Colorado GOP starts battle against open primary

BY CAITLIN KIM COLORADO PUBLIC RADIO

e Colorado GOP is taking its rst step towards closing the Republican primary.

In a letter sent to the Federal Election Commission last week, the Colorado Republican State Central Committee and its new chairman Dave Williams asked for “an advisory opinion” on whether the party can “establish a legal fund to challenge the constitutionality” of Colorado’s open primary election law.

“ e Colorado Republican Committee wishes to explore a lawsuit against the State of Colorado, which would challenge the constitutionality of Proposition 108,” stated the letter, written on behalf of the party by attorneys with Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck. e legal fund would defray the costs of legal action.

In 2016, Colorado voters approved Proposition 108, which allowed una liated voters, now the state’s largest bloc, to vote in either the Republican or Democratic primary.

e law does have a provision allowing a party to opt out of the open primary system and instead pick its candidates through a caucus process, but 75 percent of the members of the state central committee must support the move.

An e ort two years ago to close the party’s 2022 primary failed to win enough support from the central committee.

In 2022, individual Republicans tried to challenge the constitutionality of the law, but the case was dismissed because the court said they did not have standing, only the party would.

According to the letter, the committee chairman, Williams, would establish the fund and appoint a governing board with “ nal author- stated the letter, written on behalf of the party by attorneys with Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck ity” over spending the money. “ e Fund plans to accept unlimited amounts from individuals, political committees, corporations, and labor organizations,” the letter states, and would only be used for the lawsuit. e move is not surprising. Williams talked about closing the GOP primary as he campaigned for the state party chair job.

“We must work to close the primaries so that only Republicans choose our Republican nominees,” he said. “We cannot a ord to let Democrats become una liated so that they then can meddle in our primaries, like they did with (Rep.) Lauren Boebert. We must defend and protect our caucus assembly.” is story is from CPR News, a nonpro t news source. Used by permission. For more, and to support Colorado Public Radio, visit cpr.org.

Williams was referring to a grassroots campaign where some Democrats dropped their party a liation to vote in the CO-3 Republican primary. It proved unsuccessful, as Boebert easily won the primary.