Colorado Republicans oust controversial state party chair, Williams contests results

Colorado Republicans made a move Saturday to oust their state party chair, Dave Williams, even as he has denied the legitimacy of such a play. 

Out of the approximately 180 people participating in the meeting, roughly 160 Republicans voted to remove Williams as their party chair during the Saturday gathering, according to news reports.

But there’s been discrepancy regarding how to interpret the state party rules for ousting an officer — and whether they can be interpreted to mean that at least three-fifths of GOP central committee members present are enough to vote out an official, or if at least three-fifths of all GOP central committee members must be needed.

The state party, in a release, claimed the Republicans were “illegally re-interpreting our bylaws to improperly attempt to remove all of your duly elected officers.” Meanwhile, Republicans at the event voted in favor of interpreting the rules as referring to Republicans in attendance and not total members, according to the Colorado Sun.

“77 people of a fringe party faction don’t get to decide for 400 plus members at a fake meeting, and to even suggest that less than half of the total membership can meet without authorization and remove duly elected officers below the 3/5th requirement and then have even less than a quarter of total membership elect a new chair is beyond absurd,” Williams said in a text message to The Hill. 

“The Republican National Committee Parliamentarian has already deemed their meeting to have been invalid and our meeting on August 31st the only legitimate meeting,” he added.

The Hill has reached out to the Republican National Committee regarding how the group is recognizing the results. 

Meanwhile, the Republicans present during the Saturday meeting elected Eli Bremer, a former El Paso County GOP chair, former Senate candidate and former Olympian, as their next state party chair. 

Williams has irked Republicans in the state for using state party resources to promote his congressional candidacy in the 5th Congressional District. He lost the GOP primary to Jeff Crank in June.

He’s also rankled members of the party as the state party has released anti-LGBTQ messages, including one claiming that “godless groomers in our society want to attack what is decent, holy, and righteous” during the month of June, also known as Pride Month. The state GOP also posted on the social platform X, “Burn all the #pride flags this June.”