I really believe Black community needs to wake up to the devil’s tactics to destroy them.”
Former Colorado Representative Leslie Herod responded to Marx’s claims in the podcast. “Victor Marx said, again, I quote, ‘It’s a strategic plan of the enemy to destroy through death, through this death culture,’” she said. “Let that sink in … this is from someone who wants to lead our state. We have unfortunately heard people spew hatred against abortion before, in fact, many times. But he has totally crossed a different line. Victor Marx not only hates abortion, not only despises women who seek abortions, he spreads hate against Black women in particular, and it’s beyond the pale. It is deeply wounding and we will not let him sweep this away. Let’s be clear. There are many things in this race that prove Victor Marx is unqualified for the governor’s office. But the fact that he would degenerate the Black community in outrageously bigoted terms makes it clear how reckless and unfit he is.”
Anti-abortion activists have long used rhetoric about Black abortion rates in their messaging. It was a central part of White Rose Resistance founder Seth Gruber’s 2025 film “The 1916 Project.” In 2022, Victoria Dadet, the former senior advocacy manager for New Era Colorado, a grassroots, nonpartisan organization that works to engage young people in politics, described how anti-abortion groups utilize specific communities in their rhetoric.
“One thing I’ve heard from a lot of anti-abortion folks, when they talk about Black people, specifically, they talk about how abortion is genocide,” Dadet told the Colorado Times Recorder. “Or when they talk about Jewish people, specifically, they’ll talk about how abortion is just like the Holocaust. They’ll also talk about how abortion is like slavery for Black people. They really utilize this white supremacist messaging to make it seem like marginalized communities are being hurt by having access to reproductive health care, but we know that that is simply not true. We know that people are better off when they are able to be trusted to make decisions about their own bodies, especially marginalized communities.”
Earlier this month, during an appearance on Fox 31, Marx and his running mate, George Markert, were asked about their stance towards Colorado’s abortion protections. Markert said he would “work with all the stakeholders, try to get it rescinded.”
Kiera Hatton Senna, Cobalt’s political director, referenced the interview during the press conference. “His hateful comments prove he isn’t just callous, he is absolutely unfit to be governor,” she said. “He is anti-freedom. Marx would use the power of government to force everyone to live according to his beliefs. To Victor Marx, our lives and our bodies do not belong to us. The dignity, autonomy, and humanity of people who have abortions simply do not matter to him. If elected, we know that Victor Marx would put his beliefs into action. Marx and his running mate would use the governor’s office to try to overturn the constitutional right to abortion that 62% of all Colorado voters approved, winning the majority in all eight congressional districts in this state. This isn’t speculation. They came right out and said it in a television interview. They would take our rights away.”
Though Marx won the Republican nomination for governor, narrowly defeating Sen. Barb Kirkmeyer (R-Weld County) in the primary, longtime Republican and former Congressman Greg Lopez is running as an independent. Lopez also opposes abortion. During a 2022 interview, when asked about abortions in the case of rape or incest, Lopez said he would counsel victims to carry their rapist’s pregnancy to term.
Marx and Lopez will face Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser (D) in the November general election.
