The one (maybe final, maybe not) thing to know about Dave “God Hates Flags” Williams is that he will never (at least for now) go away.
As you may have heard, a group of prominent Republicans, including many members of the party’s state central committee, met over the weekend at a church in Brighton and voted overwhelmingly to strip Williams of his job as state GOP chair.
As you also may have heard, Williams called the meeting “illegal,” “illegitimate” and a “sham,” although, for some reason, he stopped short of saying the vote was rigged. And he missed a perfect opportunity by failing to call it a coup, even though less than a majority of the 400 central committee members showed in Brighton.
In any case, Williams said he wouldn’t accept the results of the vote, and that there’d be another meeting and another vote this Saturday — a meeting and vote that may or may not ever happen.
Does any of this sound familiar to you? Of course, it does.
In Donald Trump’s America, election results are considered optional. And, at this point, the state GOP has two chairs for a party that, on a good day, can barely fill a single room.
Williams is a Trump acolyte, a MAGA member in good standing, an election-denying Big Lie promulgator. And you could look at Williams’ desperate attempts to stay in power — not that being a state GOP chair in Colorado is all that powerful — as a sequel to Trump’s refusal to accept defeat in 2020 or as a possible prequel to Trump’s certain refusal to accept defeat should he lose in November.
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There are differences, of course. When Trump lost in 2020, he had to give up the most powerful job in the world. And if Trump loses in 2024, it may mean that one day he’d end up in prison.
The stakes for Williams are just slightly lower. He’s fighting to keep a job that most of the people in his own party — including nearly all of Colorado’s GOP candidates for Congress — think he should give up.
It’s not just that his tenure has been marked by petty corruption.
It’s not just that he endorsed candidates — often the losing candidate — in contested GOP primaries and has refused to back some of the winners in the coming general election.
It’s not just that he kicked out a Colorado Sun reporter from a GOP state assembly for, uh, writing the truth about him. (You think this is where Deion Sanders came up with the idea — officially endorsed by the University of Colorado — to prevent a Denver Post sports columnist from asking him questions? Just askin’.)
It’s not just that he used party funds in support of his own campaign in his disastrous 5th Congressional District primary bid for Congress.
It’s not just that he put the state party firmly on the side of homophobia with his “God Hates Flags” mailer.
It’s not just that he put the party firmly behind — with a “prayer and support” mailer to the party faithful — Tina Peters as she stood trial for, and would be convicted of, breaching election security.
It’s not just that the state party raised less than $13,000 last month.
It’s not just that Republicans are in their most weakened condition in Colorado in modern — and probably ancient, as well — history.
It’s all those things and more.
And so, finally, fed-up members of the state central committee gathered in Brighton to dump Williams. They elected Eli Bremer, the former Colorado Springs GOP chair, to replace Williams, at least temporarily. And they canceled the meeting this Saturday — the one that Williams says would be legitimate — which doesn’t mean there won’t be a meeting anyway.
And that’s how you end up with multiple party chairs and even more bad blood.
The National Republican Congressional Committee, which supports Republicans running for the U.S. House and could not have been unhappy to see Williams bounced, says it recognizes Bremer as chair.
The National Republican Committee, though, which is basically a wholly-owned Trump subsidiary, hasn’t committed one way or the other.
And however the NRC rules on Williams, if and when it does, the case will almost certainly go to court anyway, where it wouldn’t be decided until long after the November elections.
And if you think that’s crazy — which, of course, it is — consider what just happened with Republicans in Michigan, where dissidents had voted in January to toss the party chair, Kristina Karamo, who also was a Trump acolyte. Eventually, Trump disowned Karamo because Michigan is a vital swing state and the party had descended into chaos.
The NRC eventually sided with the Michigan dissidents. But the former chair, who says she will go to court, showed up at the state GOP convention in Flint Saturday anyway — and, get this, was forcibly removed.
So, things could get even worse for the GOP in Colorado. In fact, if history is any guide, they probably will.
Mike Littwin has been a columnist for too many years to count. He has covered Dr. J, four presidential inaugurations, six national conventions and countless brain-numbing speeches in the New Hampshire and Iowa snow. Sign up for Mike’s newsletter.
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