After winning a tight race to become the Republican nominee for governor, Victor Marx faces an uphill climb, not only in trying to become the first Republican governor elected in Colorado in 24 years but also persuading leaders of his party to support him after being shunned.
The political newcomer has garnered outsized national attention due to his extraordinary, albeit mostly unprovable life story that includes unverified claims of saving people, a fatal shooting and even an air strike. The back story raises questions he has refused to answer while also generating viral attention on social media platforms and late night comedy shows. But his odds are long in an increasingly blue state that hasn’t elected a Republican to a statewide office since 2016.
Political observers say that if he can now turn his focus away from those questions and toward policy, he could appeal to unaffiliated voters and at the very least help boost other Colorado Republicans running in a midterm election year when GOP candidates face having to defend President Donald Trump, whose popularity has reached the lowest levels in his two terms.
“Like it or not, the Republican at the top of the ticket often becomes the standard bearer that year,” said Kristi Burton Brown, the chair of the Colorado Republican Party from 2021 to 2023.
Marx lost 60 percent of votes in the primary, underscoring how much work he needs to do to consolidate Republican votes just to mount a challenge to Democratic nominee Phil Weiser, Colorado’s attorney general.
In a video statement Thursday after his victory, Marx said life in Colorado had gotten too expensive and less safe under the current system, which he said Weiser was part of. Marx leaned into his outsider status as he urged voters to support him.
“So if you are frustrated, skeptical or wondering if anything can change, I just proved it by winning the primary,” he said.
Neither of his opponents in the GOP primary say they will support Marx, the founder and CEO of All Things Possible Ministries, a nonprofit humanitarian organization. He describes himself as a “high risk humanitarian” who has helped orphans and widows in places like Iraq, North Africa and Southeast Asia. At a debate last month, State Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer, who was narrowly edged out by Marx, called him “unfit” and “unqualified.”
In a statement Thursday after Marx was declared winner, Kirkmeyer didn’t mention him by name but alluded to the controversy about him.
“Now the voters will make the final decision in November, and I hope they choose the path that is best for Colorado,” she said. “I’m still proud of the campaign we ran … and, for the record, I still haven’t killed anyone.”
Meanwhile, state Rep. Scott Bottoms, who finished third in the primary, has described Marx as a “con man.”
Instead of endorsing Marx, Bottoms plans to focus on making sure fellow Republicans fill out their ballots in other races this November in part to try to keep his party from returning to the status of a super minority in the Colorado House of Representatives, Bottoms campaign spokesperson Trent Leisy said.
The GOP needs to hang on to some statehouse seats it narrowly won in 2024, he said. That will be hard to do if GOP voters opt not to vote at all because they can’t support Marx, he said.
“I believe the Republicans, with Victor Marx being on the ballot, are going to suffer big time,” Leisy said.
Marx’s problems within his own party don’t end with the lack of support from Bottoms or Kirkmeyer. Some GOP voters are at risk of being siphoned off by former U.S. Rep. Greg Lopez, who says he has collected enough signatures to be on November’s ballot as an unaffiliated candidate.
Lopez, former mayor of Parker, had planned to seek the GOP nomination for governor for a third time but switched his affiliation to unaffiliated in January because he said neither Democrats or Republicans are doing enough to help families and small businesses.
“All they want to do is stay in power and get elected,” Lopez said.
Brown, the former GOP chair, expects that most Republicans will support the party’s nominee as they have in the past. But in order to appeal to unaffiliated voters, who comprise about 52% of the electorate, and also help other Republicans running this year, Marx needs to talk specifically about what he would do about issues like affordability and crime if he were elected, she said.
“Be a solid leader and don’t push policy to the side. It does actually matter,” Brown said. She also said that Marx must be ready to answer questions about his past even if security concerns potentially limit what he can say.
Marx has released the “Colorado Works Better Plan,” a general framework for how state government could operate more efficiently with less waste rather than a specific list of proposed changes. It promises to use “secure AI” combined with human judgment to do things like review contracts. Weekly reports about any waste, fraud and abuse that have been discovered would also be issued.
Marx, a 61-year-old Marine veteran who lives just north of Colorado Springs, has spoken about being forced by his abusive stepfather to kill a man as a child. He declined to say in an interview with 9News’ Kyle Clark whether he had killed anyone as an adult or how many women and children he had rescued through his ministry work. The claims and lack of transparency became fodder for “The Daily Show” and “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver.”
Through a campaign spokesperson, Marx declined to be interviewed about the election results. The campaign also did not respond to a request to provide more details about his back story.
Kelly Maher, a veteran Republican strategist who supported Kirkmeyer in the race, echoed Brown’s analysis. If Marx can provide more clarity about his positions and why he’s running, it’s possible that he could end up helping other Republicans running for statewide races, like 4th Judicial District Attorney Michael Allen who faces Secretary of State Jena Griswold in the attorney general’s race.
“It is mathematically a really heavy lift that any Republican could win in a general election but could it be beneficial to others down ticket if he makes a real run for it? Potentially,” said Maher, executive director of Restoring Standards, a political action committee aimed at elevating character in politics.
Marx entered the political world after hinting he would run for governor at a Colorado memorial service for Charlie Kirk shortly after the conservative activist was assassinated in September. Kirk wrote the foreword to Marx’s book, “The Dangerous Gentleman,” calling him a “dear friend” and praising him for his courage, determination and compassion.
Marx shared during the service at Brave Church in Englewood that he traveled to Phoenix to comfort Kirk’s widow, Erika, after Kirk’s death.
Marx has energized evangelical Christian voters in a way that hasn’t been seen in about two decades in Colorado and motivated them to vote, Maher said.
While questions about Marx’s past could end up hurting him, Maher said, she was wary of predicting what voters would do at a time when more of them are connecting with political outsiders and their stories.
“It does seem like this is the season of the insurgent,” she said, pointing to democratic socialist Melat Kiros’ surprise victory over U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette in the 1st Congressional District’s Democratic primary in Denver.
Paul Teske, professor at the University of Colorado Denver public affairs school, said conventional wisdom, which he acknowledged hasn’t been so reliable lately, suggests that Marx would need to move toward the center to attract moderate voters in the general election, which will have greater numbers of unaffiliated voters turning out than in the primary.
He also thinks voters would want to see Marx show up to debate Weiser. During the Republican primary race, Marx only appeared in one debate with the GOP candidates.
“Independent voters, I think a lot of them are going to want to see the candidate out there arguing and fighting and explaining what they support,” Teske said.