Colorado GOP chooses Holocaust denier Dave Williams as party leader
“Our party doesn’t have a branding issue,” Williams told about 400 activists and GOP leaders in a conference room at the Loveland, Colorado hotel. “Our party has a problem with irresponsible leaders who are ashamed of you.”
Williams served three terms in the Colorado House of Representatives from 2017 until last January, representing a district in Colorado Springs. In June, he lost to Rep. Doug Lamborn (R) in the primary race for Colorado’s 5th congressional district.
Since the defeat of former President Donald Trump in the 2020 election, Williams has questioned the results. After an audit showed there were no problems with Colorado’s voting system, Williams was part of a group of state Republicans in December 2020 to demand an independent investigation into Dominion Voting Systems. (There is no evidence that any voting systems were compromised.) In January 2022, Williams repeated false claims on a Colorado radio station that President Biden was not legitimately elected.
Last year, Williams sued the Colorado secretary of state after she barred him from appearing as “Dave ‘Let’s Go Brandon ‘Williams” in a state primary ballot. A Denver district judge ruled against Williams, who still includes the nickname on social media.
In December, Kristi Burton Brown chose not to serve a second term as Colorado GOP president. The party has continued to struggle during its tenure and has lost voters since the 2016 election, according to the Colorado Sun.
During his nearly four-minute nomination speech on Saturday, Williams said he would be a “conservative champ” for Republicans in Colorado. He also advocated preventing unaffiliated voters from submitting ballots in the Republican primary.
After his speech, attendees chanted “Dave!” When those cheers died down, someone in the crowd shouted “Let’s go, Brandon!” This prompted Williams to smile and repeat the phrase while clenching his fist.
Williams then secured the nomination, receiving about 55% of 375 votes — meeting the 50% requirement — after former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters endorsed it. Peters, who has embraced voter fraud conspiracy theories, is awaiting trial on multiple felony charges after she was accused of illegally accessing voting machines in her county, and she was found guilty of obstruction of justice this month in a separate incident.
While many promoters of bogus voter fraud allegations lost in state elections last year, Republicans in Idaho, Kansas and Michigan recently overtook Colorado in selecting deniers as leaders.
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