Colorado Republicans Kick Off Midterm Election Cycle At Precinct Caucuses

By Sara Wilson, Colorado Newsline

March 3, 2022

Across Colorado on Tuesday night, Republican voters took part in one of the first steps in the democratic process: precinct-level caucuses.

It’s the beginning of the party nomination procedures for this year’s midterm elections, where voters will decide races from their local county commissions all the way to the governor’s office and congressional seats.

“This is really the grassroots part of the party,” said Michael Fields, a precinct leader in Douglas County and conservative organizer. Fields is president of the conservative nonprofit Advance Colorado Institute.

Caucus organizers said approximately 120 people turned out at the Douglas County High School location — more than they expected. It was one of 20 caucus meetings within Douglas County alone.

The attendees’ goal for the night was to not only meet and discuss politics, but also elect precinct delegates to the upcoming county assembly. Precincts are the smallest electoral denominator.

Those county assembly delegates nominate county-level candidates and also choose people to attend the congressional and state assemblies, where the respective candidate nominations will be determined. In Douglas County, the party’s county assembly is on March 19. The state assembly is April 9. When it is all said and done, the caucuses are the preliminary steps to deciding which candidates will be on the ballot for the June 28 primary election. Candidates can also sidestep the caucus process and petition to get on the ballot.

“Caucuses are where you make the difference,” said Sandy Shutt, another precinct leader. “This is where you get to look at the candidates and choose the ones that you feel reflect your values. If the grassroots don’t show up, then it becomes the party elite that does it.”

Caucus participants listen to speakers at Douglas County High School in Castle Rock on March 1, 2022. (Parker Seibold for Colorado Newsline)

‘Wrong direction’

Douglas County Republicans are coming off a recent victory in the 2021 school board elections, where they flipped the board to a conservative majority largely due to anti-pandemic restriction campaigning. That momentum could continue into the midterms.

“That always motivates people, when you can get some kind of victory in a state that is largely dominated by Democrats right now. You take those wins and try to build on them,” Fields said.

“I think here in Douglas County there is a lot of excitement about these local races that can translate into some of the bigger ones,” he said.

For a lot of first-time caucus-goers, education issues were a motivating factor in getting them to turn out to a local high school on a Tuesday night for an unfamiliar political ritual.

It was the first caucus for Jane and Dave Kampsnider, a couple who said they are involved with the conservative group FEC United. They were traditionally not very involved with politics, but this year feels different, they said. They were the only two to show up for their newly-created precinct and by default became the delegates for the county assembly.

“It’s never been something I wanted to do, but it’s something that I feel like I needed to do,” Jane Kampsnider said.

Douglas County Republican caucus participants from precinct 344 discuss candidates at Douglas County High School in Castle Rock on March 1, 2022. (Parker Seibold for Colorado Newsline)

Many people at the caucus listed culture war issues as motivating factors in their increased political involvement, from pandemic mandates and critical race theory purportedly being taught in schools to reproductive health care and LGBTQ rights.

“In a nutshell, I’d like to see this country take a step back to where I’m familiar with, where it was when we grew up. It’s going in the wrong direction, at an ever-increasing rate of speed,” said Craig Foy, who was encouraged by a friend to attend Tuesday’s caucus. “Men in girls’ bathrooms, that kind of thing, men in girls’ sports — I think we’re overwhelmed by those things. If we had to sit down 10 years ago and fantasize about weird, wacky changes that might come to this world, we wouldn’t even be able to come up with some of them.”

Foy said the current political climate feels like an “open season” on people like him.

People said on Tuesday that they were also motivated by “election integrity” and a belief in widespread voter fraud. Multiple candidates, including U.S. Senate candidate Ron Hanks, a Republican state representative, are running with election denial baked into their platforms.

Claims that the 2020 election was fraudulent or compromised have been debunked by experts, courts and election officials from both parties.

More motivation this year

On Tuesday there was not a clear consensus on any frontrunners for the governor or U.S. Senate race. Some caucus goers couldn’t name any candidates, despite months of campaigning from candidates like University of Colorado Regent Heidi Ganahl. A representative for gubernatorial candidate Greg Lopez was the only one to speak on behalf of a candidate for a non-local race.

Randy Lake, another first-timer, said he resonated with Lopez and Senate candidate Eli Bremer to an extent, but was only sure of his support for local candidate Lora Thomas, a Douglas County commissioner, for sheriff. Lake’s precinct had eight people show up, six of whom were novices. Lake said he disagrees with Democratic Gov. Jared Polis’ vision for Colorado, which he said, “borders on socialism.”

“If you don’t stand up for those things locally, then there’s no point,” he said of why he attended the caucus.

Shutt, who is in Lake’s precinct, has years of political involvement under her belt. She said that the last time she attended a Douglas County caucus, in 2018, she was one of two people from her precinct. She rallied some of her neighbors to show up Tuesday.

“People are more involved this year,” she said. “People are more motivated. We’ve seen things going on in the government that are not what we want to see happening,” she said to murmurs of consensus from her precinct table. “We want our Constitution, and we want to keep our Bill of Rights intact.”

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