COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado – At a recent primary debate, congressional candidate Dave Williams took the microphone and launched into the same MAGA arguments that propelled him from former state representative to chairman of the Colorado Republican Party.
“Right now we have a battle for the soul of our party,” Williams said.
Williams’ zeal and deployment of former President Donald Trump’s combative political style as state party chairman divided the Colorado Republican Party, mirroring the Trump-shaped divide in the national Republican Party.
But Williams’ recent brazen maneuvers, including using his position as president to try to get into Congress, have inflamed tensions. Some Republican officials in Colorado agreed, others demanded Williams’ resignation.
Despite everything, Williams caught Trump’s attention, a fact he didn’t let the crowd forget in the debate against his Republican rival for a Colorado House seat, Jeff Crank.
“I’m Dave Williams. I’m chairman of the Colorado Republican Party. And I’m also the Trump-endorsed candidate,” he said in his opening remarks at Thursday’s debate, later praising Trump’s cell phone number saved in his own phone .
Crank tried to ensure that the public did not forget the firestorm surrounding Williams, noting Williams’ refusal to step down as party chairman after entering the primary race, allegedly using the state party’s email list to advertise his campaign for Congress and spending party money to buy mailers that included an attack on Crank.
“My opponent spent a lot of time fighting other Republicans than he did Democrats,” Crank said. “Where is all the money to fight the Democrats? It goes to him, it goes to his pocket and it goes to his campaign.”
Williams’ maneuvers flouted state party norms in the US
“He is cannibalizing the Republican Party so he can go to Congress,” said Kelly Maher, a veteran GOP operative who filed a complaint against Williams with the Federal Election Commission.
A statement from Williams’ campaign did not respond to the accusations in the complaint, instead hurling invectives at Crank and calling the complaint an attempt to “generate fake news.”
William’s rise and campaign reflect the national divide within the Republican Party between a more combative MAGA flank, which includes Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, and more pragmatic Republicans, some of whom, like Rep. Ken Buck of Colorado, have fled the Congress when citing the new division in his party.
Whoever wins the June 25 GOP primary for the reliably Republican seat being vacated by the retirement of Rep. Doug Lamborn will likely win the general election. Williams unsuccessfully challenged Lamborn in the 2022 primary when a judge banned him from listing his name on the ballot as Dave “Let’s Go Brandon” Williams.
“The Colorado Republican Party, in my opinion, certainly under Williams’ leadership, was forced to ask questions that it had never dealt with before,” said state Rep. Matt Soper, a Republican who worked with Williams in the State House. “What kind of Republican Party do we want to be?”
Williams’ tenure left the Colorado Republican Party rife with infighting, much of it driven by his own attacks on fellow Republicans. While avoiding press interviews, Williams sent out short statements that amounted to diatribes against rival Republicans, Democrats or the media.
Some Republicans welcome the defense of the party’s conservative core against more moderate Republicans who they see as confusing the movement.
This agenda led Williams to reach beyond the traditional reach of a state party chairman. State parties, at least publicly, tend to stay out of primary elections, giving voters room to choose their candidates. Under Williams, the Colorado Republican Party supported Republican candidates in the primaries over others.
This included Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert, who faced her own accusations of opportunistic maneuvering after jumping precincts. Boebert comes close to Williams politically as an uncompromising, far-right member of Congress aligned with Gaetz.
In April, Williams expelled a journalist from an official Republican Party meeting, sparking national protests and disapproval from Colorado Republicans, including Boebert’s primary opponent, Deborah Flora. The state party later announced its endorsement of Boebert over Flora.
Seth Masket, a political scientist at the University of Denver, noted that although political parties are supposed to be neutral, in internal primaries they often informally support one candidate or another. Williams erased even the appearance of neutrality, he said.
“There are definitely lines being pushed,” Masket said. “Williams is doing this in a much more open and official way. There’s nothing subtle about it.”
Kolby Zipperer, president of the Young Republicans of El Paso County, participated in Thursday’s debate. When he entered the room, Zipperer, 35, was leaning toward Crank, worried in part about the accusations of lack of integrity against Williams.
“If I hear something like you are a king, or that you are breaking the rules to benefit yourself. If I heard the same thing about (Crank), I would have the same problem,” Zipperer said.
But at the end of the event, it was a coin toss for Zipperer, who appreciated Williams’ calmness and talking points. While Williams can mirror Trump’s fiery disposition in statements and social media posts, in front of an audience he is more level-headed, Zipperer said.
“If he’s lying, he’s fooling me,” he said, adding that he also really likes Crank. “It’s like trying to choose two stepparents.”
Former Colorado Republican Party Chairwoman Kristi Burton Brown doesn’t see the party’s divide as being between Trump and anti-Trump, saying she supports Trump not because of the former president’s political style, but primarily because of his appointments to the U.S. Supreme Court and politics during his time in office.
“You can embrace that without thinking, ‘Oh, that’s great. Now our entire party needs to adopt a combative, get-your-face-in-the-dirt style,’” Brown said. “Hate and division eventually blow up in their own faces.”
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Bedayn is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to cover undercovered issues.
