That attorney, Chris Murray, and the Republican candidate’s campaign have not returned messages over the past week seeking information about who is behind the shop. But a campaign finance report indicates it’s a limited liability company linked to Marx.

A promotional email from the store Wednesday included a disclaimer that it was funded by “Not Shook LLC,” a Wyoming company that was registered two weeks before Marx launched his campaign last year. The LLC’s owners are not included on its registration paperwork, but in late July, Marx’s campaign received a $5,000 contribution from the LLC for logo licensing.

The donation came from “Not Shook LLC — Victor Marx.” The address included in the contribution record is Marx’s campaign headquarters, which is also his nonprofit’s training center — and his former home — in Colorado Springs.

, Marx, a former nonprofit ministry leader, denied that he was behind Not Shook, saying: “I don’t have anything to do with it, period.” He said the campaign finance filing was incorrect.

“Inadvertently, they put my name on the TRACER report,” Marx continued, referring to the state’s campaign finance reporting system. “We had to correct that. It’s being cured as we speak. I never caught it because I never looked at it. I didn’t know anything. But that’s the way it was entered. Again, it’s just another silly mistake.”

He said he has not received any financial benefits from the third-party vendor.

Marx’s campaign has refused to answer questions about the vendor since Murray described the arrangement last week, and the financial disclosure — together with the online store’s email — provides the only insight into who’s handling the campaign’s unusual merchandise arrangement.

Martha Tierney, a veteran campaign attorney who has worked for the Colorado Democratic Party, said she had never seen a state-level campaign outsource its merchandise to a third party.

“I have never seen it here,” she said. “And I’ve certainly never seen this kind of a setup, where the candidate appears to own the merchandise shop.”

Marx has boosted the website: On July 30, three days after Not Shook’s donation to the campaign, that supporters who already had contributed the maximum to his campaign should visit the store.

He previously acknowledged that the campaign errantly had accepted donations above what individuals were allowed to give under Colorado law. The individual maximum is $1,450.

The store, he suggested, offered another path for maxed-out supporters.

“If they order merchandise, there’s no limit on that. They can order as much as they want. That will really help us,” Marx told his wife in the interview. 9News was the first to report on Marx directing people to the site.

Under state campaign finance rules, LLCs that donate to candidate campaigns must identify an individual associated with the donation. Not Shook’s contribution to Marx’s campaign did not mention any other owners or company officers. Last year, the LLC was registered in Wyoming on the same day that Marx bought his campaign website domain name, according to campaign finance reports.

Murray did not return an email seeking comment Wednesday. The same day, Marx spokeswoman Rachael Flick directed The Denver Post to Murray’s radio interview. She did not respond to prior requests about the third-party vendor and declined to comment further in a follow-up email Thursday.

Marx’s Democratic opponent, Attorney General Phil Weiser, also runs a merchandise shop through his campaign website, and his financial reports include expenditures for running it. There’s also an outside merchandise store purporting to sell Weiser merchandise. A Weiser spokesman said Thursday that the shop was not affiliated with the campaign and that the campaign was unaware of it until asked by The Post.

Questions about where money goes

The Marx-promoting outside merch store, , sells items with Marx’s campaign logo as well as his books and his branded coffee. It was created July 7, . Marx officially won the GOP primary, which was a close race, two days later.

The website lists no information about who operates it or whether it financially supports Marx’s campaign.

It sells routine campaign merchandise — bumper stickers, hats, shirts — as well as pricey “bundles” of Marx gear that run up to $1,299 a pop. The most expensive bundle includes a “private group Zoom” call with Marx.

The merchandising saga is the latest sideshow in which the Marx campaign has become embroiled in recent months. His campaign faces several campaign finance complaints and recently moved to refile nearly all of its financial reports.

He touted an endorsement that didn’t exist, expressed frustration at reporters’ ongoing focus on his difficult-to-verify personal history, and from other leading Republican figures. He joked in Loveland recently that other candidates didn’t want to appear in photos with him, according to the Colorado Sun.

In Murray’s interview last week with conservative radio host Jeff Hunt — a prominent Marx supporter — the campaign’s attorney said it had sold its merchandise in bulk to a third party for the same amount that the campaign paid for it. Murray indicated to Hunt that the outside entity was not affiliated with the campaign, and anyone purchasing things from it was not financially supporting Marx’s gubernatorial bid.

He said the merchandise was being sold for the price that the campaign paid to purchase it in the first place. The campaign has spent at least $108,000 on merchandise, according to campaign finance records.

Marx’s call for supporters to patronize the third-party merch shop spurred a campaign finance complaint that accused Marx of trying to get around individual donation limits. In an initial review, the secretary of state’s office wrote that the complaint alleged sufficient facts to support the complaint, and it gave Marx’s campaign until Friday to tell the state if it intended to fix the issues.

Tierney said it was unclear if the third-party setup violated state law. The state constitution prohibits people from acting as a “conduit” to funnel money into a campaign — but the definition of “conduit” does not include candidates and their immediate family members.

In any case, she said, the website appears to mislead voters.

“Are people being duped into thinking this is going to the campaign when it’s not — if in fact it¶¶Ňőap not?” she said.

‘The material was sold at cost’

The campaign continues to operate its own “official” merch store, although Marx’s website prominently directs people to the third-party outlet.

Murray told Hunt that selling merchandise wasn’t worth the effort for the campaign.

“The benefit, the financial benefit, is going to the merch store owners and operators. They are not campaign contributions to the Victor Marx campaign,” Hunt summarized back to Murray. “And the material was sold at cost. So there was no financial benefit back to the Victor Marx campaign. The merch store buys all these T-shirts, sells them themselves. I think the bottom line, Chris Murray, is that this is not Victor Marx’s merch store right now.”

“Yeah, that’s correct,” Murray replied.

Marx’s daughter, Brie Marx, directed her Instagram followers to the third-party store in mid-July, in a post that included a favorable comment from Marx’s wife. A former Marx spokesman that Brie Marx was handling the campaign’s merchandise sales. She’s received more than $22,000 from the campaign this year and is one of several people in Marx’s personal orbit who have been paid by the campaign.

The Post purchased a bumper sticker from the third-party merch store this month. It was shipped from a Colorado Springs address with a “Victor Marx for Governor” return label. The shipping address is a postal annex frequently used by a significant number of groups and businesses. Among them is another LLC established in Marx’s name, as well as his wife’s publishing company.

The merchant store did not charge The Post any sales tax for the bumper sticker. While campaigns often don’t charge sales tax for merchandise, that’s because the purchase is packaged as a contribution to the campaign, Tierney said.

But such a distinction seemingly wouldn’t apply to a third-party merchandise vendor that is not collecting donations and is not affiliated with a political campaign.

Last September, the same month that Not Shook LLC was registered in Wyoming, an Instagram account was created under the same name. The account appears never to have posted anything to its page, although it did boost Marx and criticize his then-GOP primary opponents in comments on other accounts’ posts. The account also follows several Marx-affiliated accounts, including one dedicated to his dogs and accounts for Marx’s family, various supporters and campaign staffers.

Sometime between late Wednesday night and Thursday afternoon, the account’s name was changed. No one returned a Thursday direct message from a Post reporter, and by Thursday evening, the account was no longer visible.

Update, Aug. 28: This story was updated to include additional merchandise spending records.

Geo Group’s refusal to comply with the order’s deadline — confirmed Tuesday by a state spokeswoman — means the impasse may now only be resolved in a courtroom.

Urged by advocates to take firmer action to investigate the spread of tuberculosis, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment issued the order on Aug. 13 after Geo refused to comply with a June order from Adams County health officials. The state order gives the Colorado Attorney General’s Office authority to sue Geo to force it to comply with the tuberculosis investigation, which seeks details about the detainee diagnosed with TB and any other people who may have come into contact with them.

Hope Shuler, a spokeswoman for the health department, confirmed that Geo had not sent the required information to state officials.

“Public officials must be able to verify the facts, identify people who may have been exposed and ensure they receive appropriate follow-up care,” Shuler wrote in a statement. “GEO has a responsibility not only to the people in its facility, but also to its employees and surrounding community. Its continued refusal to cooperate significantly limits the investigation, but we remain determined to obtain the information needed to protect public health.”

It’s unclear what happens next or on what timeline: Shuler said the health department is “actively coordinating with Adams County, the Colorado Attorney General’s Office and Denver Health TB Clinic on next steps, including legal remedies.”

A spokesman for Attorney General Phil Weiser, who is in California for a trial against the social media company Meta, said the office had no updates as of Tuesday afternoon.

In a statement Tuesday, Geo spokesman Christopher Ferreira did not respond when asked whether the company had complied with the order. He said that there are no active or suspected cases of tuberculosis at the facility.

“Over the past two months, GEO has engaged repeatedly with the Adams County Health Department and other Colorado officials and has provided information to the state as authorized by DHS,” he said, referring to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which oversees immigration enforcement. “DHS and (the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) remain actively involved in disease-prevention and control measures at (the detention center).”

In an email last week, Immigration and Customs Enforcement referred questions about the order to Geo, which the agency contracts to run the detention center.

One person tested positive for tuberculosis in June, health officials have previously said. That person has since been deported, and Adams County officials said the person was believed to have contracted the respiratory illness before entering the facility. Geo undertook its own investigation and has repeatedly said there are no additional active cases of TB within the 1,530-bed detention center.

But Geo and ICE have refused to provide additional information to state or county investigators or grant them access to the Aurora facility to confirm that report or conduct the health investigation that’s required by law. The county issued its own public health order in June, which was ignored.

The state health department then requested more information in mid-July and gave Geo a 48-hour deadline to respond. Geo ignored that request, too, and state health officials’ attempts to work with Geo — outside of another health order — were unsuccessful.

Adams County officials previously told reporters that Geo had stopped communicating with them in late June.

U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper visited the Aurora facility Monday and told reporters that Geo staff declined to discuss the tuberculosis situation on advice of their lawyers. He said they also would not indicate whether they intended to comply with the state health order.

“You cannot do an investigation like this in a vacuum,” Hickenlooper said from the sidewalk outside of the facility. “…I’m shocked. I’ve never in my life seen a time where a direct order from the public health authority or a direct order from the state office of public health is ignored.”

If Weiser’s office sues Geo to enforce the order, the ensuing litigation will likely become entangled with another lawsuit between the company and the state.

In June, after Gov. Jared Polis signed a law requiring more regular inspections of the facility, Geo sued, arguing in essence that only the federal government could regulate it. The first hearing in that case came late last month and had influenced officials’ willingness to take additional legal steps to force compliance with the tuberculosis investigation.

State officials in both Washington state and New Jersey have sued Geo after the company blocked health inspectors in those states from accessing its detention centers.

Last month, Geo announced that it had signed a $528.6 million contract with ICE to open a new detention center in Hudson, a small, rural community north of Denver.

Marx talked about his lieutenant governor selection during an appearance on radio host Jeff Hunt’s morning show on conservative talk station 710 KNUS. Friday was the deadline for him to pick a running mate for the Nov. 3 election against Democratic nominee Phil Weiser and other candidates.

Markert, who lives in Broomfield, served in the Marines for more than 30 years. He ran in this year’s Republican primary for U.S. Senate but ultimately did not make the ballot. During his Senate campaign, Markert described himself as a “constitutional conservative and proud supporter of President Trump’s America First agenda,” .

On the radio show Friday, Markert said he took a vacation after his campaign ended and was preparing to settle into retirement when the opportunity to run with Marx popped up.

“I thought: If the nation, if the state, asks you to serve, you step up and do it,” he said. “That¶¶Ňőap your obligation.”

Markert and Marx, who served in the Marines for nearly three years in the 1980s, are both newcomers who had not run political campaigns prior to this election cycle. They will face off in November against Weiser, the state’s two-term attorney general, and his recently announced running mate, Jefferson County Commissioner Lesley Dahlkemper.

“George is not a career politician, just like me,” Marx said Friday morning on the broadcast. “He’s a proven leader who has spent his life accomplishing missions.”

Marx won a close primary race, defeating state Sen. Barb Kirkmeyer by 2,466 votes, or just under half of a percentage point, in a three-way race that also included state Rep. Scott Bottoms.

The general election to succeed term-limited Gov. Jared Polis, a Democrat, will also feature several third-party candidates as well as former Republican-turned-independent Greg Lopez, who submitted enough signatures to make the gubernatorial ballot as an unaffiliated candidate. Lopez’s running mate .

The is expected to welcome hundreds of athletes from across the globe for the 43rd annual event on Aug. 22. However, exactly where the ultramarathon will take them has yet to be determined.

Kimo Seymour, president of media and events for race organizer Life Time, said his team is working to finalize the course after the Willow fire burned through an area previously designated for the route. This will be the first time in the event¶¶Ňőap history that the course has undergone a significant change, he said.

The Leadville 100 Trail Run is an extremely challenging, high-alpine endurance race renowned for not only traversing 100 miles but also scaling a collective 14,000 vertical feet.

Seymour hopes to maintain those unique qualities, but acknowledged there may have to be sacrifices. “We’re doing our best to be able to maintain the mileage and at least the same amount of vertical gain,” he said. “One of the conversations has been, would we trade some mileage for a little bit more gain, or vice versa? If we had to have less gain, could we add a bit more mileage? So there may have to be a trade-off there.”

Additionally, the course for the , a mountain biking race on Aug. 15, is being rerouted. Cyclists typically climb about 12,000 vertical feet.

Organizers have also been watching the air quality index to ensure smoke doesn’t reach dangerous levels for the participants. (Recent rain has helped reduce the risks from smoke, Seymour said.)

Both course details are expected to be finalized and announced next week.

The sparked on June 28 west of Leadville near Mount Massive and has since burned about 7,200 acres. At first, it was questionable whether the races would be able to go on with active forest closures, evacuations and the risk of the wildfire spreading, Seymour said.

But within a couple of weeks, conditions for hosting the events looked promising as long as there were some modifications to where the athletes ran and biked. The Willow fire was 66% contained as of Thursday afternoon.

The Leadville 100 run started in 1983 as a way to revive its namesake town following the closure of the nearby Climax Molybdenum Mine. Life Time hosts nine races throughout the summer, each of which brings 6,000 to 10,000 people to town, adding millions of dollars into the local economy, said Adam Ducharme, tourism and economic development director for Lake County, which includes Leadville and Twin Lakes.

That¶¶Ňőap particularly important this year as the wildfire has curbed tourism following a tough winter marred by drought, Ducharme said. Since the start of the fire in late June, visitation has dropped 35% in Leadville and 40.5% in Twin Lakes compared to historical norms, he said.

Life Time already had to cancel its July events, including the Silver Rush 50 Run, due to the Willow fire. “The 100s in particular, if we were to lose those events, it would be catastrophic,” Ducharme said.

Lake County Sheriff Heath Speckman said he is confident that the races can go on safely, and advised visitors to continue to watch for changes in fire conditions and traffic flow as the race course gets finalized.

Seymour and his team have to weigh many factors when they discuss a new route, such as athlete safety, accessibility for emergency responders and land ownership. Life Time worked closely with local, state and federal personnel to keep abreast of the evolving fire situation and for guidance on how best to adapt.

One of the most iconic features of the trail run is cresting Hope Pass at 12,500 feet in elevation and descending into the town of Winfield, south of Twin Lakes. Right now, it looks promising that it could still be included in the course, Seymour said. Likewise, the biking route usually travels by the Columbine Mine near 12,600 feet in elevation south of Twin Lakes and organizers hope to keep that feature on the route.

The area that is off limits is near the Sugar Loaf Dam and Turquoise Lake, including part of the Colorado Trail and a segment known as the Powerline where the Willow fire burned, he added.

Though it¶¶Ňőap been a last-minute scramble, Seymour is hopeful the challenge will help Life Time better prepare for adapting to natural disasters in the future years. It may also inspire race organizers to change course, literally, going forward and add more value to the experience.

“Maybe we’re going to end up with a course that people love, and it might be something we think about alternating in future years. This might actually create a little bit more flexibility for us,” Seymour said.

Lopez and his running mate, lieutenant governor hopeful Taralyn Romero, submitted 11,948 valid signatures, surpassing the state’s requirement of 1,000 from each of Colorado’s eight congressional districts. Lopez, who will be listed as unaffiliated, can now join Democratic Attorney General Phil Weiser and Republican newcomer Victor Marx on the general election ballot in November.

Lopez spokeswoman Anna Garza said Lopez intends to carry his campaign through November.

“This campaign is giving voters an independent choice grounded in People Over Politics, Do No Harm, and Do What Works,” Lopes said in a statement. “We look forward to debating the issues, presenting practical solutions, and earning the trust and support of Coloradans across the state.”

A former mayor of Parker, Lopez’s independent run is the latest turn in his decades-long quest to serve in higher office in Colorado. He’d twice mounted unsuccessful GOP primary campaigns for governor before this election cycle. He also ran for the U.S. Senate in 2016 but dropped out.

After then-U.S. Rep. Ken Buck resigned in 2024, Lopez won a special election to represent the 4th Congressional District for six months ahead of that year’s general election.

He also served as the Colorado director of the Small Business Administration and later paid a $15,000 settlement after he was accused of trying to “improperly influence actions of the SBA in violation of federal law,”

This year, Lopez initially filed to run for governor as a Republican, then announced that he’d left the party and would run as an unaffiliated candidate instead. The ballot will also include some third-party candidates.

Lopez’s candidacy will likely further complicate the narrow path to victory for Marx, the first-time political candidate who won the GOP nomination earlier this month. He’s struggled initially to pull together the disparate wings of the party.

Lopez was not popular enough among Colorado Republicans to win the party’s gubernatorial nomination when he ran in 2018 or 2022. But he still earned more than 292,000 votes in the later contest. Given Colorado’s decidedly blue hue, Marx will need every conservative and unaffiliated vote he can get if he hopes to pull off a seismic upset against Weiser in November.

In a statement Tuesday, Marx spokeswoman Rachael Flick said the candidate “isn’t (focused) on other campaigns” or “internal party politics.”

“Our campaign is focused on building the broadest possible coalition of Republicans, unaffiliated voters, and anyone who believes Colorado can do better,” she wrote.

The race also echoes the 2010 gubernatorial contest, when former Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo mounted a third-party bid against Republican nominee Dan Maes and Democratic candidate John Hickenlooper, then the Denver mayor.

, with Tancredo pulling in more than 36% of the vote. Maes finished a distant and dismal third, with just over 11%.

The bulk of the money — nearly $1.3 million — has been spent on Democratic primaries, with a smaller amount spent in Republican races. The Democratic spending has flowed from American Future, a vaguely named state-level political action committee that has reported just one donor — that, in turn, has been bankrolled exclusively by . That super PAC has received $43 million in donations from DraftKings, FanDuel and Fanatics.

Colorado’s gamble on sports betting

Without federal campaign finance reports, it would otherwise be unclear which interests were paying for the mailers and advertisements distributed under American Future's name.

The ads , and contains only vague allusions to Democratic-adjacent policy positions. The state PAC's description of itself provides no clarity, either, detailing its purpose as "supporting Colorado state legislative candidates who focus on pressing issues facing everyday people."

The industry's campaign spending comes barely a month after state lawmakers passed , a first-in-the-nation law that was sharply opposed by the sports-betting industry. The measure, signed into law by Gov. Jared Polis on June 1, limits the number of daily deposits a gambler can make and bans push notifications intended to solicit bets or deposits, among other new regulations.

The spending has not targeted the bill's sponsors, none of whom face primary opponents later this month, and has even supported some lawmakers who voted in favor of SB-131. The companies' PACs have donated to candidates across the political spectrum, including in some races with a clear favorite.

Other groups have been spending big in statehouse primaries this year, with much of it continuing a battle to tilt the Democratic majority in a more moderate or progressive direction.

The sports-betting-aligned state PAC reported nearly $215,000 in donations from its parent group as of June 15, along with $282,000 in spending. But in the weeks since then, it's posted hundreds of thousands of dollars in additional spending, bringing its total spending in Democratic primaries to nearly $1.3 million as of Monday afternoon, according to campaign finance records.

Final totals won't be clear until after June 30, which is primary election day.

On the GOP side, American Conservative Fund, which has also received money exclusively from Win for America, has donated $250,000 to a state-level PAC supporting Republican statehouse candidates. That PAC is funded by other outside business groups as well.

Like its Democratic counterpart, lists several Republican-sounding buzzwords among its priorities, with no additional information about its backers.

Messages sent to the three gambling companies were not returned Monday. Nathan Click, a spokesman for American Future, referred The Post to a previous statement, first sent to Axios in April. In that statement, the PAC said it was seeking candidates "who will thoughtfully approach regulation and ensure legal sports betting can continue to support communities through billions in tax revenue and jobs across America."

But the ubiquitous spread of sports betting has raised significant regulator interest amid growing fears about problem gambling, The Denver Post reported in a recent special series.

Since Colorado voters legalized the practice in 2020, residents have wagered more than $30.6 billion on games and athletes. More than $154 million has been collected in taxes, much of it for water-focused preservation and conservation projects. At the same time, more than 45,000 people in the state have called a hotline set up for gamblers who may need help, and 1,245 are now on the self-exclusion list that bans them from betting for at least five years.

Sen. Matt Ball, a Denver Democrat who sponsored SB-131 earlier this year, said he wasn't surprised the industry was getting directly involved in campaigns. He said the industry did not like SB-131 and had been active in several other states. that the federal PAC planned to spend money in as many as 15 states by November

Ball said he'd heard that lawmakers backing sports-betting regulations in other states had faced threats that the industry would back their primary opponents. But none of SB-131's sponsors has a primary challenger this year, and the Democratic primaries in which the companies' PACs are participating are in mostly safe blue seats located in the metro Denver.

"I'm not surprised that they're spending this directly," Ball said — but how they're spending has surprised him.

"Some of it is a little hard to read," he said. "I don't understand why they are spending in the races they are spending in, because they are spending in races across the political spectrum."

On the Democratic side, the money has been spent on roughly a dozen primary candidates, most of them running for soon-to-be-empty seats.

The PAC cannot coordinate with candidates' campaigns, and it's unclear why the gambling PAC chose the candidates that it did. While several Democratic hopefuls are moderates and have been backed by other outside business interests, at least two are progressives endorsed by the left-wing Working Families Party. Some are in contentious races, while others are comfortable favorites.

The two Working Families Party-endorsed candidates, Justine Sandoval and Gena Ozols, have both released statements on social media noting that the mailers came from an outside group that wasn't authorized by their campaigns.

Sandoval, who is running for a Denver-based House seat and has received more support from the sports-betting PAC than nearly any other candidate, said she was unfamiliar with the group's backers until recently.

Her campaign has raised $25,000 — more than $100,000 less than what American Future has spent to support her from the outside against primary opponent Sterling Thomas Simms. Sandoval said she was generally opposed to unrestricted outside spending.

She met with DraftKing's lobbyist in March or April, and the lobbyist was "curious" about her position on sports betting. She wasn't opposed to gambling, she said, but was concerned about it being unregulated. She didn't hear anything else from the group.

Then the mailers and advertisements started flowing.

Sandoval figured that the group was backing her because its leaders thought she'd win. She also noted that the district she hopes to represent, House District 5, will soon include all three of Denver's largest sports venues if the Broncos build a stadium in Burnham Yard.

"So, there's some kind of investment thought there," she said.

Ball speculated that the spending was a "goodwill" donation in support of candidates who are either likely to win in contested races or don't have a serious primary challenge at all. Three of the Democratic candidates that American Future is supporting are incumbents seeking a return to office. While they each have primary challengers, all are expected to comfortably win their contests later this month. And all three voted in favor of SB-131.

State Sen. Adrienne Benavidez, who has received more than $150,000 in outside support from American Future, said she wasn't familiar with the group or its funders until informed by a reporter Monday morning. She said she'd never had contact with the PAC or the companies supporting it.

She welcomed support from anyone, she said, and was pleased that the ads had been positive support for her, rather than negative against her opponent, Alex Ryckman.

"It was totally out of the blue," said Benavidez, who previously served in the House before earning a vacancy appointment to the Senate earlier this year. "I don't know anything about them. The contributions coming from those companies — I was not aware until you just told me that. I've never had any contact with them, I know nothing."

Updated at 9:56 a.m. June 21, 2026: This article was updated to include additional campaign spending by American Future.

Simpson underwent CPR at the track and an automated external defibrillator (AED) was also used before taking her to the hospital. LetsRun was the first to report the medical emergency.

The , who ran at the University of Colorado Boulder, was taking part in a community track event hosted by Sir Walter Running, with runners of all levels encouraged to attend. The event featured a chance to meet Simpson.

“We are incredibly grateful to the individuals who responded immediately, as well as EMS and the medical professionals who handled the situation with such care, urgency, and professionalism,” the “Sir Walter Running Team” wrote on Instagram on Wednesday.

The statement added that “Jenny is receiving excellent medical care, and our thoughts are with her and her family during this time.”

Simpson won the bronze medal in the 1,500 meters at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games. She also won the 1,500 at the 2011 world championships, along with silver medals in 2013 and 2017.

The new glut of spending in state legislative races had already soared past $1.4 million as of early June and will almost certainly increase in dramatic fashion before voting ends in the June 30 primary. The arms race — and spending race — is the latest in an ongoing conflict between outside groups backed primarily by business interests, who prefer more moderate Democrats, and the state’s largest unions, which have spent to support more progressive candidates.

The money battle follows a 2024 primary in which outside groups spent $5 million to influence the Democratic races. It’s part of a broader tug-of-war for control over Colorado’s dominant political party, which has grown into near-supermajority control of the state legislature.

This year’s spending is likely to focus on a handful of safe Democratic seats in and around metro Denver. As outside spending has grown in recent years, it has turned some of the safest blue seats in Colorado — like those in Denver — into some of the most expensive contests in the state.

As of Friday, a labor coalition had spent more than $570,000 since May 1 to help more-liberal candidates, while several competing interconnected spending committees had spent nearly double that to help moderates. Six PACS on the moderate side had already raised $769,000, all from two outside dark money groups that disclose few, if any, of their donors.

Most of the money, nearly $500,000, has come from a group called “Fair Economy for Coloradans,” which has no publicly disclosed donors. It was created in January by Scott Martinez, Denver’s former city attorney. Martinez did not return an email seeking comment.

The rest of the cash comes directly from One Main Street, a prominent financial player in Democratic primaries that favors business-friendly candidates over more progressive challengers.

All six political action committees were registered by Jimmy Dickson, who previously managed two state lawmakers’ campaigns, including that of then-Rep. Shannon Bird, who’s now running for Congress. Bird co-founded the Colorado Opportunity Caucus, a group of business-friendly Democratic lawmakers that’s been financially supported by One Main Street. Dickson, who lives in Durango, did not return a message seeking comment.

Martinez is also the registered agent for the Opportunity Caucus and has served as the caucus’s attorney. An email sent to Sen. Lindsey Daugherty, the co-chair of the caucus, and a caucus spokeswoman was not returned.

The six groups backed by One Main Street and Fair Economy — which, despite their financial backers, often seized on the term progressive — are:

• Denver Progressives United, which has run ads backing Denver Rep. Sean Camacho, of Denver, and attacking his challenger, Iris Halpern.
• Adams County United, which is backing Rep. Jacque Phillips, of Thornton, against Gabriel Cervantes.
• Colorado Mountain Progressives, which has directed attack ads against Rep. Mandy Lindsay, of Aurora, and has also spent money backing Chris Floyd for a vacant House seat in the high country, .
• Fighting For A Better Aurora, which is running ads against Rep. Jamie Jackson, also of Aurora.
• Promoting Progressive Women, which has also run ads against Lindsay.
• Progressive Leadership Fund, which has run ads backing AndrĂ©s Carrera against Chela Garcia Irlando for a soon-to-be vacant state Senate seat in Denver.

One of Denver Progressives United’s ads accuses Halpern, an attorney, of illegally lobbying, based on a complaint filed against her earlier this year. But that complaint was dismissed by the secretary of state’s office, as first reported by the Colorado Sun.

Halpern told The Denver Post that she’d sent Denver Progressives United a cease-and-desist letter to stop running the ads and had not received a response.

Just like in 2024, opposing the One Main Street-aligned groups is Colorado Labor Action, which discloses its donors and is financed by the state’s AFL-CIO and the Colorado Education Association. It’s spent more than $500,000 thus far to back Jackson, Garcia Irlando and Halpern, along with Rep. Kenny Nguyen of Broomfield, who found himself in One Main Street’s crosshairs after .

Colorado Labor Action has run ads attacking Camacho and Carrera, as well Anne Keke, who is running against Jackson, and Heidi Henkel, who’s running against Nguyen.

One Main Street has largely refused to reveal its donors, other than several minority donations from trade unions that it publicly reports. In 2022, it received $25,000 from the Apartment Association of Metro Denver. More recently, federal tax records show One Main Street has received donations from a group funded by the oil and gas industry.

During the 2024 round of well-moneyed primaries, One Main Street received $1 million from “.” That group, in turn, received $2.2 million from Chevron and $1.1 million from Coloradans for Responsible Energy Development, another oil and gas group. Tax filings show that One Main Street was the largest recipient of Coloradans for Progress’ funding that year.

Andrew Short, One Main Street’s executive director, did not return a message seeking comment about the primary campaigns. During the 2024 primary campaign, he denied to The Denver Post that One Main Street was funded by oil and gas interests.

Just like the 2024 primaries, statehouse primary spending is spread out and tangled between multiple groups: Fair Economy has also given $50,000 to the “Colorado Affordability Project,” which has been primarily funded by groups representing charter schools, real estate agents and hospitals. Millionaire Kent Thiry, who spent significant sums in the 2024 primaries to support more-moderate candidates, also donated $35,000 to the affordability project group.

Thus far, that committee has launched ads backing Camacho, Henkel, Carrera and Sarah Woodson, who is challenging Lindsay.

The skort is one of humankind’s greatest inventions — it’s versatile, comfortable and perfect for movement of all kinds, from pickleball to hiking or just a brisk walk on a hot day. Littleton-based FestaSports agrees. With a motto of “activewear for every body,” this Colorado company developed a sporty skort made especially for tennis and pickleball with options for a skort optimized for golf, hiking and beyond. Sizes range from XS to 3X, and these skorts (starting at $67) come in a ton of patterns and custom options. () — Beth Rankin

Trusted running shoes

I used to have a rule regarding running shoes: To avoid injuries, I would never buy a pair until my physical therapist watched me run on a treadmill, testing two or three brands, to identify the one that worked best with my biomechanics. That ended when Hoka began importing its shoes to the United States in 2010. My PT and I were confident that Hoka worked best for my mild pronation, and I’ve been running in them ever since. They have oversized midsoles that provide more cushioning than most running shoes while still providing sufficient stability, and they are surprisingly light. I also use their trail shoes for trail running and for hiking on smooth trails. Hokas are also popular with people who work on their feet, such as nurses. I swear by them. (Men’s and women’s running shoes start at $124, at ) — John Meyer

Tanner Original Batting Tee

Any real baseball player knows that hitting off the tee is not just for little kids learning the game. From high school to the pros, the best hitters spend countless hours with the tee, honing their swing. The Tanner tee is the most durable and reliable tee on the market. Its hand-rolled flex-top withstands years of hitting, and it has multiple height adjustments so you can work all areas of the zone. ($100, ) — Kyle Newman

Triple Play Records

A record store may sound like an unusual place for outdoor activities, but Triple Play Records in downtown Grand Junction is more than just a music shop. In addition to selling vinyl, it also sells disc golf equipment, such as discs and bags. The store even keeps beginner’s sets — complete with a driver, mid-range disc and putter — stocked to help newbies get into the sport. 530 Main St., Grand Junction, 970-243-3974 — Tiney Ricciardi

Quick release

Here’s the golf accessory you didn’t know you needed: a magnetic towel clip for your golf bag. A friend gave me one last season and it quickly became one of those things that everyone who sees me use it suddenly must have. A small caribiner hooks onto your golf bag. Hanging from it is a mini-golf-ball-shaped magnet. (Other designs are available, too, but that’s the cutest.) The bottom half of the “ball” is attached to another small caribiner, onto which your towel hooks. Need to wet your towel before a match? Just pull the halves of the metal ball apart and, voila, the towel slips off without fuss. Snap it back on and you’re quickly off in search of that elusive birdie. Find one version of it for $14.99 at — Barbara Ellis

Shop local

I’m a big believer in shopping local, where the employees are experts on the goods they sell. This applies to Road Runner Sports, where the person helping you pick out a running or walking shoe is also a runner. Quality, well-fitted shoes are important in preventing injury, so even if the pair you choose costs $10 to $20 more than what you would find at a big-box retailer, it’s still cheaper than a visit to an orthopedic clinic. Road Runner Sports has multiple locations across the Front Range, including Denver, Lakewood, Golden, Westminster and Lone Tree. — Noelle Phillips

All-Star Pro Elite Catcher’s Glove

Billed as the “most iconic mitt in professional baseball,” this glove is also perfect for the serious amateur player, whether it be a men’s leaguer, a high schooler or a youth ballplayer who is dedicated to his craft. The best catcher’s glove that money can buy, its pocket is true and its premium-grade Japanese steerhide leather stands the test of time. A must-have for all backstops. ($450, at or area retail stores.) — Kyle Newman

Try it before purchase

If you want a new tennis racquet or pickleball paddle, head to this local store to get expert guidance on what will work for your style of play. Here, you can test equipment by hitting balls against a wall inside the store. Once you narrow your choices to two or three racquets or paddles, Game-Set-Match allows its customers to put down a deposit and take those racquets home for one week to test on an actual court. Once you pick a favorite, the deposit applies to the purchase price after returning everything. This assures athletes get the racquet or paddle that will elevate their games. Game-Set-Match Inc. has two locations:  2480 S. Colorado Blvd. in Denver and 4800 Baseline Road, Suite D102, in Boulder. — Noelle Phillips

Haag Composite Wood Bat Model 73C

Most men’s baseball leagues are wood bat, so you’ll need a reliable stick. Haag Bat Company should be your choice. The company started in Parker about a quarter-century ago (since relocated to Georgia) and has been making high-quality, handcrafted wood bats ever since. Their composite bats pack pop and are extremely durable, breaking far less than the average wood bat. ($155, at ) — Kyle Newman

Golf gloves that last

How many pairs of golf gloves do you go through in one season? One of these Kirkland brand gloves, made from “premium Cabretta leather,” typically lasts me a full year — playing once or twice a week in season — and then some. With four in a package, it’ll typically be a while before I have to dip in for a new pair. (Four gloves, for left-handed or right-handed golfers, in sizes small through extra large, for $30, at or in stores.) — Barbara Ellis

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Pickleballs eventually crack or just wear out from getting pounded onto concrete. And we all know how plastic never breaks down in a landfill. Why not love both the game and the planet by using biodegradable balls? Komodo (, about $30 for eight balls) and Core Eco ( about $40 for 12) both make balls that meet the official standards of USA Pickleball. Also available at local retail stores, like Game, Set, Match. — Noelle Philips

The Republican gubernatorial candidate has attended only one debate alongside his two opponents. He’s never run for office before and has few prominent Republican officials backing him. His backstory is extensive and full of the sort of bizarre detail that, in a pre-Donald Trump world, would likely have caused his campaign to implode before it left the launchpad.

And after the June 30 primary, Marx very well may be Colorado Republicans’ candidate for governor.

“This is pretty wild,” he said recently, standing in front of his nonprofit’s indoor shooting range, a handgun holstered in his waistband. “Someone like me, running for governor.”

The comment appeared to come less from bewilderment at how far he’d come than from vindicated confidence. And it belied what has been a thoroughly, carefully atypical campaign — one that has leaned on the 60-year-old’s charm, his direct outreach to voters and his use of the now-familiar pitch of a political outsider who shares voters’ distaste for elected politicians and campaign-speak.

As he’s outraised other Republicans and seized headlines, Marx has also been bombarded with questions about his background from reporters and from skeptical conservatives.

He’s said he was forced to kill a man as a child and, when asked by , he replied, “Does it matter?” He once ran martial arts schools in Hawaii and is a black belt in “Cajun Karate,” a form of martial arts created by his dad, Karl.

He describes himself as a “high-risk humanitarian” who trains law enforcement and provides trauma relief to people in the United States and overseas, including in conflict zones. Another humanitarian confirmed that Marx was in Iraq a decade ago and that, though he was largely behind the front lines, he was present when medical workers came under fire at least twice.

Marx also talks frequently about praying to free people from demons that, , can be attracted by porn or unmarried couples living together. In one 2023 podcast, Marx and that, after his dog identified a supernatural presence in a couple at a pool, he set a woman free from “five demons that had been assigned to her.”

In an interview with The Denver Post, Marx said it didn’t matter if reporters believed him and that he was comfortable with scrutiny of his background, even as it’s drawn .

Voters will decide, he said, arguing that he was qualified because of their support.

“Judge us by the ability to run a campaign,” he said, “and look at the guy who’s never done it, nothing — but stepped into it, was aware of the problem and the need, (and) assessed what needed to be done to win. I have avoided some pitfalls of doing it the old way, but the action I’ve taken has broken records.”

Marx raised $2.67 million through late May, the most of any Republican gubernatorial candidate up to that point in at least 20 years. To get on the ballot, he submitted more than 28,000 signatures, more than any gubernatorial campaign since at least 2014. Those signatures were not verified because Marx earned ballot access through an assembly vote.

U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert, who did not return messages seeking comment; musician Ted Nugent; three county sheriffs; and Mark Geist, who defended the U.S. embassy in Libya in 2012. (Marx’s campaign has also paid Geist and his wife for consulting and security work.)

Dick Wadhams, a former chairman of the state GOP and critic of Marx, said Marx had run “the strangest campaign I’ve seen in all the years I’ve been involved in this business.”

He argued that Marx’s beliefs about demons and his assertions that he’s helped tens of thousands of women and children — some amount of which he’s claimed to have rescued, alongside more he’s said he’s helped by providing them stuffed animals and trauma support — were so outlandish that they would cost the party in down-ballot races in November.

Kristi Burton Brown, another former state party chair, questioned Marx’s apparent disinterest in policy discussions and debates. His opponents, state Rep. Scott Bottoms and state Sen. Barb Kirkmeyer, have called him a fraud and a con man; both said they would not support him should he win the nomination.

‘New territory for a political campaign’

But Wadhams and Burton Brown both acknowledged that Marx’s campaign had proven successful, marshalling what Wadhams described as Marx’s  base of support and expanding it with direct mail and “very aggressive social media outreach.” Marx’s campaign has spent $725,000 on mailers — nearly what Kirkmeyer and Bottoms have raised combined — and he’s leaned into videos and podcast appearances.

When the moderator of one debate, a conservative talk show host, sent Marx a letter pressing him for specifics on his background, Marx skipped the event and organized a rally instead. His campaign later released photos showing more people had attended his event than the debate.

“We are in such new territory for a political campaign in Colorado — frankly, in the nation,” Wadhams said, incredulous at Marx’s TV interviews.

A quick look at the Colorado governor candidates running in this month’s Democratic, Republican primaries

Marx has eschewed dense policy discussions -- an intentional choice, he said, to let voters' eyes adjust to his background.

That hasn't been a concern for his supporters. Marx is likable, which is "gold" in politics, said Jeff Hunt, a conservative activist and radio host. He first met Marx at , where Marx teased his candidacy.

" 'He doesn't have policy chops' -- alright, well, he still outraises everybody," Hunt said. " 'He’s got a unique background' -- well, he’s still driving more people to his events. 'He won't debate' -- he still has energy and big rallies. (His opponents) are trying to figure out an angle. But when you're dealing with somebody who has such a big personality force, it¶¶Ňőap just not landing."

Hunt continued: "I've told him (that) if I was a political strategist, I would not ever have told him to tell the stories he has told or the things he has written about in his book ... That¶¶Ňőap part of the enjoyment I have in this whole process. Alright man, you are 100% yourself."

Marx has said he was the victim of profound abuse as a child. In his memoir, he wrote that his stepfather made him behead a cat at age 3. Marx wrote that at age 7, his stepfather put his hand around his own and forced him to shoot and kill a man. His stepfather, he alleges, then smeared blood on him and buried the man beneath the house.

The sheriff of Simpson County, Mississippi, where the shooting allegedly took place, did not respond to messages seeking comment.

A Marine veteran who moved to Colorado to work for Focus on the Family, Marx founded All Things Possible in 2003 "to reach people with the gospel of Jesus Christ through outreaches and crusades primarily to youth," according to the group's first tax filing. By 2024, ATP's annual revenue had surpassed $7.6 million.

A closer look at ministry

ATP has done outreach to youth in prisons and focused on "trauma response," Marx said, which includes handing out stuffed animals loaded with recorded prayers and songs. In an email, All Things Possible said the ministry was separate from Marx's campaign. Marx said he and his wife resigned from the group after he announced his candidacy.

But overlap remains: Marx's campaign address is at the ministry's training center outside of Colorado Springs, which is also the home he sold to the nonprofit for nearly $3 million in 2024. His campaign manager was also listed as an ATP board member on its most recent tax returns.

Marx has said he and his group have worked overseas, including in Iraq, Syria, Israel and southeast Asia. Its tax filings show it has spent more than $4.3 million on those efforts in recent years, though those documents also state ATP had no standing personnel or offices in those countries.

Dave Eubank, the American head of the Myanmar-based , said he met Marx in California roughly 15 years ago. He later invited Marx to Myanmar, where Eubank's group supports rebels and civilians caught in that nation's civil war.

The trip served as Marx's introduction to "high-risk humanitarianism."

Within a year, Marx asked if Eubank and his medics would like to go to Iraq to help civilians amid fighting between the Islamic State military group and Kurdish and Iraqi military units. Eubank said Marx's group funded his efforts.

"I think he came to Syria once while we were there, briefly, and then he came to Iraq multiple times while we were there," Eubank said, praising Marx as a friend and ally. "Usually it was during some lull in the fighting, but not always. He was in at least one ... maybe two engagements with us, when we were providing medical care when we came under direct fire."

Marx has also said he called in an airstrike on Islamic State militants. Eubank said he hadn't heard that story before it came up during Marx's 9News interview in late May. When Eubank was working in the Middle East, he said, the U.S. military had dropped smoke at his request to cover escaping civilians. (The Post sought comment on Marx's claims from U.S. Central Command, which oversees the Middle East. In an email, an unnamed representative said military officials "have nothing for you on this.")

Marx said ATP's goal is now to "equip and encourage" law enforcement . In a statement, Colorado Springs Police Lt. Korey Hutchinson, the lead investigator of the Colorado Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, said his department "has not conducted any direct work or formal collaboration" with ATP.

"However, we have heard positive feedback from ICAC units and personnel across the country regarding the assistance and support they provide," Hutchinson said, referring to ATP's "wellness support for investigators of child exploitation crimes."

Marx said his group also helped train law enforcement involved in .

Abigail Meyer, spokeswoman for the U.S. Marshals Service, which led the operation, said that, "according to those who ran this operation," Marx's group was not involved.

Political outsider or not, in the gubernatorial campaign -- audits of the state budget, support for police and immigration enforcement, strict Medicaid work requirements, tax relief, school choice -- will be largely familiar to voters in the Republican primary.

His website's includes a number of questionable statutory and constitutional citations; one statute it references has been repealed, and another purports to link a constitutional prohibition on sex discrimination to homeowner's insurance spikes. He told The Post that the platform was written by an "attorney who did work for Elon Musk."

Marx said he's withholding some plans for the general election. Besides, he argued, the GOP primary wouldn't be decided on policy.

"I don't think Barb or Scott ... are three degrees different on policy positions (from me)," he said, referring to Kirkmeyer and Bottoms. The real difference, he argued, will be who can convince voters they can win.

"And I think, just naturally, I'm comfortable in that arena."