Despite leaving nothing but political wreckage after two disastrous years as Colorado Republican state chairman, Dave Williams is finding new ways to destroy a once great party.

His Soviet-style attempt in 2023 to steal votes from members of the Colorado Republican State Central Committee (CRC) and forcibly cast those votes without the members’ consent now looks quaint. Now, he is seeking to entirely eliminate the votes of Republican elected officials on the CRC.

The CRC will meet in March to elect new officers after all 64 counties elect their CRC members in February. Every county has an automatic three votes with larger counties getting two additional members for every 10,000 votes they cast for President Donald Trump.

Historically, Republican statewide elected officials, U.S. senators, members of Congress, state legislators, district attorneys, members of the state board of education and members of the University of Colorado board of regents are all automatic members of the CRC.

These are the elected officials who ran and won as Republican candidates and who are now representing millions of Colorado citizens in their jurisdictions. These are the Republican leaders who define the party every day by their votes and public statements. They are on the cutting edge of trying to implement principled, conservative public policy in contrast to the destructive policies of liberals and the Democratic Socialists who increasingly define Colorado Democrats.

Republican elected officials eminently deserve their place on the CRC but Williams not only wants to steal their votes, he wants to eliminate them entirely

Rather than wait for a newly elected and reconstituted CRC to meet in March and beyond to consider changes to bylaws, Williams is holding an unprecedented online meeting of the outgoing CRC on Jan. 30 to vote on sweeping, destructive bylaw proposals that would be imposed on the new CRC in March.

Rather than all four Republican members of Congress serving as voting members of the CRC, only one member would be a member. Same thing for the other offices. Only one of 22 state representatives would have a vote. Only one of 12 state senators would have a vote. Only one district attorney, only one member of the state board of education and only one member of the CU board of regents would have a vote on the CRC.

Despite having the most incompetent and destructive state Republican Party in history that did virtually nothing for Republican candidates in the general election, those Republicans won some significant victories for Congress and the state legislature.

Third District U.S. Rep. Jeff Hurd convincingly won an open Republican seat that was nearly lost two years earlier. U.S. Rep. Jeff Crank was overwhelmingly nominated over Williams in the Fifth District, which preserved the open seat that Williams would have otherwise made vulnerable. U.S. Rep. Gabe Evans unseated a Democratic incumbent in the Eighth District, which was critical to maintaining a narrow Republican majority in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Hurd, Crank and Evans won these races despite Williams spending state party funds opposing them in their primary elections, including money he spent on himself in his failed challenge to Crank. They received no financial support from the state party in the general election.

Under the leadership of state Senate Minority Leader Paul Lundeen and state House Minority Leader Rose Pugliese, Republicans won several very competitive state legislative races, once again with no support from Williams and the state party. So why would Williams seek to steal and eliminate the votes of these Republican elected officials who represent hard-fought Republican victories in a state won by Kamala Harris by 11 points and with Democratic domination not seen since the 1930s? For the first time in the more than 100-year history of the CRC, a large number of CRC members attempted to remove Williams last year, but a judge saved Williams by rejecting the vote to remove him. Another proposed bylaw change is to raise the threshold to remove a chairman from 60% to 67%. These bylaw changes are nothing more than self-serving attempts to cleanse the CRC of opposition to the failed leadership of Williams.

Meanwhile, after failing to cancel the 2024 Republican primary election, Williams will attempt to cancel the 2026 Republican primary election and nominate candidates solely through the sparsely attended caucus-assembly process dominated by a few thousand party activists.

If Williams secures the required 75% of the CRC to cancel the primary, more than 900,000 Republicans will be denied any role in nominating Republican candidates from county commissioner up to governor and U.S. senator. Nearly 1 million unaffiliated voters would only get the Democratic primary ballot in the mail.

The Colorado Republican State Central Committee is becoming a political cult of exclusion, retrenchment and retribution.

Dick Wadhams is a former Colorado Republican state chairman.