Colorado Newsline reports that three Republican candidates just sprinted into court at the last possible second to ask a judge to save them from Colorado’s scariest political monster: voters who didn’t join their club.
Ron Hanks, Scott Bottoms, and David Wilson want unaffiliated voters blocked from the June 2026 GOP primary, arguing Colorado’s semi-open primary system violates their constitutional rights. Nothing says “confident governing movement” like filing an emergency political restraining order against your own potential electorate two days before clerks can start handing out mail ballots.
Here’s the setup. Colorado voters approved Proposition 108 back in 2016, allowing unaffiliated voters to choose either major party’s primary ballot. That means people who don’t want to register Republican or Democrat still get a say in which candidates advance to the general election.
The Colorado Republican Party already tried a similar lawsuit in federal court and got swatted down. Now Hanks, Bottoms, and Wilson are back with a candidate-flavored version, claiming the court didn’t address candidate-specific injury. Translation: “Yes, the party already lost this argument, Your Honor, but have you considered that it hurt our feelings personally?”
Hanks even argues he would have beaten Joe O’Dea in the 2022 U.S. Senate primary if only registered Republicans had voted. That is an incredible legal theory: if you remove enough people who voted against me, I become the winner. By that standard, the Broncos were undefeated last season if you simply delete the opponent’s touchdowns.
This is where the whole thing gets deliciously stupid. These candidates aren’t just arguing about party association in some tidy law-school seminar. They are asking a court to yank the rules of an already-certified primary at the last minute because the electorate is too messy, too independent, and too unwilling to sign the damn loyalty card.
And look, political parties should have associational rights. That’s a real argument. But this particular maneuver has all the timing and dignity of a guy demanding a prenup during the divorce hearing.
Colorado Republicans have spent years bleeding unaffiliated voters, then act shocked when unaffiliated voters become the decisive bloc. Buddy, that’s not an invasion. That’s the bill coming due. You don’t get to ignore the largest political group in the state, lose elections, blame everyone but yourselves, and then ask a judge to install a velvet rope around your primary like it’s a Denver donor cocktail party.
The best part is the sudden reverence for “dedicated Republican members.” Where was all this sacred party-building energy when the party needed candidates who could talk to normal Coloradans without sounding like they were live-streaming from a bunker made of grievance and bumper stickers?
This is not strength. This is panic in a suit jacket. It is the political equivalent of unplugging the scoreboard because you’re down in the fourth quarter.
Meanwhile, regular Coloradans are busy dealing with housing costs, grocery prices, property taxes, broken roads, insane fees, and a state government that treats affordability like a rumor from another continent. Unaffiliated voters exist in huge numbers because both parties have given them plenty of reasons to keep their distance.
So when candidates try to slam the primary door on those voters, they’re not defending democracy from dilution. They’re admitting they can’t sell their product to the people standing in the aisle.
Colorado doesn’t need fewer voters because politicians are fragile. It needs better candidates who can survive contact with the public.
Source: Colorado Newsline
Just Stop It
