Colorado Republican Party Rallies Around Tina Peters — but Some GOP Officials Are Pushing Back

As the much-anticipated criminal trial for former Mesa County clerk Tina Peters slowly approaches, members of the Colorado Republican Party are picking sides.

GOP Chair Dave Williams sent an email to state Republicans late last week, urging party members to "unite in prayer and support for Tina Peters" and encouraging the jury to acquit her. The email blast, also signed by Vice Chair Hope Scheppelman and Secretary Anna Ferguson, ended with this declaration: "We are praying for you, dear Tina. You are loved and appreciated by all."

But not all members of the Colorado Republican Party approved of the message. Thirty-three current and former Republican election officials signed their own letter that was sent to Williams, condemning the party's support for Peters as "a slap in the face."

"We expect better from the leadership of the Colorado Republican Party," says the letter shared with Westword. "Tina Peters is not a hero. She is a sadly misguided individual who did not uphold her oath of office and her obligations to the community she served."

Peters is accused of election tampering for allegedly helping an unauthorized person make copies of sensitive voting equipment in Mesa County while she was still clerk. In March 2022, she was indicted on ten counts, including felony charges of attempting to influence a public servant, identity theft and criminal impersonation. Her trial was scheduled to begin February 9 but was just delayed until July after Peters fired her attorneys.

Peters has defended her actions as an investigation of potential election fraud, inspired by the conspiracy theory that former President Donald Trump actually won the 2020 election. Williams echoed this unsubstantiated sentiment in his email blast last week, framing the charges against Peters as retaliation against a whistleblower.

"Tina has risked so much to expose the fraud," Williams's email said. "Her due diligence proved that there were indeed election files that were erased. Because of this revelation and her efforts to inform the entire country that our elections are compromised, she is facing seven felony and three misdemeanor charges."

The Republicans standing firm against Peters say her actions didn't uncover any fraud and instead threatened the voting system. Five of the letter signers served as Colorado's secretary of state, eighteen were county clerks and twelve are current county clerks. Some of the big names include Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman, state Senator Janice Rich, 2022 secretary of state candidate Pam Anderson and the state's most recent Republican secretary of state, Wayne Williams.

"Your decision to support an individual who has actively worked to undermine our elections statewide is a slap in the face and an affront to each of us who have worked to become experts in election administration," they tell Williams in the letter. "Peters did not uncover any fraud or threats to Mesa County elections. In the end, she herself was the threat to election integrity in the county."

Williams's decision to rally behind Peters is a far cry from how his predecessor, Kristi Burton Brown, handled the situation. As party chair, Burton Brown called on Peters to end her campaign for secretary of state after she was indicted in 2022. Peters refused, but lost to Pam Anderson in the primary.

After Burton Brown decided not to seek re-election, Peters ran for chair of the Colorado Republican Party last March, after she'd been indicted. When she failed to secure enough votes to advance, Peters endorsed Williams, helping him win the seat.

Backing Peters isn't Williams's first divisive move as chair. Many party members have criticized him for fracturing the already struggling party by holding GOP members to his far-right activities, which include continuing to deny the results of the 2020 election, expressing anti-transgender sentiments and supporting Trump.

"If there are certain Republicans who want to act like Democrats, then they can join that party," Williams told Westword in January. "We're going in a different direction than previous Republican parties."

As for his letter about Peters, Williams says, "Regardless of what one thinks of Tina, all should be able to acknowledge the government is unfairly prosecuting her because of their leftist bias. We won’t stand for political persecution and we hope others would feel the same way."

As Republicans continue to lose influence in Colorado, the 33 GOP election officials who signed the letter say they hope that party members will back Republicans who work to serve the state and uphold its election systems, not those who seek to tear it down.

"Facts matter in this and every debate," the letter says. "There have been many years of imaginative accusations, with no basis in truth and using Tina Peters as the poster child. It is an affront to honest election administrators across the nation and especially in Colorado."

This story has been updated to include a quote from Dave Williams.