Three Republicans are facing off in Colorado’s GOP primary for governor on June 30: state Rep. Scott Bottoms, ministry leader Victor Marx and state Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer.
Scott Bottoms, 55, has been a state representative since 2023. The Colorado Springs resident also serves as lead pastor at the Church at Briargate. He is a U.S. Navy veteran.
Victor Marx, 60, also lives in Colorado Springs. This is the Marine veteran’s first run for public office. He is the founder and CEO of All Things Possible, a nonprofit humanitarian ministry. Marx has also written two books about his life.
Barbara Kirkmeyer, 67, is in her second term as a state senator after first being elected to the statehouse in 2020. The Brighton resident ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 2022. Before working in the legislature, she served as a Weld County commissioner for nearly two decades. Kirkmeyer also led the Department of Local Affairs under then-Gov. Bill Owens. Before entering politics, Kirkmeyer co-owned and operated a dairy farm.
The Colorado Sun interviewed the three to see where they stand on their party’s long stretch of losses in the state, affordability, the state budget, data centers and other top issues.
Here are their answers.
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- Why do you think Colorado hasn’t elected a Republican governor since 2002?
- How do you plan on reversing the GOP’s political misfortunes in the state?
- If a Republican wins the governor’s race this year, it’s likely they’ll still be operating with a legislature controlled by Democrats. How would you navigate that dynamic?
- If you could veto three bills passed by the legislature this year, what would they be?
- What executive orders would you first pursue to flex your power if the legislature remains in Democrats’ hands and you become governor?
- Where do you think the legislature should make spending cuts to address the state’s structural deficit?
- Would you end Cover All Coloradans, Colorado’s program providing Medicaid-like healthcare to immigrants who are children or pregnant?
- Do you support initiative 175, which would set aside money from the general fund each year for roads without raising taxes? If so, what would you cut to pay for it? If not, what do you propose instead to pay for roads?
- Gov. Jared Polis and Democrats in the state legislature have pushed local governments to overhaul their zoning codes and reduce barriers to building denser housing. Would you continue those efforts or attempt to roll them back if elected governor? If you oppose them, what would your administration do instead to make housing more affordable?
- Home insurance costs are skyrocketing across the state. Do you have a plan to rein them in?
- How would you address the high cost of rent?
- Should data centers be regulated in Colorado? If so, how?
- Should data centers get tax credits from the state?
- How do you plan to vote on Initiatives 108, 109 and 110, which would, respectively, make child sex trafficking punishable by life in prison without the possibility of parole; prohibit transgender kids and college students from participating in gendered sports that do not align with their biological sex; and prohibit surgery on a child for the purpose of altering their biological sex characteristics.
- Was Gov. Jared Polis right to commute former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters’ prison sentence? If yes, should he have pardoned her?
- Do you believe that human-caused climate change is real? If yes, what do you plan on doing about it as governor?
- Would you continue work on a Front Range passenger rail system, or would you try to prevent it from being built as governor?
- Do you think unaffiliated voters should be prohibited from participating in Colorado’s partisan primaries?
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ELECTABILITY
Why do you think Colorado hasn’t elected a Republican governor since 2002?
Barbara Kirkmeyer
“I think Republicans haven’t had the right message since 2002. I think we haven’t been listening to the voters and the people of our state the way we should have. And I think we underestimated the importance of the unaffiliated voters in our state.” Kirkmeyer also said she thinks Republicans have had weaker candidates at the top of the ticket than Democrats.
Scott Bottoms
“I don’t think that the Republican Party has actually put somebody up that would make a very strong Republican candidate. I think that’s the primary reason.” Bottoms said he also thinks conservative voters haven’t been casting ballots.
Victor Marx
“A lack of leadership in the GOP — and unity. I think the Democrats, they’ve been better organized in running statewide campaigns. They’ve been disciplined and more strategic over the years.”
GOP IN COLORADO
How do you plan on reversing the GOP’s political misfortunes in the state?
Barbara Kirkmeyer
“I actually have a record of delivering. I think I have a message that appeals to the broader electorate, not just Republicans.”
Scott Bottoms
Bottoms wants to tap into what he sees as a rightward shift in Colorado’s electorate and Democrats voicing displeasure with their party’s leaders. “Colorado didn’t vote for Trump, but we saw some unique anomalies that are now exploding even more.”
Victor Marx
“It always boils down to leadership. I think we’ve done a very good course correction with putting (Colorado GOP Chair) Craig Steiner in the leadership position with the GOP. That was the first stopgap — it applied pressure to the squirting wound.” Marx said he plans to motivate people to show up and vote for him. “It feels like a movement, not an election. People are excited to be back in the process, so it’s working already.”
BIPARTISANSHIP
If a Republican wins the governor’s race this year, it’s likely they’ll still be operating with a legislature controlled by Democrats. How would you navigate that dynamic?
Barbara Kirkmeyer
Kirkmeyer feels her legislative record reflects her ability to work with Democrats to get things done. “I’m more than happy to work with people on things that are going to move our state forward,” she said. “We’re not, obviously, going to agree on everything. But over my six years being a state senator, I’ve been able to get” a lot done with Democrats, including property tax relief, fully funding schools and protecting water rights. She added: “I think I have the trust and the respect of my colleagues across the aisle. There actually are times they will seek me out to work with them.”
Scott Bottoms
Bottoms thinks Republicans are going to win back seats in the House and Senate in November, and while he isn’t expecting a GOP majority in the statehouse, he thinks it will be easier to get conservative policies passed if there are fewer Democrats. “You add four or five seats to the Republican side, and that does change that conversation. You add 10, and now Democrats are actually going to come to some Republicans and say, ‘heck, how can I get my bills passed?'” Bottoms also vowed to veto any bills that change the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, increase restrictions on gun ownership or reduce parental rights.
Victor Marx
“There’s always a greater good, mission-wise. There are Democrats that want that. How can you not want a more affordable state? How can you not want more safety, less crime? How can you not want better education for our kids? There are major core issues to a better Colorado, happier Coloradans, that we can come to terms (on).” Marx said he won’t agree with Democrats on every issue, but he thinks finding a middle ground when it comes to solving the state’s biggest challenges won’t be a problem.
VETOES
If you could veto three bills passed by the legislature this year, what would they be?
Barbara Kirkmeyer
Kirkmeyer said she would veto a bill eliminating some Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights refunds as part of an accounting maneuver to balance the budget, as well as a group of measures she thinks infringe on parental rights and gun rights. “It’s hard to say just three.”
Scott Bottoms
“I would like to veto about 20.” Two he highlighted in particular were Senate Bill 18, which seals kids’ name change records, and House Bill 1401, which tapped into the state’s unclaimed property trust fund to balance the budget.
Victor Marx
Marx named four bills: the budget; a bill expanding who can petition a judge to issue a temporary gun-seizure order; a measure Gov. Jared Polis vetoed, which would have let people sue immigration agents for alleged constitutional violations; and House Bill 1322, which will let Coloradans who undergo conversion therapy — meant to change someone’s sexual orientation or gender identity — sue their mental health providers for damages with no statute of limitations. On the last one, Marx thinks the U.S. Supreme Court has made it clear that prohibitions on conversion therapy are illegal. He thinks people who undergo the therapy should be able to sue their providers just like anyone else and not get special treatment.
EXECUTIVE ORDERS
What executive orders would you first pursue to flex your power if the legislature remains in Democrats’ hands and you become governor?
Barbara Kirkmeyer
She said on Day 1 of her gubernatorial tenure she would make changes to the hundreds of boards and commissions the governor appoints members to. “I’ll start replacing people on those boards (with people) that have more conservative fiscal responsibility. I will also have my executive directors start looking at where we make cuts into spending. Day 1, my executive directors will be ready and we’ll be looking. I’ll also have them be looking at all of the cash fund programs that are within their departments, and (order them to) make a recommendation within 30 days of which programs can be cut or eliminated. I’ll get the budget whipped into shape. I don’t need an executive order for that. I will have the budget whipped into shape within six months.”
Scott Bottoms
Bottoms said he would sign an order unraveling anything happening in state government that he thinks is unconstitutional. He would then ban diversity, equity and inclusion; social emotional learning; and critical race theory from state government. Finally, Bottoms said he would create a hotline in the governor’s office through which students and parents could report grooming in school settings.
Victor Marx
“We have to do a full audit of agencies — stop spending and get a handle on where the money is going. Hold people accountable.” Second, Marx said he would examine the state’s regulatory scheme to stop rules harming businesses and any fees associated with those rules.
SPENDING CUTS
Where do you think the legislature should make spending cuts to address the state’s structural deficit?
Barbara Kirkmeyer
Kirkmeyer said she would primarily scrutinize the state workforce in order to cut 5% to 10% of each executive agency’s budget, first by eliminating open positions. “We need to look at those cash funds and really dive into them and figure out which new programs can be eliminated. I’ll be looking at new offices and new programs that were started in the last seven years.”
Scott Bottoms
“The first thing is we need to get rid of some programs like the Office of New Americans. I think there’s like six departments like that that are very similar.” Bottoms said he would then go after the “sacred cows,” like taxpayer-funded abortion, which were made possible by voters through a constitutional amendment; funding for gender-affirming surgeries or therapies; and money spent aiding people living in the U.S. illegally in Colorado. “We’re going to make massive, massive cuts in the budget. My budget will cut tens of billions of dollars.” (Editor’s note: The legislature only had $17.4 billion in discretionary funds to spend in the next fiscal year.)
Victor Marx
Marx said he would cut Medicaid spending with a focus on reducing waste or fraud. “My goal is to do as much of an in-depth audit of the long (budget) bill as I can prior to being elected with a specialty transition team for forensic audits — do as much as we can before day one hits.” He also wants to require that every state agency cuts 10% of their spending right away.
COVER ALL COLORADANS
Would you end Cover All Coloradans, Colorado’s program providing Medicaid-like healthcare to immigrants who are children or pregnant?
Barbara Kirkmeyer
“Yes, I would.” But Kirkmeyer said that pregnant immigrants would still get some care under other parts of the state’s health care budget, as well as immigrant children who need emergency care.
Scott Bottoms
“I will end that.”
Victor Marx
“Pregnant mommies, people who, if they’re in the system, I think it’s reasonable to help them. My whole position is we can still be compassionate while enforcing the law. We just have to be compassionate with people. Very tough on criminals.”
ROAD FUNDING
Do you support initiative 175, which would set aside money from the general fund each year for roads without raising taxes? If so, what would you cut to pay for it? If not, what do you propose instead to pay for roads?
Barbara Kirkmeyer
“There’s gonna have to be cuts regardless. We haven’t funded roads in our state for a long time. So, I do support it. Our roads are a mess. They are crumbling.” Kirkmeyer said she would pay for the ballot measure by trimming or cutting programs created by the legislature in recent years and by eyeing cuts to the state workforce. “I think there’s a lot of waste, a lot of mismanagement, a lot of inefficiencies that are occurring in our state departments.”
Scott Bottoms
Bottoms said he supports the initiative. “We already have plenty of money to pay for roads. The reason we’re not doing it is because of fraud and corruption.”
Victor Marx
“We definitely have to put money toward the roads, but we have to establish how we’re going to pay for that. But I think if we make the state healthier, growth will pay for growth. Reasonable people have no problem paying for things that they want.” Marx didn’t list specifics, but he said he thinks he’ll be able to cut a lot out of the budget, including some entire programs “that shouldn’t be around.” He added: “Any discussion about funding has to be honest about TABOR’s limits, and either we’re going to work within it creatively or openly debate it. I sat down with Gov. Owens. One of the things I’ve studied about his administration, he really had a great infrastructure plan. One of the areas I’m going to look at first is public transportation. I know this is so out of the box, but it has to be for me. I am an agent of change.”
DENSITY
Gov. Jared Polis and Democrats in the state legislature have pushed local governments to overhaul their zoning codes and reduce barriers to building denser housing. Would you continue those efforts or attempt to roll them back if elected governor? If you oppose them, what would your administration do instead to make housing more affordable?
Barbara Kirkmeyer
“I would not keep preempting local land use authority. I think that is totally the wrong way to go. I don’t think that 100 legislators and the governor and his state executives have an understanding of what’s going on in every community in this state. I think the people who live in their neighborhoods and live in their communities are the ones that should define the character of that community.” Instead, Kirkmeyer said she would create a grant program to help local governments complete housing and infrastructure planning. She also wants to figure out ways to better distribute state affordable housing money set aside through Proposition 123, a 2022 ballot measure passed by voters. Finally, she wants to look at ways to prevent water from being a barrier to housing construction.
Scott Bottoms
“That is not the state’s job, that only causes more red tape, more problems. First thing I’ll do is back all of those away. We need to support municipalities, but I also believe we need to have some accountability for local officials to have transparency in all of the things that they’re doing.”
Victor Marx
“I support removing unnecessary barriers that drive cost up. I don’t support a one-size-fits-all.” Marx said he supports local control and wants the state to incentivize affordability housing construction. “We can speed up approval processes. I mean, I definitely believe in a one-stop-shop for permitting. It’s all these areas where we can cut unnecessary regulations, speed up the approval process.” Finally, Marx said he wants to cut down on the litigation in housing construction that drives up builders’ insurance costs. However, he also said that he supports cutting out anti-housing zoning rules and building more homes near where people work.
HOME INSURANCE
Home insurance costs are skyrocketing across the state. Do you have a plan to rein them in?
Barbara Kirkmeyer
“Candidly, no. I’m not an expert in insurance, for starters, but I know people who are. We have to be able to develop competition and entice insurers to come to Colorado. I know that our biggest issue is hail.” Kirkmeyer said she would look to Florida, and its efforts to increase competition in the home insurance market, as an example of how to drive down costs.
Scott Bottoms
Bottoms sees deregulation as a pathway to cheaper home insurance. He also thinks the state should impose fire mitigation rules for homeowners. “That’s one of the only places that I really believe the state should step in and regulate.”
Victor Marx
Marx said he would reduce homeowners’ insurance costs by reducing wildfire risk and increasing competition in the insurance market. “And get government as much as we can out of the way.”
COST OF RENT
How would you address the high cost of rent?
Barbara Kirkmeyer
“I would do exactly opposite of what they’ve done for the last seven years in this state, because they’ve driven up the cost of housing, they’ve driven up the cost of rent. They’ve made it more difficult for landlords. I’m not saying that every landlord is a great landlord, but they’ve gotten in the middle of a contract between the landlord and the renter, and they’ve made it very favorable toward the renter where it makes it almost impossible to evict anyone. Landlords, they’re having a hard time surviving in this state.” Kirkmeyer said the legislature and state should look at clawing back some laws and regulations to make housing more affordable.
Scott Bottoms
“The price of rent is about to start going down drastically because the supply is so strong. By this time next year, the rental market for apartments is going to go way down.” But Bottoms said he wants to deregulate home building to make it cheaper to build starter homes, which will help get people who want to buy properties out of the rental pool.
Victor Marx
“Less regulations.” Marx said landlords and property managers have also told him that their property tax rates are too high. “It boils down to just less state involvement. Let the free market do what it needs to do. I think those savings will be passed on.”
DATA CENTER REGULATION
Should data centers be regulated in Colorado? If so, how?
Barbara Kirkmeyer
“They should be regulated.” Kirkmeyer said local governments should work with existing property owners to make sure data centers are put in the right places. “I think local governments need to, like they do in their land use process, look at how to mitigate the negative impacts, or even the perceived negative impacts.” Finally, she said the state should prevent utility ratepayers from footing the bill for the costs to run data centers.
Scott Bottoms
“I believe they should be lightly regulated.” First, Bottoms said local governments should be empowered to decide whether data centers are allowed to be built in their communities. “We need to be building them, but we also need to make sure that they are put in places that the people, we the people, are OK with.” His idea is to put data centers in high-altitude environments, near the headwaters of waterways, which he feels would limit their environmental impact.
Victor Marx
“They should be regulated, but not strangled. I think data centers, they’ve got to meet standards on water use, energy sourcing and the grid impact. If we over regulate, we’ll push jobs and investments out of the state or keep them from coming in.”
DATA CENTER TAX CREDITS
Should data centers get tax credits from the state?
Barbara Kirkmeyer
“If that’s what we need to incentivize great jobs in our state, then we should do that.” But she said any tax credits should come in concert with a regulatory scheme.
Scott Bottoms
“No. If you’re going to give tax breaks, tax credits, they should be for everybody. To me, that is the definition of crony capitalism.”
Victor Marx
Yes, to attract data centers to Colorado. “But it’s got to be performance-based. Eat what you kill. You’ve got to earn incentives by delivering the value to our state through job creation, grid investment, energy and then minimal water impact. I’m all for negotiating, deal making that protects Colorado taxpayers first. We can credit companies when they prove they’re going to strengthen our economy, not just extract.”
CONTROVERSIAL INITIATIVES
How do you plan to vote on Initiatives 108, 109 and 110, which would, respectively, make child sex trafficking punishable by life in prison without the possibility of parole; prohibit transgender kids and college students from participating in gendered sports that do not align with their biological sex; and prohibit surgery on a child for the purpose of altering their biological sex characteristics.
Barbara Kirkmeyer
“I’ll be a yes on all three.”
Scott Bottoms
Yes. Bottoms tried to get them passed through the legislature as bills.
Victor Marx
Yes. “If an adult rapes a child, I’m absolutely for the death penalty. I’ve seen it again and again, it’s horrific.”
TINA PETERS
Was Gov. Jared Polis right to commute former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters’ prison sentence? If yes, should he have pardoned her?
Barbara Kirkmeyer
“The court process was still ongoing. I believe the matter would have best been handled through the judicial system first rather than through executive action.” However, Kirkmeyer said she thinks Peters’ original sentence was too harsh. “Maybe in the long run I might have ended up agreeing with what (Polis) did, but I think he should have let the process play out. I think he made it look more political.”
Scott Bottoms
“I’m glad he commuted her sentence. He should have pardoned her. When I’m governor, I will pardon her and give her the ability to sue the state over this. I will work to get rid of that judge in Mesa County,” who oversaw her case. Bottoms said he thinks Polis commuted Peters’ sentence to avoid a federal indictment. “I may be wrong. That is completely conjecture. I have nothing to base it on, except just my gut. And my gut is amazing.”
Victor Marx
“He did the right thing to commute.” As for pardoning Peters when he becomes governor, “I would want to meet with her, her attorneys. I would want to review the case. And if she deserves a pardon, I’m happy to give it to her. If she doesn’t, I wouldn’t. How can I make that decision based on limited facts? It just doesn’t seem prudent.”
CLIMATE CHANGE
Do you believe that human-caused climate change is real? If yes, what do you plan on doing about it as governor?
Barbara Kirkmeyer
“I think humans do cause climate change.” But Kirkmeyer said she thinks the oil and gas industry has been subjected to too many laws and regulations to try to address climate change. “We’re going after industries in our state — and it’s not just oil and gas, but other industries in our state that mean a lot to our state — that are not necessarily causing the problems any longer.”
Scott Bottoms
No. “There is such a thing as climate change, but it’s very minimalistic. You’re not ever going to stop cows from farting, so I don’t think we’re ever going to get there. But human-caused? No. Humans don’t cause climate change — they don’t cause hot weather, cold weather, all this crazy stuff that I’ve been hearing for years. I believe that climate change is a religion, it is not based on science. It’s based upon blind faith, and it has no relevance into bills, into our economy, or whatever.”
Victor Marx
“I definitely think that humans contribute to some aspect of climate change. Human activity plays a role. We’ve got to modernize our grid without driving costs up. We want to protect our environment, but we don’t want to punish working families to do it. I think good management and wisdom — common sense — go a long way.”
PASSENGER RAIL
Would you continue work on a Front Range passenger rail system, or would you try to prevent it from being built as governor?
Barbara Kirkmeyer
“I would not prevent it, but I would not be as robust in working on it as what has been happening over the course of the last three or four years. I don’t think it should be at the expense of the rest of our transportation infrastructure system.”
Scott Bottoms
“As it is right now, I will stand against it. I’ll prevent it. It is so broken.” Bottoms said he’s not against the idea, but he dislikes the current plans.
Victor Marx
“Here’s a question I want to ask: does it actually work for Colorado taxpayers and commuters? What’s the return on investment? Is it just a pet project? If a Front Range rail system reduces congestion and has some type of realistic ridership model” Marx said he would support it. “But it can’t become this blank check. If it’s just another expensive promise that’s going to underdeliver on our property taxes and fees climb, I’ll push the pause button, redesign.”
UNAFFILIATED VOTERS
Do you think unaffiliated voters should be prohibited from participating in Colorado’s partisan primaries?
Barbara Kirkmeyer
“No.”
Scott Bottoms
Yes. “The partisan primaries are exactly that.”
Victor Marx
“I’ve given it thought. I can’t say I understand it completely. The tension, the absolute tension, has split the party. I think the core question isn’t just access. It’s whether the primaries are treated as a private party process or broader public nomination system for our state.”