Colorado GOP threatens to shift to caucus system over Trump ruling

The Colorado Republican Party on Tuesday threatened to switch its presidential nominating process from a primary to a caucus system, following the state’s Supreme Court ruling Tuesday that rendered former President Trump ineligible to appear on the primary ballot.

The Colorado GOP’s account on X, formerly Twitter, replied to a post from Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, who pledged to “withdraw from the Colorado GOP primary unless Trump is also allowed to be on the state’s ballot.”

“You won’t have to,” the Colorado GOP replied, “because we will withdraw from the Primary as a Party and convert to a pure caucus system if this is allowed to stand.”

The state’s GOP Party chair, Dave Williams, reiterated this sentiment in an interview with The Colorado Sun, saying if Trump isn’t on the ballot, the party would ask the state to cancel the GOP presidential primary.

Williams told The Sun that if the Secretary of State’s office refuses, “we will ignore the primary” results.

The threat comes amid a wave of backlash from Republicans to the Colorado Supreme Court’s 4-3 ruling, which cited the 14th Amendment’s “insurrection clause” in arguing Trump’s role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol made him ineligible to hold public office.

The Trump campaign has already indicated it plans to appeal the ruling to the Supreme Court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority that includes three justices Trump nominated.

The Colorado Supreme Court put its ruling on hold until Jan. 4 to allow Trump to seek review from the U.S. Supreme Court. If he does, the former president’s name automatically remains on the ballot until the justices resolve the appeal.

The ruling on Tuesday marks the first time Trump’s role in the Capitol riot was determined to make him ineligible to hold office again under the 14th Amendment. Several other cases have sought to do the same.

In a statement Wednesday, the Colorado Department of State made clear the state Republican party would not be permitted to withdraw or cancel the primary.

“Colorado law does not allow a Presidential Primary Election to be cancelled at the request of a political party. If the Colorado Republican Party attempts to withdraw from the Presidential Primary or ignore the results of the election, this would likely be a matter for the Courts,” the statement read.

Julia Mueller contributed. Updated at 4:15 p.m.