CO-04 (Special Election) See Full Big Line

(R) Greg Lopez

(R) Trisha Calvarese

90%

10%

President (To Win Colorado) See Full Big Line

(D) Joe Biden*

(R) Donald Trump

80%

20%↓

CO-01 (Denver) See Full Big Line

(D) Diana DeGette*

90%

CO-02 (Boulder-ish) See Full Big Line

(D) Joe Neguse*

90%

CO-03 (West & Southern CO) See Full Big Line

(D) Adam Frisch

(R) Jeff Hurd

(R) Ron Hanks

40%

30%

20%

CO-04 (Northeast-ish Colorado) See Full Big Line

(R) Lauren Boebert

(R) Deborah Flora

(R) J. Sonnenberg

30%↑

15%↑

10%↓

CO-05 (Colorado Springs) See Full Big Line

(R) Dave Williams

(R) Jeff Crank

50%↓

50%↑

CO-06 (Aurora) See Full Big Line

(D) Jason Crow*

90%

CO-07 (Jefferson County) See Full Big Line

(D) Brittany Pettersen

85%↑

 

CO-08 (Northern Colo.) See Full Big Line

(D) Yadira Caraveo

(R) Gabe Evans

(R) Janak Joshi

60%↑

35%↓

30%↑

State Senate Majority See Full Big Line

DEMOCRATS

REPUBLICANS

80%

20%

State House Majority See Full Big Line

DEMOCRATS

REPUBLICANS

95%

5%

Generic selectors
Exact matches only
Search in title
Search in content
Post Type Selectors
November 29, 2016 10:36 AM UTC

Trump backer announces bid for GOP state chair

  • 1 Comments
  • by: Jason Salzman

(Promoted by Colorado Pols)

George Athanasopoulos.
George Athanasopoulos.

After an unsuccessful bid to unseat U.S Rep. Ed Perlmutter (D-CO), George Athanasopoulos announced this morning that he’ll be running to be Colorado Republican chair.

Athanasopoulos, who was an early Trump backer, made the announcement on KNUS 710-AM’s early morning show, hosted by Peter Boyles, who was also a loud Trump supporter.

The current GOP chair, Steve House, plans to finish his term and will decide in January whether to seek another one.

“My term ends in March and I will serve out my term completely and a decision on whether I run again or not will be made between January 1st and inauguration day,” House told me via email.

Boyles inaccurately alleged on air that House has announced that he’d not run again.

“I watched Steve House lead the walkout on Trump,” said Boyles, referring to the GOP national convention in Cleveland. “Now, you wonder why the state of Colorado is blue.”

In fact, House not only did not lead the walk out, he participate in it at all.

House has navigated turbulent waters as chair, including a coup attempt led by GOP Attorney General Cynthia Coffman and others. He was also accused by party activists of opposing Trump during the GOP  primary.

But, despite Clinton’s win in Colorado, most political observers thought the GOP performed above expectations here, winning Coffman’s seat and the Colorado State Senate.

In his comments to Boyles, Athanasopoulos said it won’t be hard to turn Colorado red, in part by sticking to conservative principles.

“We are broken as a party in the state of Colorado,” Athanasopoulos continued on air. “You need look no further than, Colorado, we’re a blue state.”

“This was not an easy decision for me,” Athanasopoulos told Boyles. “But I had a lot of people talk to me about it and ask me to run.”

During his congressional campaign, Athanasopoulos espoused some positions that were in line with Trump, including allegations of rigged elections, but he emphasized to me that he was not a lock-step Trump supporter.

Athanasopoulos advocated unorthodox views, including his position that a father has legal rights to stop an abortion because “that child is of him. It’s part of him.”

Updated on Nov. 30 to state that House did not participate in the GOP walkout at the RNC convention, as incorrectly stated by Boyles.

Comments

One thought on “Trump backer announces bid for GOP state chair

  1. There are two falsehoods in this article. First that Steve House lead the walk out at the convention. He didn't lead a walkout as he was committed to, voted for and endorsed Donald Trump after the Indiana primary was over. And that George Athanasopoulos was a Trump supporter. There were only 4 Colorado delegates that voted for Trump at the convention. George voted for Cruz. Needless to say I am not a fan. 

Leave a Comment

Recent Comments


Posts about

Donald Trump
SEE MORE

Posts about

Rep. Lauren Boebert
SEE MORE

Posts about

Rep. Yadira Caraveo
SEE MORE

Posts about

Colorado House
SEE MORE

Posts about

Colorado Senate
SEE MORE

177 readers online now

Newsletter

Subscribe to our monthly newsletter to stay in the loop with regular updates!