Blau’s long-shot bid began when he submitted 2,212 petition signatures to the Colorado Secretary of State’s Office on July 9 to run as an unaffiliated candidate. Election officials said Friday afternoon that 1,918 of those signatures were from valid registered voters in the district, above the 1,500-signature threshold to make the ballot.

Blau, who is Jewish, that he was “particularly concerned by what I view as Ms. Kiros’s anti-Semitic rhetoric and her refusal to meet with leaders of Denver’s Jewish community to address their concerns.”

Blau has since set his Facebook settings to private. In a statement Friday, he said he’d heard concerns from voters about a range of matters and about President Donald Trump’s actions.

“I want the people of Denver to know this: if elected, I will not hesitate to stand up to the Trump administration whose policies are harming the people of Colorado’s First Congressional District and undermining the values we share,” Blau said. “I will oppose efforts that threaten affordable healthcare, weaken our democratic institutions, erode individual rights, and make life harder for working families.”

Kiros, a democratic socialist who defeated 15-term U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette in a stunning upset in the June 30 Democratic primary, has been criticized for comments she made about 9/11, Israel’s legitimacy as a nation, and the deadly firebombing attack on Jews and others demonstrating in Boulder last year — an act she refused to call antisemitic.

Blau launched a hasty campaign for Congress early this month, giving him just days to turn in the requisite signatures by the secretary of state’s deadline. He beat the deadline by one hour.

In a statement Friday, Kiros said: “Denver voters will get a chance in November to choose who they want fighting for them in Congress. I’m fighting for working people, families, renters, tipped workers (and) folks drowning in medical debt who deserve a better future. I plan to make my case directly (to) the people of this district because that is what it means to live in a democracy.”

Also on the November ballot is Republican Christy Peterson, who has reported raising just over $2,000 for the race in recent filings, according to Federal Election Commission records.

Kiros likely holds an advantage in the race for the Denver-based congressional district because of its heavily Democratic lean. The seat hasn’t been occupied by anyone but a Democrat since Mike McKevitt, a Republican, represented it in the early 1970s.

And four months out from the November election, Laubacher, a Democrat, held an eye-popping cash advantage over Colorado’s most well-known member of Congress: $3.6 million to $247,000. That’s according to new federal campaign finance reports filed by their campaigns Wednesday night.

But all that money, which accounts for contributions to and expenditures from each’s campaign coffers as of June 30, may add up to a whole lot of nothing in a district as red as the 4th.

Political observers advise against reading too much into Boebert’s fundraising numbers, which are anemic compared to the state’s other Republican incumbents and to her past races. Two years ago at this time, when Boebert, now 39, was running in the 4th District for the first time, she in the bank after fending off several GOP primary challengers.

In 2022, when she was running for a second term in the more competitive 3rd Congressional District on the Western Slope — before she switched to the 4th — Boebert had in cash on hand entering July, according to Federal Election Commission filings.

Kyle Saunders, a political science professor at Colorado State University, pointed to the nonpartisan , which gives Republicans a massive 9-percentage-point advantage in the 4th District, which covers the state’s Eastern Plains and butts up against the Front Range, taking in Douglas County. Cook rates it solidly Republican this year.

“History shows money alone rarely overcomes a 9-point partisan lean in a midterm or general (election) without a perfect storm, like a national wave, a major scandal or a candidate collapse,” he said. “I’d rate the odds of a flip as quite low — Boebert starts as a strong favorite, barring major shifts.”

Political analyst Floyd Ciruli also cautioned that cash alone may not be able to overcome the reality of the district’s political makeup. Republicans have 100,000-plus more registered voters than Democrats.

“I’m not sure that money is the actual issue in this district,” Ciruli said.

But that doesn’t mean a change at the top can’t happen in Colorado’s sprawling eastern district —  because it has. Betsy Markey represented the district for a single term nearly 20 years ago — the only time a Democrat has won the seat in decades.

A ‘lack of enthusiasm’ for Boebert?

The that Laubacher, 57, has reeled in compared to Boebert’s this election cycle is a substantial spread.

Trying to divine why that fundraising discrepancy exists is tricky, Saunders said, though Laubacher’s haul has benefited from extensive online fundraising appeals asking for help taking on the conservative lightning rod. All that money will expand the opportunities to get her messages in front of voters, including through ads on TV and social media.

She ended up unopposed in the Democratic primary after Trisha Calvarese — who lost to Boebert by 11.6 percentage points in the 2024 race — dropped her repeat bid in late March. Boebert was unopposed in the June 30 primary.

“It may reflect some national GOP donor hesitation tied to her controversies, but in practice, it hasn’t hurt her electorally here,” Saunders said of Boebert, referring to unflattering headlines the congresswoman has generated over the years. “Lack of enthusiasm is possible among moderates, but the district’s partisan composition limits its impact.”

Boebert’s thinner campaign purse can also be explained in more innocuous ways, he said.

“Incumbents in safe seats often don’t need to max out (with each donor); they can rely on name recognition, partisan advantage in the electorate and party infrastructure,” Saunders said.

A spokesman for Boebert’s campaign didn’t respond Thursday to questions sent by The Denver Post.

In other federal races that could prove more competitive, this week’s FEC filings show differing relative money positions.

Fundraising in the El Paso County-based 5th Congressional District has favored Democrat Jessica Killin, who has collected nearly twice as much money as first-term Republican U.S. Rep. Jeff Crank in this cycle. The former U.S. Army captain, who won the Democratic primary, had as of June 30 compared to Crank’s . While the district has long been a Republican stronghold, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee added the 5th to its list of targeted seats in February.

In the 3rd District, Boebert’s successor, Republican U.S. Rep. Jeff Hurd, reported nearly $1.8 million in his account entering July compared to Democratic nominee Dwayne Romero’s $84,200 after Romero won a hard-fought primary.

In Colorado’s most competitive congressional district, U.S. Rep. Gabe Evans, a Republican, had more than six times the cash on hand as his Democratic opponent, Manny Rutinel, as of the end of June. Rutinel had to to spend through November in the race for the 8th Congressional District, which includes northern Denver suburbs and Greeley. But Rutinel had to fend off two Democratic opponents in a very expensive primary.

In Colorado’s U.S. Senate race, incumbent Democrat John Hickenlooper was crushing his Republican opponent, state Sen. Mark Baisley, in the fundraising game despite facing his own primary opponent. Colorado’s junior senator had in his bank account on June 30, compared to for Baisley, who was unopposed in the GOP primary.

In all, Hickenlooper has raised nearly $8.9 million in this election cycle to Baisley’s nearly $105,000. The Cook Political Report rates the Senate race as “solid Democrat.”

Laubacher’s strategy

In the 4th District, Taylor Gillespie, the campaign manager for Laubacher, said raising money was “only one part of building a winning campaign.”

Laubacher, she said, “has spent her entire career putting her life on the line for our country and is running to put a stop to the self-dealing in Washington by putting in place term limits and age limits, banning insider stock trading by politicians and putting a stop to reckless, out-of-control debt.”

Laubacher can pound themes on the campaign trail that are particularly salient to the largely agricultural district, Ciruli said, like high fuel and fertilizer prices in the midst of the U.S. war with Iran and added costs for farmers due to President Donald Trump’s tariffs.

“You have to convince the farmer in Sterling or in Fort Morgan that they’re not getting enough representation and they need to move to a Democrat,” he said.

Saunders said Laubacher would have to execute a “flawless ground game” and target unaffiliated and “soft GOP voters in suburban growth areas” (like Douglas County), “emphasizing her service, moderation and putting people over politics.”

Meanwhile, Trump’s unpopularity in the country on the November ballot. Boebert has created some distance between herself and the president in recent months, criticizing Trump for his veto of a water project that would benefit her district and calling on his administration to release files on sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

But Saunders said Boebert can stray only so far from the White House.

“In a safe district of any partisan flavor, loyalty signals often matter more than policy nuance,” he said. “So, her survival will likely rest on keeping the base fired up without alienating enough suburban and independent voters.”

Bird conceded to Rutinel before 7:45 p.m., about the same time that the Associated Press called the race for Rutinel. Rutinel was leading nearly 62% to 34% over Bird, who herself formerly served in the Colorado House, as of early Wednesday afternoon.

“Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much,” Rutinel, 31, said to an excited crowd of around 100 people gathered at Las Dos Americas Tortilleria in Commerce City. “Together we fought, and together we will flip this seat in November.”

He immediately targeted Evans, his opponent in November, in his speech to supporters, criticizing the Republican for backing Trump administration policies that resulted in cuts to social programs.

“In Congress, I will restore funding for Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act,” Rutinel said, before exchanging hugs with former U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar and former Denver Mayor Wellington Webb on a makeshift stage in the restaurant.

Evans sent out a press statement after Rutinel won, saying Democrats had chosen a “far-left, radical socialist, Mamdani-wanna-be extremist,” a reference to New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani.

Bird, 57, immediately threw her support to her Democratic opponent as she addressed supporters at the Legacy Ridge Grill in Westminster.

“This was never about any name on the ballot,” Bird told about 40 supporters Tuesday evening. “… We need more than anything to win this seat. Democrats must flip Congress.”

Evan Munsing, a Democratic candidate in the race who suspended his campaign in May, was garnering nearly 5% of the vote.

Colorado’s 8th District, a politically competitive swath of Weld, Adams and Larimer counties north of Denver, is listed by national election watchers, including the Cook Political Report, as among 18 congressional races in the country that .

Colorado election results for the 2026 primary

Rutinel had positioned himself to the left of Bird, a former colleague in the legislature, in an election cycle that has proven . It became an exceedingly expensive affair as outside groups poured in more than $5.3 million on behalf of Rutinel or against Bird, plus around $3 million to help Bird or hurt Rutinel, according to Federal Election Commission data posted as of Friday.

The campaigns themselves have pulled in a ton of cash. Rutinel had the lead in the money game, with $4.1 million raised as of June 10. Bird collected $2.2 million through then. Both continued reporting significant donations throughout the final month.

Evans, 39, who was unopposed in the GOP primary, has raised the most money in the field, with nearly $4.9 million collected in this election cycle as of June 10. The first-term congressman had nearly $3.5 million in cash on hand -- nearly three times what his two Democratic opponents had combined on that date -- giving him a warchest for the fall.

Taylor Martinez, a volunteer for the Rutinel campaign who lives in Adams County, said at the watch party Tuesday that he thought Rutinel would "blow (Evans) out of the water" in November.

At age 32, Martinez said it was time for someone of his generation to take a seat in Congress.

"We need fresh new faces in Congress," he said.

But a complicating factor may be that Evans, a freshman lawmaker, is still relatively new and youthful.

Rutinel had repeatedly accused Bird of having gone soft on President Trump's mass-deportation agenda when she was in the state House. Bird, meanwhile, had slammed Rutinel for voting for a state budget that included cuts to Medicaid when he was in the state House this spring.

The 8th Congressional District, when drawn by a redistricting commission at its inception a few years ago, is Colorado's most Latino district. Nearly 39% of its 722,000 or so residents identify that way, according to data from the 2021 Colorado redistricting effort. Both Evans and Rutinel are Latino.

So far, it's been a true swing district. Democrat Yadira Caraveo won it in a close race in 2022, and Evans defeated her in 2024 by just under 1 percentage point.

The state party has been engulfed in internal strife for years — facing issues that Horn cited in , released Thursday night. Since she took the reins of the party in March 2025, she said vitriol, hostility, threats of violence, blackmail and “continued efforts to divide our party further” have continued.

“Under the continued threat of further division, legal attacks and escalation within our party, it has become clear that those intent on prolonging this conflict will not stop,” Horn wrote. “We cannot allow this party to be weaponized against our efforts to elect more Republicans.”

Horn, a former Routt County treasurer, was elected to a two-year term. But she lost a pair of no-confidence votes in February and March, Colorado Republican Party Secretary Russ Andrews said.

Horn had succeeded former GOP Chair Dave Williams. Horn was part of an effort in 2024 to oust Williams, a divisive and hardline figure in Republican politics.

She hasn’t helped soothe divisions during her tenure and left the state party in financial straits, Andrews said. According to the most recent , the party is more than $236,000 in debt, with only $64,000 in cash on hand. Andrews accused Horn of spending frivolously with her personal lawyer, who was acting as an adviser.

Between Jan. 1, 2025, and Jan. 31 of this year, the party raised about $440,000 while spending $615,000, according to the Federal Election Commission.

, by comparison, reported raising just over $1.3 million while spending about $25,000 more. That party ended January with $191,000 in the bank and no debt.

“Brita was not capable of raising money, but she was very capable of spending it,” Andrews said in an interview. “As a result, we’re in a massive hole that the next chairman is going to have get us out of.”

He thanked Horn for her service, and for knowing when to hang up her hat. She will stay on through the April 11 state assembly, where many candidates in this year’s elections are seeking support to appear on the party’s June 30 primary ballot.

After Horn’s resignation becomes official on April 17, Andrews is poised to be the last member standing on the party’s central committee. Vice Chair Richard Holtorf, a former state representative, .

Andrews said he hoped to recruit from the party’s deep pool of candidates for governor to find someone interested in helping to unite the party — and capable of raising money.

He cast the turmoil as a challenge heading into an election year, but also as an opportunity to rebuild after years of strife. He hoped Horn’s resignation would give Republicans a chance to unite behind a single leader and put old fights behind them.

“Sometimes, if you have a house filled with rats and termites and mice, you have to burn it down and start anew. That’s not always a bad thing,” Andrews said. “We need to redo the party, and I think we can find the right people to do that.”

Colorado features one of the closest congressional races in the nation — the 8th Congressional District, which covers a stretch of suburbs and farmland north of Denver. Meanwhile, U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper has attracted a few intraparty challengers to his reelection bid, though he handily outraised them in the final quarter of 2025.

In Colorado’s ruby red 4th Congressional District, incumbent Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert trailed badly in the fundraising game in the last quarter of last year, though the Democrats trying to send her packing have a tough road ahead given the district’s political makeup.

Here’s a closer look at where donors are lining up in Colorado’s most competitive congressional contests, along with a glance at the U.S. Senate race. The three districts represented by Democratic incumbent Congress members , and are largely without political intrigue so far in this election cycle.

The latest numbers from the Federal Election Commission cover the period from Oct. 1 to Dec. 31, 2025.

Evans’ reelection race

The 8th Congressional District is the race the political chattering classes often point to as one that could decide the balance of power in the U.S. House, given its ultra-competitive nature. Cook Political Report , with Republican U.S. Rep. Gabe Evans hoping to retain power for a second term.

He beat former Rep. Yadira Caraveo , a Democrat, in 2024 by fewer than 3,000 votes.

Evans managed to outraise the competition in the fourth quarter of 2025, but not significantly. The former state lawmaker and police officer pulled down nearly $487,000 and now has around $2.55 million of cash on hand. His closest competitor, Democratic state Rep. Manny Rutinel, raised nearly $419,000 and has around $1.2 million in the bank.

Rutinel has actually outraised Evans for the entire election cycle — $2.5 million to $1.85 million, according to FEC data. He also spent the most in the field last quarter — $230,000.

Former Democratic state Rep. Shannon Bird, who resigned from the Colorado General Assembly in December to put full focus on the 8th District race, collected $375,000 from donors in the fourth quarter, adding to the nearly $1 million she had raised before Oct. 1.

Marine combat veteran and finance professional Evan Munsing pulled in $225,000 during the quarter. The Democrat has more than $213,000 in his war chest.

Boebert outraised by Democrats

Republican firebrand Boebert, the incumbent in the sprawling 4th District on the Eastern Plains, had an anemic showing in the most recent filing with the FEC. Collecting less than $150,000 in the final quarter of 2025, she trailed Democratic challenger Eileen Laubacher by a massive margin.

Laubacher, a Navy veteran and rear admiral, had the biggest haul of the quarter of any candidate running for Congress in Colorado. She pulled down just over $2 million, bringing her contribution total in the election cycle to nearly $6.5 million. She sits on a pile of more than $2.5 million in cash compared to Boebert’s $219,000.

Laubacher also spent a hefty $1.5 million on her election effort last quarter.

Trisha Calvarese, the Democratic nominee who lost to Boebert in 2024, had an impressive haul — just over $1 million in the fourth quarter — but was only at about half of what Laubacher took in. Still, Calvarese has more than twice Boebert’s cash on hand, with $518,000 in the bank.

Democratic contenders John Padora, who has run for the 4th District before, and Jenna Preston each collected around $20,000 last quarter. Preston, a clinical psychologist, has nearly $53,000 in cash on hand to Padora’s less than $9,000.

Crank’s strong money challenge

Another firmly Republican district, Colorado’s 5th will give Democrat Jessica Killin a run for her money as she tries to oust Republican U.S. Rep. Jeff Crank. A former U.S. Army captain and chief of staff to former second gentleman Doug Emhoff, Killin jumped into the race last summer.

Her fundraising prowess has been impressive, and she collected around $611,000 in the fourth quarter. That brings her total for the cycle to more than $1.6 million. Crank pulled in just over $280,000 for the quarter. Killin holds a cash-on-hand advantage of $1.1 million to Crank’s more than $968,000.

But Crank won the seat, which encompasses Colorado Springs, by 14 percentage points over his Democratic opponent in 2024.

The race has attracted several other Democratic challengers, including unsuccessful 2024 contender Joseph Reagan, but none have come close to matching Killin’s haul.

Quieter money race in CD3 this time

Gone are the days of eye-popping money in Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District, when Boebert was being challenged by Democrat Adam Frisch before she switched districts to the 4th in the waning days of 2023.

Frisch, a former Aspen city councilman who raised more than $12 million in the 2024 election cycle, lost to Republican Jeff Hurd in the right-leaning district that primarily covers the western stretch of the state.

Hurd’s Democratic challenger this cycle, San Luis Valley native Alex Kelloff, raised $65,000 in the final quarter of 2025 — compared to Hurd’s $240,000 haul. Kelloff has $434,000 cash on hand while Hurd’s pile has grown to more than $1.57 million.

But Hurd, a Grand Junction attorney who is in his first term in Congress, must first fend off a candidate to his right in the June 30 primary — former Colorado Republican Vice Chairwoman Hope Scheppelman.

However, the difference in fundraising is stark. Scheppelman raised around $43,000 last quarter, according to FEC numbers, and has less than a tenth of Hurd’s war chest.

James, Kiros take on DeGette

Democrat Diana DeGette is Colorado’s longest-serving member of Congress — by a long shot. But she has several candidates in her party to fend off in June before standing for reelection in November in what will be an attempt at her 16th term in office in the 1st Congressional District.

Most notable is Wanda James, a University of Colorado regent and marijuana entrepreneur, who raised more than $78,000 in 2025’s final quarter. That total brings her cash on hand to $93,000. Attorney Melat Kiros, a native of Ethiopia, nearly matched James’ take at $77,500 but has less in the bank — with cash on hand of $64,000.

Meanwhile, DeGette pulled in nearly $249,000 last quarter and sits on a pile of $535,000 in cash on hand.

No Republicans have raised any money in the Denver-centered race so far.

U.S. Senate primary shapes up

In Colorado’s lone Senate race, Hickenlooper was the king of fundraising last quarter. He reported collecting more than $936,000 from donors. The former Denver mayor and Colorado governor, who is in his first term in the Senate, has a war chest of nearly $3.9 million.

He is being challenged on the left by state Sen. Julie Gonzales, who jumped into the race in December. In less than a month, the Democrat managed to pull in nearly $180,000 and has nearly $161,000 cash on hand.

University of Colorado political science professor Karen Breslin is also challenging Hickenlooper in the June primary. The Democrat raised just over $58,000 last quarter and has just $7,000 in the bank.

Several Republicans are also in the race. Janak Joshi, a former state lawmaker who unsuccessfully ran for the 8th Congressional District in 2024, collected the most in the fourth quarter, with just over $60,000, and had nearly $350,000 cash on hand.

George Markert, a U.S. Marine for more than 30 years, took in $55,000 last quarter and sits on nearly $73,000 in cash, according to FEC filings.

State Sen. Mark Baisley of Woodland Park switched in early January — after the end of the reporting period — to the U.S. Senate primary from the crowded GOP primary in the Colorado governor’s race.

Huerfano County Republican leadership in southern Colorado this week “immediately resign his position,” while state lawmaker and congressional candidate Richard Holtorf said the same.

In an Eastern Plains stronghold, Yuma County Republicans the state party for endorsing certain GOP candidates as a move that “undermines the electoral process within our party.” The endorsees include U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert in her run for the 4th Congressional District, after she secured the top line at the assembly.

Still others expressed alarm after party officials ejected a Colorado Sun political reporter from the party assembly in Pueblo on Saturday because of Williams’ belief that the reporter’s coverage of Republicans had been “very unfair.” He that he would’ve prohibited The Denver Post and 9News from covering the assembly, too.

In the face of all the criticism, the party under Williams has doubled down.

On its official account on the social media platform X, the state GOP went after Republican officeholders and candidates who criticized Williams, 4th District congressional candidate Deborah Flora a “dishonest, say-anything” politician after the party’s removal of the reporter from the venue. State Sen. Barb Kirkmeyer, a prominent figure from Brighton, caught fire from the party on the same issue.

“What����ap disgusting is your shameless boot licking of the corrupted fake news media that pushes propaganda for Democrats,” read the state party’s to Kirkmeyer’s X post.

Kirkmeyer, who holds a powerful post on the Joint Budget Committee, said in an interview that Williams was being a “bully.”

“You shouldn’t be trying to intimidate people,” she said. “We’re supposed to be trying to include people in our party, not trying to push them out.”

Former state GOP chair Dick Wadhams said the turmoil at the top of the party — and the internecine warfare within — was “unprecedented.”

He placed the blame squarely on the shoulders of Williams, who took the helm of the state GOP in March 2023 for a two-year term. Wadhams called Williams, a former state lawmaker who’s now running for Colorado’s open 5th Congressional District seat, “amoral and corrupt.”

“He’s only concerned about one thing — and that’s his personal ambitions,” Wadhams said. “We’ve never seen this before. I can’t believe it. We have a cesspool in the leadership of the Colorado Republican Party.”

Williams didn’t respond to several questions sent to him by The Post this week.

But state Rep. Matt Soper, a Delta Republican, thinks Williams “has done a pretty good job as state party chair.”

“He’s raised money,” Soper told The Post. “He has definitely been the thorn in the side of Democrats, which is what a state party chair has to do.”

Party fundraising has lagged at times under Williams, and this year Colorado Democrats have crowed that their fundraising in January and February dwarfed that of the GOP by at least a factor of two.

The intraparty criticism of Williams comes at a time when the Republican Party has for years lagged in state elections up and down the ballot, resulting in today’s Democratic dominance in Colorado. Democrats hold the governor’s office and wide majorities in the state legislature while occupying most seats in the state’s congressional delegation.

Soper served with Williams in the House, where Williams “was probably one of our most skilled bomb-throwers,” he said. That willingness to frustrate, insult and tweak is Williams’ “great strength,” in Soper’s view.

Williams’ weakness, though, “is himself” and his tendency to “march forward until he gets the answer he wants.”

“I guess from Dave Williams’ perspective, pushing out certain members within the party is OK because you’re kind of cleaning house,” Soper said. “I feel like when we’re this far in the minority, that����ap challenging to do. My whole plea to the state party is (that) I need help — I need more Republicans down here in the trenches fighting for us. At the end of the day, I don’t really care how we do it.”

Soper, too, came in for the party’s scorn earlier this week, after his disagreement with barring the reporter from the assembly on X. The party’s account replied: “The fake news media won’t like you more if you suck up to them, Matt.”

Campaign finance complaint filed

For Kelly Maher, a longtime Colorado Republican strategist, the objections go beyond Williams’ conduct at the Pueblo assembly last weekend, where some in the party also took issue with policy and platform votes that went Williams’ way.

Last week, Maher filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission against Williams, alleging he improperly used state party monies to help his congressional campaign.

Specifically, she claimed that Williams spent more than $16,000 in state party funds in February to produce and mail a flyer to voters in El Paso County targeting a primary opponent in the 5th District race, Jeff Crank. Maher’s complaint called the mailer a “poorly veiled” attack on then-presidential contender Nikki Haley but noted that the piece mostly targeted Crank and a political action committee that had endorsed him — a move she said violated federal campaign finance laws.

“He will burn the Republican Party to the ground in his singular goal of getting to Congress,” Maher said in an interview. “He cannot accomplish his goals without cannibalizing everyone else.”

Four years ago, Colorado’s unaffiliated voters — by far the largest chunk of the electorate — backed President Joe Biden by 25 percentage points over then-President Donald Trump, according to an exit poll taken at the time.

That gulf means Republicans can ill-afford to be training their ire on each other, said Kristi Burton Brown, Williams’ predecessor as GOP chair.

“When we are attacking our own conservatives, the goal of growing the party is really hard to achieve,” she said.

Burton Brown also said the endorsement of GOP candidates during the primary season — Trump received his own blessing from the state party back in January, ahead of the Iowa caucuses and Colorado’s March 15 presidential primary — is potentially counterproductive.

“It’s supposed to be a neutral body that opens up election pathways for Republicans,” she said of the state party. “Anytime the party picks and chooses candidates in a race, it gives voters the appearance of backroom deals.”

Holtorf, the state representative from Akron who is running for former U.S. Rep. Ken Buck’s seat, lashed Williams for the party’s endorsement of Boebert this week in the crowded GOP primary race and called for him to step down.

Holtorf made the June 25 primary ballot on Wednesday after state election officials deemed that he had gathered enough signatures in the district, as did another Republican contender, state Rep. Mike Lynch. Boebert and Flora had qualified for the primary ballot via petition last month, and other contenders could make the ballot, too.

“My vision of the Republican Party is (that) it����ap the Republican Party of the Reagan era,” Holtorf said. “It����ap a big tent. The purity test … that����ap being promoted by the papacy of the Republican Party under Dave Williams’ leadership is not the direction we need to go. We need to rebuild our party. We need to welcome everybody back.”

“Becoming Republican again”

Williams has also run into criticism from fellow Republicans for his desire to close GOP primaries to all but affiliated party voters, a stance Wadhams calls “dumbfounding.”

The state party sued Secretary of State Jena Griswold last summer in federal court, seeking to invalidate a ballot measure passed by voters in 2016 that opened up Colorado’s political primaries to unaffiliated voters. A judge rejected the party’s claim in February. The party’s central committee has failed to clear the high threshold needed to opt out of primaries — despite continuing pressure from Williams and others in the party, .

Senate Minority Leader Paul Lundeen, a Monument Republican, said his job is to counter the Democratic surge in Colorado by supporting Republicans in swing districts and conservative districts.

“I’m trying to attract as many people to the Republican brand as possible,” Lundeen said. “That includes conservatives and unaffiliated. (Williams is) gonna do what he’s gonna do.”

And Williams doing what he does is exactly what Rep. Scott Bottoms, a Colorado Springs Republican, wants to continue seeing.

“For quite a few years, we have just been getting more and more liberal and more and more middle of the road — more of an establishment mentality — and it was hurting us,” said Bottoms, a freshman lawmaker who’s among the most conservative in the Capitol. “Just because they have an ‘R’ after their name doesn’t mean they’re Republicans. We’re starting to see those (voter) rolls turned back around to where people are becoming Republican again.”

When he first ran for office two years ago, Bottoms said, he was told to tone down his anti-abortion beliefs. He praised Williams for embracing his position on the issue from the party chair position.

But Wadhams, the former party chair, said the anemic turnout at the Republican assembly in Pueblo — just 2,100 or so delegates out of 3,500 invited showed up, he said — was a flashing red light that new leadership was needed.

There is no way to build a “winning coalition” by alienating people, Wadhams said, especially from within the party.

“It is a hollowing out of the party,” he said. “The Democrats have a stranglehold on the state like they haven’t had since the 1930s.”

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Boebert, the 3rd District’s incumbent, between Oct. 1 and Dec. 31, according to her newly filed campaign finance report, part of her instant money advantage in the 4th District’s crowded Republican field.

The new reports show that had Boebert continued to run for reelection to her current seat, she again would’ve been dwarfed by Frisch. The Democrat took in , crushing Boebert’s fundraising, and he has more than $5 million on hand to Boebert’s nearly $1.3 million — money she’ll now use in the 4th.

Meanwhile, the best-funded Republican remaining in the 3rd District race, Grand Junction attorney Jeff Hurd, took in $262,000 in the final three months of last year. He had drawn local endorsements and some donors from Boebert late last year as she weathered embarrassments that included her ejection from the performance of the musical “Beetlejuice” in a Denver theater in September.

Hurd’s campaign said he has more than a half million dollars on hand, but details from his latest report weren’t yet available. The next-highest GOP windfall in the 3rd District race went to Russ Andrews, who took in just over $31,000 in the fourth quarter.

The deadline for reporting year-end fundraising totals to the Federal Election Commission was Wednesday.

Boebert, now a resident of Windsor in the 4th District, announced on Dec. 27 that she would abandon her right-leaning Western Slope and southern Colorado seat to run for the even-redder 4th District, centered on Colorado’s Eastern Plains. The switch shook up Colorado’s political world and even sparked frustration among Republican colleagues.

The 3rd had favored Republicans until Boebert’s controversies made it a razor-thin race with Frisch in 2022. Still unclear is whether he will have as much of a chance this fall, assuming he wins the Democratic nomination, without Boebert on the ballot.

“We’ve always been proud that we’ve raised more money than she has,” Frisch said in an interview Thursday.

But the former Aspen city councilman acknowledged that things had dramatically changed — though he maintains a high level of confidence in his “very effective finance team.”

“We’re starting 2024 without Lauren Boebert but with a really good email list,” Frisch said. “Are we going to rack up as much money as we did in the last nine months in the next nine months? Who knows? It’s obviously a different ballgame.”

Frisch received a boost this week when Democratic opponent and Grand Junction Mayor Anna Stout announced that she was ending her campaign. She appeared to be his most formidable opponent in the June primary, though she badly lagged him in the money game.

On the other side, Hurd campaign spokesman Nick Bayer said Republicans were starting to consolidate behind the candidate as “the only chance we have to keep the seat Republican.”

“Jeff continues to lead the pack in grassroots support, fundraising, endorsements and voter outreach,” Bayer said. “He will be able to unify the party and independents in the district to take on the Democrats’ big money machine in Adam Frisch.”

The money race in the 4th District

In her new district, Boebert was able to carry over the money she raised in the 3rd District, becoming by far the leading fundraiser in the 4th District’s Republican primary, now a 10-way race, as soon as she stepped in.

The next-closest is businessman Peter Yu, with $254,000 raised in the fourth quarter, though all but $4,100 of that came from a loan he made to his campaign. Conservative radio host Deborah Flora collected nearly $174,000, while former state lawmaker and current Logan County Commissioner Jerry Sonnenberg reported nearly $155,000 raised.

State Rep. Richard Holtorf, a rancher who lives near Akron, took in just over $112,000.

But quarterly campaign finance comparisons in the 4th District are distorted by the fact that all of Boebert’s GOP competitors had at least a month less to raise money. U.S. Rep. Ken Buck, a Republican who has held the seat since 2015, announced that he wouldn’t run for reelection on Nov. 1.

While Democrats will have a hard time competing in such a Republican-leaning district, John Padora had the biggest haul for his party in the fourth quarter — at just over $38,000. Ike McCorkle, who ran unsuccessfully against Buck in the last two elections, brought in less than $2,000 in contributions, though his campaign account had more than $163,000 as of September.

GOP race to take on Caraveo

In the evenly divided 8th Congressional District, which stretches from Denver’s northern suburbs to Greeley, incumbent Democrat U.S. Rep. Yadira Caraveo was top of the board, with $630,000 raised in the final quarter of 2023. She reported more than $1.3 million in cash on hand.

On the Republican side, Air Force veteran Joe Andujo took in $220,000 in the fourth quarter, though almost all of that was a loan he made to the campaign. State Rep. Gabe Evans raised $170,000 during the period while Weld County Commissioner Scott James landed $40,000.

In the Colorado Springs-centered 5th Congressional District, Rep. Doug Lamborn announced last month that he wouldn’t seek reelection, setting off a scramble by Republicans that isn’t yet reflected in fundraising reports.

The rest of Colorado’s congressional districts — the 1st, 2nd, 6th and 7th — are held by Democratic incumbents and are considered less competitive in this year’s election.

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Third-quarter fundraising totals reported in recent days in Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District show the Republican incumbent was outraised by her most prominent Democratic foe, Adam Frisch, by a factor of 4-to-1. And Jeff Hurd, a Boebert challenger in next year’s GOP primary, posted sizeable totals indicating he also might pose trouble for the two-term congresswoman.

Boebert’s haul for the period from July 1 to Sept. 30 was just shy of $854,000, according to the recent campaign finance reports. Earlier this month, ahead of filing his full quarterly report, former Aspen city councilman Frisch, who narrowly lost to Boebert in 2022, touted a nearly $3.4 million haul during the same time frame.

Hurd, a Grand Junction attorney, collected just over $412,000 despite launching his campaign only in mid-August.

“As someone who is not a politician and who entered the race halfway through the quarter, I am proud to have raised $412,000,” Hurd said in a statement to The Denver Post on Tuesday.

Hurd has managed to gain the backing of several prominent Colorado Republicans, including Bruce Benson, a former University of Colorado president; John Suthers, the former Colorado Springs mayor and state attorney general; Daniel Ritchie, a former University of Denver chancellor; and former U.S. Sen. Hank Brown.

In recent weeks, several Republican county commissioners on the Western Slope have broken with their party’s incumbent to throw in with Hurd, . The parties’ primaries are set for June 25, with the general election in November 2024.

Paul DeBell, an associate professor of political science at Fort Lewis College in Durango, said that while Boebert’s third-quarter contributions, standing alone, were solid, her significant lag behind her top Democratic opponent was a warning sign for her campaign.

“The 3rd District is the Republicans’ to lose,” DeBell said.

Boebert on Tuesday thanked her supporters in the district, which encompasses much of the western and southern parts of the state. She said her fundraising “has always been powered by the working-class families of rural Colorado, which is why I’ve worked tirelessly to deliver substantive results for them on the local issues they care about most.”

DeBell said Frisch has been able to focus “singularly” on the potential rematch while Boebert has been mixed up in controversies, some of her own making. Voters in her district may be feeling “exhaustion” with the headlines and drama that seem to follow the congresswoman wherever she goes, he said.

“It’s pretty clear he has this seat in his sights and is working really hard to turn it,” DeBell said of Frisch. “It doesn’t bode well for Boebert.”

The conservative firebrand, who was first elected in 2020 and then barely kept her seat in last November’s election — edging out Frisch by 546 votes — has attracted attention for her outspokenness and bare-knuckle political style. That style was on full display at the beginning of the year when she became a major thorn in the side of Kevin McCarthy’s efforts to become House speaker.

McCarthy succeeded, but he was ousted from the speakership on Oct. 3 — though Boebert was not among the representatives who voted to give him the boot.

She was roundly criticized and mocked for her behavior last month at a performance of the Broadway touring musical “Beetlejuice” at Denver’s Buell Theatre, during which she was escorted from the venue for inappropriate and ribald conduct. She apologized several days later.

Frisch has raised more than $7.7 million since the beginning of the year, versus just over $2.4 million for Boebert. The congresswoman had $1.4 million in cash on hand at the start of the month, while Frisch’s war chest had more than $4.3 million.

Russ Andrews, a Republican engineer and financial adviser running to take on Boebert in next year’s primary, raised nearly $34,000 in donations during the third quarter, in addition to about $255,000 he loaned or gave his campaign, according to his finance report.

On the Democratic side, Grand Junction Mayor Anna Stout garnered just over $100,000 after announcing her run in late July. Several other candidates from both sides of the aisle reported less significant or nominal sums.

The Cook Political Report rates the race, which is likely to be one of the country’s most closely watched next year,

A Democrat hasn’t won the district since John Salazar won reelection 15 years ago. Salazar lost his seat in 2010 to former Rep. Scott Tipton, a Republican who served five terms before his surprise loss in the 2020 GOP primary to Boebert.

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The latest campaign reporting period covers July 1 through Sept. 30. Frisch’s Thursday fundraising announcement comes after the former Aspen city councilman raised $1.7 million in the first quarter of 2023 and another $2.6 million in the second quarter.

Frisch, who barely lost to Boebert in November and faces four competitors for the Democratic nomination in 2024, now has more than $4.3 million on hand.

Boebert, the hard-right GOP representative for the 3rd District since January 2021, has not yet filed her fundraising numbers for the third quarter. She and other candidates have until Oct. 15 to do so.

According to Federal Election Commission data, Boebert had $1.4 million in the bank at the end of June. She trailed Frisch in fundraising the first half of the year.

Political watchers outside Colorado are paying attention to how well Boebert does in the third-quarter money game. The second-term congresswoman made unflattering headlines for herself in recent weeks after her highly publicized ejection from a Denver performance of the musical “Beetlejuice” last month for inappropriate behavior, which included vaping, groping her male companion and recording the performance in violation of the venue’s rules.

A poll Frisch’s campaign paid for over the summer showed him with a 2-percentage-point advantage over Boebert in a matchup — a statistical tie given the poll’s margin of error, but a result that suggests she’s still vulnerable.

Boebert faces three Republican opponents in the 2024 primary.

“I am deeply humbled by the over 100,000 individual donations that were made to our campaign this quarter to defeat Lauren Boebert,” Frisch said in a statement Thursday. “Western and Southern Colorado deserve a representative who will work hard to deliver results and put the needs of the district first, not an extreme political agenda.”

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The Colorado Republican Party appears stuck in a fiscal mire following a disastrous election in November and with a newly elected chair.

The Colorado Republican Party reported just $57,648.58 in total contributions in the first four months of the year. Most of the money, nearly $33,000, came from unitemized, small-dollar donations. In that same time, the party reported spending nearly $260,000, according to recent Federal Election Commission filings.

The fundraising lag isn’t necessarily a surprise to some Republican operatives — an electoral shellacking in November leaves little for donors to get excited about, and the divisive new chair, who falsely asserts former President Donald Trump won the 2020 election, has alienated some long-time Republicans. But the depths of the financial woes raised eyebrows.

In April, the first full month of new chair Dave Williams’ tenure, the party reported raising $14,862 while spending $15,392 — both notable lows in financial activity, though not the depths of fundraising this year. In January, following former chair Kristi Burton Brown’s announcement that she wouldn’t seek another term leading the state party, the GOP reported raising less than $4,000. Fundraising picked up to about $14,240 in February before hitting a 2023-high of nearly $25,000 in March, the month party faithful met in Loveland for an organizational meeting.

In all, it’s the worst fundraising run for the Colorado Republican Party in at least two years.

Spending likewise hit a drastic low under Williams: Just over $15,000 for the month of April. The party had been spending an average of about $132,000 per month in the two preceding years, sometimes buoyed by party conventions or electoral efforts, but always many times more than April’s reported total. The next lowest recent spending month was about $50,000 in August 2021 — a time of summer doldrums and no pending elections. Williams did not return a request for comment.

The stalled spending included zero on mailers, zero on office supplies and zero on payroll, including for Williams, according to federal filings. More than $9,000 was spent on benefits, however, about double what was spent on average for that line item. The apparent lack of staff was first reported by .

In contrast, the Colorado Democratic Party — fresh off an unexpected strengthening of their state legislative majorities and a repeated sweep of state constitutional offices — raised almost five times as much as the GOP to kick off this year. It received nearly $257,000, in total contributions in the first quarter of the year. In April alone, the Colorado Democratic Party reported raising nearly $92,000.

The disparity translated into cash-on-hand. Democrats began May with nearly $200,000 in the bank, while Republicans had about 60% of that, or about $120,000.

It����ap not unusual for donations to crater after a poor election showing or when a new party chairman is elected, Republican officials said.

“It takes some time for the next chair to come in and pitch a plan and see if people latch onto it and if they think it����ap something they’re willing to commit their money to,” said Burton Brown, who served as state party chair from 2020 until March, when she stepped down.

What����ap more unusual, Burton Brown said, is for the party to evidently have no paid staffers. Usually, she said, there are at least two people on the payroll: the chair and an executive director.

What����ap more, Burton Brown said that some national Republican groups — who help coordinate fundraising and campaign efforts — were “concerned with the leadership change,” though she declined to name the groups or characterize their concerns. Messages sent to the National Republican Congressional Committee, which is tasked with helping defend and flip seats, such as the sure-to-be-targeted districts currently held by Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert and Democrat Rep. Yadira Caraveo, were not returned this week. An official with the Republican National Committee said there were no problems with the state party in Colorado.

Sage Naumann, a Republican consultant with the 76 Group, said the state party’s fundraising woes go beyond a simple leadership change and recent electoral losses. If there’s solace, he said, it����ap that having a strong party isn’t vital to winning elections or championing conservative causes in the state.

“Listen, it would be difficult under any circumstances, regardless of who would be chairman,” agreed Dick Wadhams, the chair of the state party from 2007 to 2011. “And yet I think the challenge is aggravated by the background of the newly elected chair. He’s a strong defender of the stolen election conspiracy theories, he continues to defend Tina Peters who’s been criminally indicted. … When you add all that up, I just don’t know whether the donors are going to donate to a party that����ap being led by someone with those viewpoints. He’s the newly elected chairman, he’s got to figure out how he’s going to finance this party. Otherwise, it����ap going to be a shell for two years.”

Burton Brown said she had set aside enough money to cover the organization’s financial obligations — like rent and the party’s central committee meetings — through the end of her term in mid-March. Since Williams took over, the party’s dropped its longtime accounting firm and has cut back on other expenses.

The organization still appears to be renting its Greenwood Village office space. The building’s property manager confirmed that the space is still being used by the party, but when a reporter visited Wednesday afternoon, the door was locked, the room was dark and no one answered the doorbell.

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