The four Colorado Republicans in Congress joined the National Republican Congressional Committee on Thursday night in asking a federal judge to let them intervene in a lawsuit so that they can fight an effort by the Colorado GOP to block unaffiliated voters from participating in the party’s primaries this year.
U.S. Reps. Lauren Boebert of Windsor, Jeff Crank of Colorado Springs, Jeff Hurd of Grand Junction, and Gabe Evans of Fort Lupton — along with the NRCC — said in a motion that preventing unaffiliated voters from casting ballots in Republican primaries this year “could cause chaos.”
“This targeted intervention is necessary to protect candidates’ and a national political committee’s concrete, partisan interests from imminent disruption,” the group wrote.
The Colorado GOP is opposing the intervention effort, which is the latest evidence — and most obvious flashing neon sign yet — of the party’s deep divisions and disorganization heading to the heart of a critical election season in which Republicans are trying to win back some relevancy. Evans is running in one of the nation’s most competitive U.S. House districts, while Crank and Hurd are also being targeted by national Democrats.
Brita Horn, the Colorado GOP chairwoman, resigned on April 17 and a few days later, attorneys for the party’s interim chair filed an emergency request in federal court seeking to block county clerks from mailing Republican primary ballots to unaffiliated voters this year.
The request piggybacks off a ruling late last month from U.S. District Court Judge Philip A. Brimmer, who found that a requirement in Colorado law that 75% of the party’s central committee must support opting out of the primaries before it can happen “constitutes a severe burden on the major parties’ right to association and is therefore unconstitutional.”
Randy Corporon and Alexander Haberbush, two lawyers for the Colorado GOP, wrote that since the party’s opt-out vote had to happen by Oct. 1, 2025, and Brimmer’s ruling wasn’t issued until March 31, unaffiliated voters should be blocked from participating in the Republican primaries “to prevent irreparable constitutional injury.”
County clerks must send ballots for the June 30 primary to military and overseas voters by May 16, the same day elections officials are required to provide a ballot to any voter who requests one in person at a county clerk’s office. Clerks can mail ballots to the rest of the electorate on June 8.
Unaffiliated voters, who now make up a majority of the state’s active, registered electorate, have been able to cast ballots in either the state’s Democratic or Republican primaries since 2018.
Of the four Colorado Republicans in Congress, Hurd has the most to lose in the primary lawsuit. He’s the only one of the group facing a primary challenge this year.
Former state Rep. Ron Hanks, a far-right candidate who has embraced election conspiracy theories, is mounting an 11th-hour bid to unseat Hurd in the 3rd Congressional District. Hurd easily beat Hanks and four others in the 3rd District Republican primary in 2024, but without unaffiliated voters casting ballots in the race, Hurd’s chances of winning could be diminished.
“Preventing unaffiliated voters from participating in the Republican primary election will cause me irreparable harm that cannot be remedied after the election,” Hurd wrote in his request to intervene.
Evans, Boebert, Crank and the NRCC said they would lose valuable data on unaffiliated voters if unaffiliateds aren’t allowed to participate in the rest of the state’s GOP primaries this year.
In 2016, voters passed Proposition 108, opening up the primaries to unaffiliateds. But a faction of Republicans has tried ever since to halt unaffiliated participation in GOP primaries, arguing that it dilutes the conservatism of their candidates.
The anti-Proposition 108 group of Republicans, led by former state Rep. Dave Williams, who was the Colorado GOP’s chairman for two years starting in March 2023, has repeatedly tried to persuade their party’s central committee to opt out of Colorado’s primaries. But they have failed year after year because they’ve been unable to meet the 75% threshold, most recently last year.
When the committee voted last year, 44.57% of the total central committee membership (507 people) voted to opt out.
But a majority of the Colorado GOP’s central committee, made up of a few hundred party loyalists, has supported opting out in many of the votes.
The Colorado Secretary of State’s Office is the defendant in the GOP’s lawsuit.