The battle for control of the Colorado Republican Party is coming at a measurable cost to its fundraising, both at the state and local level.
Newsletter
The Current COVID Spike: Questions & Answers — and What’s Expected in the Coming Months
Here are some answers to questions about COVID as cases appear to be spiking in Colorado.
DAVIS: When Evangelicals Supported Abortion
There has been nervousness and hand-wringing in Christian nationalist circles this week, since Republican Vice Presidential nominee J.D. Vance commented in an interview that Donald Trump, if returned to the presidency, would veto a national abortion ban, and Trump himself posted that his administration “would be great for women and their reproductive rights.” The comments followed the softening of anti-abortion language in the Republican Party’s official platform.
Denver Chamber Signs On to Conservative Groups’ Special Session Demands, Then Tries to Clarify
Colorado’s legislature reconvened this week for a special session called for a single purpose: removing Initiatives 50 & 108 from this November’s ballot. The measures, backed by anonymous right-wing donors, would slash taxes so drastically that a bipartisan coalition of dozens of statewide groups wrote a letter to Governor Jared Polis two weeks ago, pleading with him to call the Legislature back to deal with the “significant and very real threat to all communities.”
Erin Lee’s Transition From Concerned Mom to Anti-Trans Zealot
When I met Erin Lee and her husband in September 2022 at an event sponsored by the Independence Institute (which publishes a column of mine through Complete Colorado), the Lees generally were accepting of LGBTQ people. They believed that, in their specific case, an overzealous LGBTQ activist at school had convinced their daughter that she was transgender, when really she was just a confused and disaffected young girl. They didn’t think their case illustrated a general problem with LGBTQ people or with the LGBTQ movement.
El Paso County School District Limits Access to Books, Bans Pride Flags
By default, middle school students in El Paso County’s Academy District 20 schools can no longer access school library materials until a parent or guardian signs a form granting permission to use library resources through the district’s parent portal.
In Wake of CTR Report, Sheriff Backs out of Children’s Story Hour Reading of Conspiracist Posobiec Book
Following a Colorado Times Recorder story on Thursday, Eagle County Sheriff James van Beek canceled his children’s story time reading of a book by far-right extremist and “Pizzagate” conspiracy theorist Jack Posobiec, which had been set for Saturday at the Eagle Library.
Extremism Rewind
Here’s the first of a new regular feature. A weekly list of the top extremism stories from the Colorado Times Recorder and beyond. All of this week’s articles are from CTR, but in the future, we’ll include the work of other news outlets too.