The chair of the Colorado Republican Party, Williams is a staunch election denier and supporter of former president Donald Trump. In 2024, he says he'll be holding the rest of the state GOP to his far-right standards, denouncing those who don't fall in line, in an attempt to regain the trust of voters.
"If there are certain Republicans who want to act like Democrats, then they can join that party," he says. "We're going in a different direction than previous Republican parties."
Party members appointed Williams as chair last March after a disastrous election cycle for the GOP, with Republicans failing to take any of the statewide executive offices and losing seven seats in the Colorado Legislature, leading to a Democratic political dominance not seen in Colorado since 1938.
They risk losing even more ground in the November election, as the party will have no incumbents in congressional races. The Colorado Republican Party's most famous member, Lauren Boebert, is switching congressional districts after she won reelection in CD3 by only 546 votes in 2022. In CD4, Ken Buck is not seeking reelection, saying he is "disappointed" in his party for relying "on this lie that the 2020 election was stolen" — a lie that Williams himself proudly perpetuates. And Representative Doug Lamborn announced this month that he will not be a candidate again in CD5 — opening the way for Williams to make a run for Congress.
Despite the party being at a historic low point, Williams says that state Republicans can begin to turn things around this year if members "keep our promises."
"Not every Republican politician is going to do the right thing," Williams says. "Whenever anyone wants to increase our debt spending or vote for things that violate our freedoms, we're going to call them out. We don't care if they're Democrat or Republican."
While Williams is outspokenly critical of Democrats for everything from their progressive policies to their choice in footwear, he's also repeatedly publicly condemned his fellow Republicans for not being conservative enough for his standards — a brand of party infighting sparked nationwide by Trump himself.
Williams went after Lamborn for voting in support of a bipartisan debt ceiling compromise; scolded Buck for opposing Jim Jordan's bid for House speaker; reprimanded four local Republican officials for signing a letter in support of a Montana Democrat; said that if state Representative Barbara Kirkmeyer runs for Congress, the Libertarian Party will put up a challenger against her; and even called Boebert's switch from CD3 to CD4 a bad move in the national press.
These moves have earned Williams the ire of some Republicans, who say he is hurting candidates in their already struggling party. Fewer than 24 percent of Colorado's active voters are registered Republicans. Just over twenty years ago, Republicans dominated the state, but their numbers have steadily dwindled each year, falling behind unaffiliated voters in 2013 and Democrats in 2016. The number of active Republican voters fell by almost 30,000 from the start of 2023, now sitting at just over 900,000, compared to 1.02 million Democrats and 1.8 million unaffiliated.
Two former chairs of the Colorado Republican Party, Kristi Burton Brown and Dick Wadhams, have both spoken out against Williams for going after Republicans, as have other prominent party members such as Monument Mayor Mitch LaKind, who urged Williams to "stick to the role" of getting Republicans elected rather than attacking them.
"I don't think anyone wants to see an angry state party in Colorado," Burton Brown, who preceded Williams in the party chief role, told KRDO in June. "There's no question he and I run the party very differently. ... I think defending conservative principles isn't about being angry and cussing people out, like has been done in the last few months publicly."
Rich Sokol, former chairman of the Arapahoe County Republican Party, even resigned from the party's executive committee in December, blaming Williams for stoking division in the organization. "You have used your position to demean and denigrate fellow Republicans," he wrote in his resignation letter.
But as chair, it's his job to "maintain the platform and the principles that we espouse," Wiliams argues.
"Gone are the days that the Republican Party was used as political cover for do-nothing politicians," he adds. "We're here to save our state and our country."
Now, Williams is aiming to take his Republican purity ideology to Congress. He launched his candidacy for the 5th Congressional District after Lamborn's surprise retirement announcement, saying the district deserves a representative with a "proven conservative record."
The 2024 primary race for the Republican stronghold seat is expected to get very crowded. Since Lamborn revealed on January 5 that he won't seek reelection, longtime state Senator Bob Gardner and radio host Jeff Crank have also thrown their hats into the ring, and more are considering making a run.
Williams announced his congressional campaign through the Colorado Republican Party's official email list, inspiring even more backlash for using party resources to advertise his personal campaign. Many Republicans called for Williams to resign over the move — including deputy chief of staff for the House GOP Roger Hudson, conservative columnist Jimmy Sengenberger and former Aurora City Council member Dave Gruber — calling it "extraordinarily unethical" and "narcissistic."
"This is the first time a state chairman has blatantly violated the policy of neutrality in Republican primaries," former party chair Wadhams wrote in a column on January 15. Wadhams said electing candidates like Williams "will continue to define Republicans as outside the mainstream, thereby strengthening the Democratic hold on Colorado."
Doug Lamborn announced on January 5 he would not seek re-election.
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After graduation, Williams briefly worked in the private sector before re-entering politics in 2011, when he was elected vice chair of the El Paso County Republican Party. He lost bids to become a district director of RTD in 2012 and the Republican nominee for House District 15 in 2014. But he won the Statehouse seat on his second try in 2016, becoming the first Latino elected to represent the district. Williams served in the Colorado Legislature until January 2023.
At the Colorado Capitol, he developed a reputation as a rabble-rouser. While he passed fewer bills than most legislators, he frequently attracted attention for his failed legislative efforts, such as proposals to thank the January 6 rioters at the U.S. Capitol, restrict abortion rights and let victims of crimes committed by immigrants sue elected officials of "sanctuary cities."
He unsuccessfully ran against Lamborn in the 2022 Republican primary for the U.S. House, when he made headlines for trying to get the anti-Joe Biden phrase "Let's go Brandon" added as his middle name on the ballot.
Now a 37-year-old married father of three, Williams was selected as party chair in March. He beat out six other candidates after his competitor, indicted former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters, endorsed him. During the election, he blamed the GOP's struggles on "feckless" leadership, vowing to instead be a "wartime leader." Colorado followed several other states in electing new far-right, election-denying leadership for state party chair positions, including Idaho, Kansas and Michigan.
"With the growing discontent and distrust of political parties in general, voters are sending a clear message that they're wanting parties and our leaders to work for them. They haven't seen that; that's why we're going in a different direction," Williams says. "We're going to do everything we can to earn their trust back."
As chair, he's made aggressive moves: partnering with the Libertarian Party to avoid election challengers, trying three times to ban unaffiliated voters from voting in party primaries, and threatening to withdraw the party from the 2024 presidential primary if Trump isn't on the ballot.
But he's also struggled to fundraise for the party while facing criticism for earning tens of thousands of dollars himself as an aide to a Republican state legislator — a position he reportedly stepped down from in September. Amid these financial struggles, Williams began charging Republican candidates up to $40,000 to appear on the state's presidential primary ballot. He blames the money problems on former leadership, accusing his predecessors of draining money from the party's accounts and threatening to pursue criminal complaints in December.
And on January 14, at his urging, the party's central committee voted to endorse Trump for president, nearly two months before Coloradans are scheduled to vote in the March 5 presidential primary election — and weeks before the U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments on whether Trump is even eligible to be on Colorado's primary ballot. The move violated the Colorado GOP's bylaws stating that no candidate shall be endorsed before the primary election. After the vote, Williams said the party wanted to give Trump "a big send-off" before the Iowa caucuses.
Even as he pursues his personal political aspirations, Williams says he'll spend 2024 backing state policies to ban gender-affirming care for minors and provide property tax reductions without impacting TABOR surpluses. He also wants to "expose" House Speaker Julie McCluskie and the Democrats' "tyrannical majority" in the legislature. He's helping Republican Representative Scott Bottoms sue McCluskie and the governor for passing a law they allegedly blocked him from talking about during a legislative debate.
"First and foremost, we'd like to shine a light on how Democrats are running the state," Williams says. "We're going to do everything we can to demonstrate to voters that Democrats are completely out of touch, they've lost their mind, and they've just gone too far to the left."
Williams is hoping voters will decide the Democratic Party has "overplayed its hand," pointing to the new single-use plastic bag ban and failed ballot measure Proposition HH, which would have mitigated property tax increases but reduced TABOR refunds, as examples of "overreach" that voters will push back against.
Despite the challenges — including lackluster fundraising, dropping voter registration and no congressional incumbents running in November — Williams remains optimistic about the Colorado Republican Party's prospects this year. He's planning a robust campaign to register voters in key targeted seats and educate voters on "how the Democrats have been taking them for a ride," he notes.
"We're going to take any offensive battle that we can," Williams says. "The Democrats are in for a bad election that will lead to Republican gains so that we can actually serve the people, instead of Democrats continuing to serve their special-interest puppet masters."
