{"id":44914,"date":"2021-08-30T18:29:00","date_gmt":"2021-08-31T00:29:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/can-colorado-republicans-win-over-unaffiliated-voters-if-their-base-is-focused-on-2020\/"},"modified":"2021-08-31T00:29:00","modified_gmt":"2021-08-31T00:29:00","slug":"can-colorado-republicans-win-over-unaffiliated-voters-if-their-base-is-focused-on-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/can-colorado-republicans-win-over-unaffiliated-voters-if-their-base-is-focused-on-2020\/","title":{"rendered":"Can Colorado Republicans win over unaffiliated voters if their base is focused on 2020?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Supporters
Supporters of President Donald Trump gathered on all four corners at University Boulevard and Highlands Ranch Parkway on Election Night, Nov. 3, 2020, waving flags and playing music. (John Leyba\/Special to The Colorado Sun)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Kristi Burton Brown, chairwoman of the Colorado GOP, appeared at a gathering of Republicans in Jefferson County this summer where she talked about how the party can attract unaffiliated voters and finally win again in 2022.<\/p>\n

Candidates need to look forward and talk about keeping taxes low and school choice, she said. \u201cWe have to become the party of ideas.\u201d<\/p>\n

But when Burton Brown opened the hotel-conference-room gathering up for questions, the crowd didn\u2019t want to discuss her talking points. They jerked the focus back to the past.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe biggest issue for me is voter cheating and this whole national election, as we all know, was a set up,\u201d a man said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHas there been any talk of a forensic audit anywhere in this state?\u201d a woman asked next.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the Arizona audit shows the Dominion (Voting System) machines to be unreliable \u2013 and we use those machines \u2013 what\u2019s our game plan?\u201d another man wanted to know, referencing a Republican-led recount in the Phoenix area.<\/p>\n

As Colorado Republicans look to 2022 with hopes of bouncing back from two election cycles of defeat, their game plan for how to move forward is clashing with an attachment among the party\u2019s base to unfounded claims that the 2020 presidential election was fraudulent. It\u2019s not clear if the two pursuits can successfully coexist.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe election-fraud claim does pose a special challenge because the base is especially riled up about it and swing voters are especially turned off by it,\u201d said Daniel Cole, who leads the Republican campaign operations for state House and Senate Republicans.<\/p>\n

The same debate is playing out in other states, including Arizona, where a Republican audit of 2020 ballots in Maricopa County is dragging on. Trump, who continues to question his loss last year, fell short in the state by more than 10,000 votes. A previous recount of Maricopa County\u2019s ballots found no problems.<\/p>\n

A push from some in the Colorado GOP to cancel the 2022 primaries to cut unaffiliated voters out of the process and allow party insiders to select the GOP nominees is an extension of the baseless voter fraud anxiety. Unaffiliated voters have been able to vote in partisan primaries in Colorado since the 2016 passage of Proposition 108.<\/p>\n

For example, state Rep. Ron Hanks, a Fremont County Republican who has been one of the loudest voices in Colorado when it comes to questioning the 2020 presidential election results, said opting out of the state-run primary is a step toward election integrity.<\/p>\n

Randy Corporon, a Republican national committeeman and conservative talk radio host, has been advocating on his KNUS show for the primaries to be canceled for the same reason.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Republican Party can take \u2026 power away from Jena Griswold and the state by reclaiming their own primary,\u201d he told listeners recently, referring to the Democratic secretary of state, who is Colorado\u2019s top election official.<\/p>\n

Priscilla Rahn, vice chairwoman of the Colorado GOP, recently said she supports canceling the 2022 primary, calling into question Griswold\u2019s ability to fairly oversee the contest.<\/p>\n

\u201cAsk yourself this: Do you trust her to administer an honest election and not interfere against Republicans?\u201d Rahn wrote in an Aug. 21 letter.<\/p>\n

But Dick Wadhams, a former chairman of the Colorado Republican Party, sees major peril for his party if it continues to beat the drum on election fraud and opts out of next year\u2019s primaries.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no way a Republican can win in 2022 for statewide office and, frankly, in a bunch of competitive districts around the state,\u201d he said of the scenario.<\/p>\n

Unaffiliated voters made up 43% of registered voters in Colorado at the end of July, compared with Republicans at 26% and Democrats at 29%.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey keep talking about how these unaffiliated voters are going to defile our process because they are going to be nominating a bunch of moderates and liberals,\u201d Wadhams said. \u201cI read that kind of stuff, I listen to it and I\u2019m thinking: \u2018Any Republican candidate for statewide office who doesn\u2019t think about the unaffiliated voters during their primary isn\u2019t serious.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Wadhams said it would be disastrous for Republicans if questioning the 2020 presidential election results becomes a litmus test for primary candidates.<\/p>\n

Burton Brown, who hasn\u2019t taken a public stance on the question of whether to cancel next year\u2019s GOP primaries, appears to agree, urging Republicans to move on from last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe more we talk about the past, the more we talk about what happened instead of what we are going to do in 2022, the more our candidates are put at a disadvantage,\u201d she said at the Jefferson County Republican event, \u201cbecause we are focusing on something we cannot control.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Colorado
Colorado GOP Chairwoman Kristi Burton Brown speaks during a \u201cCommitment to Colorado\u201d news conference at a Sinclair gas station Aug. 9 in Denver. Colorado GOP members addressed goals of the coming legislative session on tax reversals, public safety changes, and modifying public educational choices. (Olivia Sun\/The Colorado Sun)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Still, she said, questions about election integrity are posed \u201call around the state.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Colorado GOP is encouraging people who are concerned about the state\u2019s voting processes to \u201cget involved\u201d and \u201cget your eyes in the room\u201d by becoming poll watchers and election judges. But she said there has been no proof of mass fraud in Colorado and that the only sure way for Republicans to lose in 2022 is for the party\u2019s voters not to show up on Election Day because they think their vote won\u2019t count.<\/p>\n

Election security was not explicitly on the list when Burton Brown and other top Republicans earlier this month rolled out a 10-point \u201cCommitment to Colorado\u201d aimed at attracting unaffiliated voters and serving as the party\u2019s 2022 platform.<\/p>\n

\"Colorado
Colorado Republicans\u2019 \u201cCommitment to Colorado.\u201d<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

State Rep. Dave Williams, a Colorado Springs Republican, thinks the GOP shouldn\u2019t shy away from election integrity issues and that it needs to push for policy reforms.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt does no one any good to stay out of the fight or not engage,\u201d said Williams, who favors canceling the 2022 primaries. \u201cWe need to be able to secure our elections but also prepare for 2022 with the fundamentals \u2013 find and recruit candidates, set them up. We can\u2019t ignore one or the other.\u201d<\/p>\n

He thinks both can be addressed simultaneously \u2013 and he also thinks that unaffiliated voters care about election integrity.<\/p>\n

Even if there are Republicans who want to move on, 2020 continues to dominate the spotlight.<\/p>\n

Most recently, that\u2019s because of Tina Peters, the GOP clerk and recorder in Mesa County who is under criminal investigation after election system passwords and a copy of a voting equipment hard drive were allegedly taken from her office and then leaked online.<\/p>\n

Peters\u2019 case has generated headlines in Colorado for weeks. She has cast doubt on the 2020 presidential election results, allying herself with MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, a Trump supporter who has peddled conspiracy theories about last year\u2019s contest.<\/p>\n

Seth Masket, who leads the Center for American Politics at the University of Denver, suspects that election integrity questions will persist.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you make that (stolen election) argument, it\u2019s pretty hard to pivot away from,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s kind of a difficult place that Republicans have painted themselves into.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ryan Winger, a pollster with Louisville-based Magellan Strategies, thinks the divided focus among Republicans is \u201csymptomatic of a larger problem.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMany in the GOP fail to understand unaffiliated voters and consequently fail to grasp why they lose elections,\u201d he said. \u201cSure, making election integrity a major focus will likely scare off unaffiliated voters who didn\u2019t vote for Trump and who the GOP needs to win over, but in a world where there is no dispute about the 2020 result, unaffiliated voters still aren\u2019t flocking to Republican candidates.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Steve
Steve Barlock, Donald Trump\u2019s Denver campaign chief, speaks to attendees of a pro-Trump rally at the Colorado Capitol Building in Denver on Jan. 6. (Eric Lubbers\/The Colorado Sun)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Others, like state Rep. Colin Larson, a Ken Caryl Republican who is eyeing a 2022 congressional bid, doesn\u2019t see election integrity as being the main focus of GOP voters. He\u2019s bullish on his party\u2019s chances next year.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not something I\u2019m inundated with,\u201d he said about election security questions. \u201cThe vast majority of people in my district are talking to me about school issues right now. And then after that it\u2019s crime.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cole, the strategist leading election efforts for Colorado\u2019s legislative Republicans, thinks that even if there is an election integrity focus among the GOP base \u201cit poses a \u2026 familiar challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHow to appeal first to the base in the primary election and then to swing voters in the general election?\u201d he said. \u201cThis is an issue every cycle on both sides of the aisle. And there are always voices who think Republicans can\u2019t hold the base and the middle together. In 2016, Jeb Bush said: \u2018You have to lose the primary to win the general.\u2019 But it turned out he was wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Colorado GOP\u2019s central committee will decide whether to cancel the party\u2019s 2022 primaries on Sept. 18.<\/p>\n

Colorado Sun staff writer Daniel Ducassi contributed to this report.<\/em><\/p>\n

The Colorado Sun is a reader-supported, nonpartisan news organization dedicated to covering Colorado issues. To learn more, go to coloradosun.com<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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