Supporters of the Colorado Republican Party’s move to remove the party’s Chairman, Dave Williams, over his attacks on Pride Month received support from other county parties this week, while the Jefferson County Republican Party blamed the chairman for starting the movement.
Members of the Weld County Republican Executive Committee voted nearly unanimously Tuesday night to join more than a dozen other county Republican organizations that have called for Williams to resign or face a vote to be removed from his party’s top position.
Williams, who is running in next week’s primary for El Paso County’s 5th District, a seat held by retiring Rep. Doug Lamborn, has come under partisan criticism for a series of emails and other messages aimed at Pride Month, an annual celebration of the LGBTQ+ community, including one titled “God hates pride” and social media posts urging party supporters to “burn all Pride flags in June.”
“We don’t want to do this,” Weld County Republican Party Chairman Tom Van Loan told Colorado Politics after the party’s governing body approved the resolution. “We’re here to get people elected and move forward, but we feel like we have to do something.”
Republican parties in Boulder and Otero counties took similar steps last weekend, raising concerns about Williams’ recent threats to publicly release the names of Republicans who disagree with him and the state party’s involvement in a contentious primary election.
In response to Williams’ email, Valdemar Archuleta, the Republican candidate challenging Democratic Rep. Diana DeGette in Denver’s 1st Congressional District, abandoned the state party’s endorsement.
At the same time, Jefferson County Republican Party Chairwoman Nancy Pallozzi filed a petition to call a special meeting of the state Republican Central Committee to consider removing Williams from office, earning a reprimand from the county party’s executive committee last weekend.
In a censure resolution approved June 13, the committee declared that Pallozzi had overstepped her authority as county chair by spearheading “the highly divisive issue of calling for the resignation of the state party chair” and ordered her to “cease and desist from all actions and communications related to this issue” in her capacity as chair. The resolution told Pallozzi she must “immediately disclose and produce” records of her communications related to the online petition, including contacts with the media and other county party chairs.
The county’s party executive committee also said any actions taken by Pallozzi, including the petition he circulated, would be “void,” but Pallozzi told Colorado Politics that provision has no effect, adding that he intends to move forward with the petition as an individual.
Before he was censured, Pallozzi told Colorado Politics he had collected more than the number of signatures needed to call a rally. On Tuesday, Pallozzi emphasized that he was speaking in his personal capacity, not as county chair, under the terms of the censure, and said he decided to delay submitting the petition to avoid conflict with the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee next month.
Van Loan acknowledged that the county party’s resolution calling for Williams’ resignation was largely symbolic, since what really had an effect was the petition calling for a conference to remove Williams from office.
“The crux of the issue has already been addressed. The petition has enough signatures to call a meeting,” Van Loan said. “So the resolution from each county is a moral support and a statement to everybody that as Republicans, we’re going to try to not alienate our voters, whatever their beliefs may be.”
Williams told Colorado Politics on Tuesday he isn’t intimidated by Weld County’s move.
“I expect Mr. Weld to defend Pride Month and debate policies that are harmful to children, while also informing the voters of Mr. Weld’s district of his public stance on Pride Month,” Williams said in a text message, repeating responses from other county parties when they have adopted similar resolutions.
Van Loan said Williams didn’t understand that.
“That’s not what this is about,” Van Loan said. “You’ve alienated a lot of citizens, voters, Freedmen, Coloradans, Americans. We say that’s not what the party is about. We need to grow our electorate, we need to grow our voters, not alienate them.”
