(Editor’s note: All candidates for Colorado Republican Party State Chair have been invited to submit columns making their case for the position leading up to the March 27 election. Candidate Jonathan Lockwood’s is available here. Candidate Kristi Burton Brown’s is here.)
Success will not be handed to Republicans. Doing the same thing over and over won’t make what’s happening go away. To win again, the Colorado Republican Party requires a new direction. It needs to be fearless. Unapologetic. Effective.
Today, Republicans face a combination of left-wing political, media, and big tech organizations that censure, hinder, and mock Republicans at every turn. To win elections again requires more hard work than ever before. But I am confident Republicans can win again – we have common-sense, conservative solutions for Colorado. And we can show that Democrat policies have increased joblessness, hurt education, and increased crime.
Republicans can and will put Colorado back on the path to freedom and prosperity. For Republicans to succeed, there are three things we must do:
First, the state party must help our candidates win. Not just with words, but with actions. Our candidates and our county parties look for help, but their phone calls often go unanswered. Republican candidates need support but find little in the way of training, volunteers, and money. Candidates and county parties often beg for better access to voter data.
Under my leadership, the party will flawlessly execute on the basics.
Second, the Party must hold Democrats accountable for their bad policies and bad behavior. Year after year our candidates get crushed by the left-wing media machine, with no effective response. Democratic statewide officeholders go unchallenged by a fawning media, a servile academy, and Republican-hating Big Tech. It is the Republican Party that must step up, break through and get the truth out. Our Party’s timidity in the past has brought us to this present moment.
Third, we must grow our Party by welcoming independents and conservative-leaning voters everywhere into our big tent. Over the last four years, Republican voter registration has dropped by 100,000 voters, or nearly ten percent of Republican voting strength. In short, Republicans trail Democrats by significant margins, and in many districts the Republican Party is slowly, inexorably, slipping into irrelevance. President Trump showed that blue collar and minority voters belong in the Republican big tent. The Colorado Republican Party needs to actively invite and welcome more people to our coalition, in order to ensure the party’s long-term success.
Finally, there is the issue of election integrity. Unfortunately, after this last election many Democrats and media outlets swept real problems under the rug. And we know in Colorado that the Democrat Secretary of State invited dead people and noncitizens to register to vote. These problems, too, have been downplayed. It is the Republican Party that stands for free and fair elections, and under my leadership we will be the ones who demand transparent, verifiable, and fair elections.
As the next Party chair, I pledge to work tirelessly remake the Republican Party into a strong, conservative organization that will provide county parties and Republican candidates the means to win, and put all Coloradans back on the path to prosperity.
Former Secretary of State Scott Gessler is a candidate for Colorado Republic Party State Chair.
