Colorado GOP’s Trump endorsement is at odds with party bylaws

The Colorado Republican Party has endorsed former President Donald Trump despite bylaws against endorsing candidates before primary elections and the party’s collection of tens of thousands of dollars in ballot-access fees from other presidential contenders.

The state party central committee’s vote Sunday night happened before Iowa’s first-in-the-nation caucuses on Monday. Requiring ballot access fees and endorsing a candidate ahead of an open, contested primary election appeared to be unprecedented in Colorado. But the GOP became at least the second state party to endorse Trump this cycle, following a Dec. 1 vote by the central committee of Ohio’s party.

Colorado’s presidential primary elections are March 5. Fifteen other states also hold their presidential nominating contests that day.

“On the eve of the Iowa Caucuses, the Colorado Republican Party wanted to give President Donald J. Trump a big send off by enthusiastically endorsing him for President in November,” GOP Chairman Dave Williams said in a statement after the vote. He also accused Democrats and judges of engaging in “election interference by weaponizing our justice system” to stop Trump from winning.

The Trump endorsement was supported by 65% of central committee members who took part during the special meeting, the party reported.

The Colorado Supreme Court ruled last month that Trump is ineligible for Colorado’s primary ballot because he violated the 14th Amendment’s insurrection clause during the events surrounding the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol riot. But it allowed Trump to remain on the ballot while the U.S. Supreme Court considers the untested provision.

The Colorado Republican Party joined that case in opposition to the lawsuit, arguing that keeping Trump from the ballot would rob voters of the chance to choose their preferred candidate.

In a filing in that case, the party’s lawyers noted that “according to the Colorado Republican Committee’s bylaws, no candidate for any designation or nomination for partisan public office shall be endorsed, supported, or opposed by it, acting as an entity, or by its state officers or committees, before the Primary Election.”

In a separate filing, the party also cited bylaws requiring candidates to pay a nonrefundable filing fee of $40,000 — or $20,000 if they host a fundraiser or visit Colorado — to appear on the Republican ballot. The party reported raising more than $100,000 from Republican candidates through the end of November.

Williams wrote in a text message that the pre-primary endorsement wasn’t unprecedented, citing the party’s endorsement of Trump in 2020, when he was the incumbent Republican president and faced only nominal opposition. He won the state primary with more than 92% of votes. This year, Trump is running in a contested primary election.

Williams also cited another section of policy for the state party allowing for candidate preference. The filing fees, meanwhile, are used to demonstrate a candidate’s viability, he said.

Former Republican Party chair Dick Wadhams said he was unaware of the party’s central committee ever breaking its neutrality rules around party primaries in its 100-plus year history. He said the primary ballot access fees — which he called “political extortion of presidential candidates” — were new.

The Colorado Sun reported that the state GOP charged candidates a $5,000 ballot access fee to participate in the Republican caucus process in 2012, before the state switched back to presidential primaries.