Colorado GOP plans to use caucuses, assemblies to pick delegates if lawsuit keeps Trump off ballot

Colorado Republicans want to use an internal party process to award delegates to next year's Republican National Convention if a lawsuit filed this week in state court succeeds in keeping Donald Trump off the ballot in next spring's Colorado presidential primary.

A lawsuit filed on Wednesday by four Republican and two unaffiliated Colorado voters seeks to prevent Trump from ever appearing on a Colorado ballot again, alleging that the former president's efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election disqualify him from holding federal office under a provision of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

Adopted after the Civil War, the amendment bars anyone who has sworn an oath to uphold the Constitution from federal office if they "have engaged in insurrection or rebellion." The plaintiffs in the 115-page lawsuit — including a former state Senate Majority leader and a former GOP congresswoman from Rhode Island — argue that Trump violated his oath by "recruiting, inciting and encouraging a violent mob that attacked the Capitol on January 6, 2021 in a futile attempt to remain in office."

Blasting the move as an attempt to "weaponize our judicial system," state GOP Chairman Dave Williams told Colorado Politics that the party is preparing a backup plan to pick presidential delegates solely through the caucus and assembly system, instead of basing delegates on the results of the state's presidential primary on Super Tuesday, March 5, 2024.

"Colorado Republicans are demanding their party fight back and stop these extremists," Williams said in a text message. "This ridiculous lawsuit is rallying Republicans across Colorado and will likely have the opposite effect of what was initially planned."

The lawsuit, helmed by liberal DC-based watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, asks the court to expedite the matter so it can be resolved before Colorado's primary ballot is finalized. State law sets a deadline of Jan. 5, 2024, for the secretary of state to certify the presidential primary ballot.

Williams said he's been in touch this week with the Republican National Committee and intends to ask the party's state central committee to approve an alternative plan to allocate convention delegates at its Sept. 30 meeting in Castle Rock.

"If their lawsuit is successful, then we will push to have all of our national delegates selected through our caucus and assembly process and bypass any rigged presidential primary election entirely," Williams said in an email to state Republicans.

"This is not what Colorado Republicans want to do but we will reserve the right to pursue this course of action to counter the crooked schemes of these phony conservatives who are clearly acting as surrogates for Jena Griswold and radical Democrats."

Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold, a Democrat and the state's chief election officer, is charged with certifying state ballots. She's named as a defendant in the lawsuit, along with Trump.

Williams said he anticipates the lawsuit will fail — the plaintiffs lack standing and it's premature, since Trump hasn't qualified for the ballot yet, Williams said — but wants a plan in place in case.

"At a minimum, we will not allow our delegate allotment and allocation process to be influenced by those who want to use the courts to defeat a candidate they oppose. That’s undemocratic," he told Colorado Politics.

Mario Nicolais, one of the lawyers who filed the lawsuit, told Colorado Politics that he's unsure whether the party can put in place what could amount to an end-run around an eventual court ruling but added that he doubts it will matter.

"Furthermore, I think other candidates may have a problem with it," the Lakewood-based veteran election law attorney said in a text message. "As for our lawsuit, it doesn’t make any difference. We don’t believe he (will be) eligible to be on any ballot ever again."

The lawsuit asks the court to rule Trump ineligible to be listed "as a candidate on the 2024 Republican presidential primary election ballot and any future election ballot."

Added Nicolais: "I think if they try to put Trump on regardless, it will be a mess. But I do like that they seem to understand our lawsuit is strong enough that they are worried."

Williams took a direct swipe at Nicolais in an email sent to state Republicans, describing him as being among "a group of desperate 'Never-Trump' activists, led by Mario Nicolais, a failed GOP primary candidate who was rejected by voters for being too liberal."

Nicolais lost a bid for the GOP nomination for a legislative seat in 2014. He changed his registration to unaffiliated the day before Trump was inaugurated in 2017, later telling Colorado Politics that he thought Trump was "dangerous to our country and to our entire system of government."

Other plaintiffs in the lawsuit include former Republican Senate Majority Leader Norma Anderson, a Lakewood Republican; Denver Post columnist Krista Kafer; former U.S. Rep. Claudine Cmarada, who represented Rhode Island in Congress when her last name was Schneider and now lives in Colorado; and Michelle Priola, the wife of state Sen. Kevin Priola, the Henderson Democrat who switched parties a year ago after winning election to his seat twice as a Republican. Anderson's daughter-in-law, Pam Anderson, was the 2022 Republican nominee for Colorado secretary of state but lost the election to Griswold.

Republican U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert on Thursday slammed the lawsuit on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.

"Democrats in Colorado now want to try and keep Trump off the 2024 ballot," the longtime Trump ally said. "Imagine calling yourselves the party of 'saving democracy' while actively seeking to block a candidate from the ballot for no particular reason other than you know he'll win."

While Trump carried Colorado's presidential primary by an overwhelming margin in 2020, when the incumbent faced only nominal opposition, the Republican lost the state's general election to Democrat Hillary Clinton in 2016 by about 5 percentage points and lost the state in 2020 to President Joe Biden by more than 13 percentage points.