Victor Marx, a first-time candidate and nonprofit leader with a controversial personal history that’s drawn intense scrutiny, has edged out his more establishment opponent and will be Colorado Republicans’ gubernatorial nominee in November.
The Associated Press called the race for Marx late Thursday afternoon, nearly nine days after polls closed. He led the runner-up, state Sen. Barb Kirkmeyer, 39.9% to 39.4%, with 99% of ballots counted, .
Marx had taken his first narrow lead over Kirkmeyer the day after the June 30 primary, and though the race remained close, he never lost the advantage. While outstanding deficient and overseas ballots helped delay a final call on the race, those votes only served to expand Marx’s margin. He led by 2,156 votes Thursday afternoon, with nearly 522,000 ballots cast.
State Rep. Scott Bottoms was a distant third, with 20.8% of the vote.
A veteran lawmaker and former Weld County commissioner, Kirkmeyer had jumped to an early advantage on the strength of early ballot returns. But as votes returned on Election Day began to filter in, her lead thinned and collapsed. Within 48 hours of polls closing, and with few ballots left to count in Kirkmeyer’s Front Range strongholds, her path to retake the lead had all but vanished.
Marx will next face Democratic Attorney General Phil Weiser in November. No Republican has been elected to the governor’s office in more than 20 years, and four months out, Weiser appears to be heavily favored to continue Democrats’ electoral dominance.
The Marx campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In an email to supporters after the race was called, Marx said he was humbled to be the nominee and that the victory was “the starting line.”
“My team and I have put together this special message that I want every Coloradan to hear — Republicans, independents, unaffiliated voters, and Democrats who are open to a better way,” he said. “Because what we’re building now is bigger than a primary victory. We’re going to make Colorado work again — for every family in this state.”
The primary win is a remarkable result for the embattled Colorado GOP and for Marx, a former Marine, martial arts instructor and nonprofit leader whose extensive and much-scrutinized personal history had drawn national headlines. It’s also attracted sharp criticism from other Republicans, including Kirkmeyer and Bottoms.
Marx had entered the fray last fall with no political profile and no experience as a political candidate. But by the time voters began receiving ballots last month, he’d ridden an atypical — if thoroughly modern — campaign to fundraising dominance and front-runner status.
Kirkmeyer’s support largely flowed from northern Front Range counties, nudging her ahead initially. But Marx picked up bigger margins among Election Day voters — meaning those more conservative voters skeptical of mail-in balloting.
The Kirkmeyer campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday afternoon.
He also won ruby-red El Paso County while racking up smaller wins in rural counties and grabbing enough in the Front Range to edge Kirkmeyer.
In a pitch reminiscent of President Donald Trump, the arch-dealmaker, Marx has cast himself as a solutions-focused negotiator disinterested in partisan squabbles. In 2003, he founded All Things Possible Ministries, a Christian nonprofit that has provided stuffed animals and trauma support to people. It has also done work in conflict areas in Syria and Iraq, where Marx primarily worked away from the front lines as a funder and facilitator.
By 2024, the nonprofit’s annual revenue had surpassed $7.5 million, and Marx has said the group — from which he has resigned — now primarily works to help law enforcement.
Despite his outsider status, Marx was considered the likely winner in the weeks before Election Day. His narrow victory, then, came as something of a surprise, and, on election night, he speculated that Bottoms — a conservative pastor from Colorado Springs — had pulled votes from him. In El Paso County, Bottoms earned more than 20,000 votes, or 24% of the county’s Republican total.
Though Marx out-raised and out-spent both Kirkmeyer and Bottoms, it was Kirkmeyer who had been perceived as the expected nominee when she entered the race last year. Marx had never run for office before, and the stories he’s told about his life — that he’d killed a man at age 7, had been involved in “high-risk humanitarian” operations across the globe and could free people from demonic possession — drew intense scrutiny and national punchlines.
But he repeatedly shrugged off questions about his background and said he stood by all that he had said and written.
Through his personality-heavy, direct-to-voter campaign, he encouraged Colorado Republicans to shrug it off, too. He spent heavily on direct mailers, which provided a boost to both his fundraising and name recognition.
Marx eschewed policy discussions and skipped nearly every debate. When he did participate in one, he spent part of the event leaning on the lectern, with his dog at his feet. Rather than deliver a closing statement, he prayed.
Though he leaned into his outsider status, the aw-shucks appeal belied a careful campaign shaped by Marx’s emergence from a political environment forged by Trump: He skipped one debate after a moderator pressed him about his background, and he held a rally instead; his campaign later highlighted how many more people attended the rally than the debate.
His media operation was led by a former Turning Points USA staffer, and his campaign touted its social media posts’ views at Marx’s watch party last week. He was comfortable as a podcast guest, regularly released videos of himself and repeatedly assured voters that he was no politician.
Though Marx had little backing — or trust — from institutional Republican forces, the PAC that supported his campaign was established by a former senior official from Gov. Bill Owens’ administration. Marx also was endorsed by U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert, the most nationally visible Colorado Republican.
His approach proved to be enough for Colorado Republicans to back him. But his next task will be far harder.
In November, he will face a surging Weiser, who last week dismantled U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet on his way to the Democratic nomination. Weiser proved an adept fundraiser and campaigner with statewide appeal, and he will look to lead a restless Democratic base that elected progressive candidates up and down the ballot.
In a statement Thursday, Weiser said Marx’s “views and style are far out of step with Coloradans, and his nomination for governor is a threat to our state’s values and our future.”
Republicans’ last statewide win was in a University of Colorado at-large regent’s race in 2016. The state GOP has had four elected party chairs since the last Republican gubernatorial bid in 2022, which ended with a culture war-focused Heidi Ganahl — who had won that at-large regent seat — losing by nearly 20 percentage points to Gov. Jared Polis.
Simultaneously, Marx may also have to contend with an independent candidacy from Greg Lopez, a former Republican congressman and gubernatorial candidate who is gathering signatures.
