Republican party members vote to remove Williams as state chairman

DENVER ( KDVR ) — The chairman of the Colorado Republican Party was ousted from his position in a meeting held Saturday, but he said the meeting was improper and will not recognize the results.

Dave Williams has been facing calls to step down or be removed as the Colorado Republican Party Chairman since sending an email from the state party stating that “God hates flags,” and then posting to X that Americans should “Burn all the #pride flags this June.”

Williams remained steadfast in his opinion, despite receiving backlash from inside the Republican party, telling FOX31 in June , “We make no apologies for saying God hates pride or pride flags as it’s an agenda that harms children and undermines parental authority, and the only backlash we see is coming from radical Democrats, the fake news media, and weak Republicans who bow down at the feet of leftist cancel culture.”

Williams is also facing scrutiny for using state party funds for his own campaign, printing flyers that attacked his opponent, conservative activist Jeff Crank. Crank beat out Williams in the primary and will be seeking the seat for the Colorado Springs-based Fifth Congressional District.

Crank posted to X on Sunday, saying he was “dismayed” to hear that the El Paso County Republican Party Chair “tried to stop anyone from recording the central committee meeting yesterday.”

He said in a post on Saturday that he was “proud” of fellow Colorado Republicans for the choices made during the meeting in Brighton.

“Going forward we need strong, principled leadership of our state party,” Crank posted to X. “My friend Eli Bremer from Colorado Springs will make a great state chairman. Join me in supporting him.”

Bremer also posted to X, saying his first official act as the Colorado GOP Chairman was to endorse all Republican candidates on the November ballot in Colorado.

“I look forward to serving all CO Republicans and am thankful for all the support and well wishes,” he wrote .

Nancy Pallozzi, chair of the Jefferson County Republican Party, confirmed Williams ousting to FOX31 on Sunday.

Williams also issued a statement, saying the vote was led by a “fringe element” of the state GOP and the group has proven that “they do not care about electing Trump this November.” He said there were 77 people in actual attendance at the meeting and 104 “questionable” proxies.

“And they even had to amend their already broken rules while illegally re-interpreting our bylaws to improperly attempt to remove all of your duly elected officers without even a majority of our members present,” Williams told FOX31 on Saturday. “They clearly don’t have 3/5th of the entire body to remove anyone but that won’t stop them from harming the Party further while wasting time with nearly 70 days to go in the election.”

Williams said that the Republican National Committee Parliamentarian, Al Gage, had submitted an opinion: “The meetings scheduled by Watkins et al for both July 27 and August 24 are illegitimate and any action taken there was or will be null and void because they do not constitute properly called meetings of the (Colorado Republican Committee).”

According to the state GOP’s bylaws , “Any elected officer of the CRC may be removed from office at any time for whatever cause the CRC may deem sufficient, by a vote of three-fifths of the entire membership of the CRC eligible to vote at a meeting called for that purpose.”

Additionally, at least 15 days of written notice is required for all members.

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