March 13, 2026 10:33 AM UTC

State GOP Chair Brita Horn Has Had Enough of This Shit

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• by: Colorado Pols

The circus that is the Colorado Republican Party needs a new head clown.

Again.

State GOP Chair Brita Horn — who has twice received votes of “no confidence” in the last month — has decided that she also has no confidence in the state party and will walk away from the job she won just one year ago. As Ernest Luning reports for the publication formerly known as the Colorado Statesman:

Colorado Republican Party Chair Brita Horn said Thursday that she will resign her position next month following the GOP’s state assembly, citing what she described as an “enduring divide” within the party “marked by vitriol and hostility.”

Horn’s announcement came just over a week after the Republicans’ state central committee voted overwhelmingly to approve a measure expressing “no-confidence” in her leadership.

An earlier central committee meeting organized by Horn’s critics approved an identical “no-confidence” resolution and demanded her resignation. The meeting, which Horn dismissed as “illegal” and lacking authority, also sought to restrict her spending authority and require that the party end litigation involving fellow Republicans.

Horn’s detractors told Colorado Politics last week that they had begun circulating a petition to recall her from office.

She’s the third state GOP officer to resign in the past year, following the departures of two of her vice chairs, last month and last summer, respectively, with both of the party’s former No. 2 officers saying they were unable to work with Horn. [Pols emphasis]

Horn didn’t take any responsibility for Republican risarray under her leadership, casting blame elsewhere in an email to fellow Republicans announcing her departure:

“When we came into office last year, we faced a tremendous divide within our party despite the efforts of our silent majority, whose only wish was to do the hard work of electing Republicans,” Horn said in an email to state Republicans.

“Unfortunately, that divide has too often been marked by vitriol and hostility,” she continued. “Over the past year, we have endured threats of violence, blackmail attempts, and continued efforts to fracture our party further.”

Saying that she’s attempted to “set those issues aside” and focus on helping Republicans win elections, Horn added: “However, under the continued threat of further division, legal attacks, and escalation within our party, it has become clear that those intent on prolonging this conflict will not stop. We cannot allow this party to be weaponized against our efforts to elect more Republicans.”

To be fair, the problems in the Colorado Republican Party are so complex and intractable that whoever took on the role of Chair was destined to fail. For more than a decade now, the Colorado GOP has been singularly obsessed with internal battles that led to Republicans operating out of two different “headquarters” in 2022 and under two different “leaders” in 2024 (in the conservative stronghold of El Paso County, Republicans even held competing elections for different slates of officers in 2023). The risarray reached a new level of absurdity recently when State Party Secretary Russ Andrews declared that he was holding a barn full of office supplies hostage for the low, low price of $1,500 a month in storage fees.

Horn is not without blame, however. The former Routt County Treasurer proved unable to either raise money (an issue also faced by her predecessor, Dave Williams) or efficiently spend what limited funds were available to the State GOP. Her refusal to abandon internal legal battles dating back years also rankled Republicans who were tired of lighting money on fire for the benefit of a handful of lawyers.

Horn will officially leave her position on April 17, ensuring that some sort of “leadership” remains in place through the State GOP Assembly on April 11. What happens next is tough to predict. The role of State Republican Party Chair is, without a doubt, the worst political job in Colorado. The Colorado GOP is perpetually broke, understaffed, and filled with angry weirdos whose favorite leader is always the next one. Republicans have no real chance of winning any statewide elections in 2026, nor can they make much of a dent in the Democratic majorities in the state legislature.

Like attempting to ride an emu, whoever takes this job WILL FAIL. Forget “thankless” — this job is hopeless.

Members of the Colorado Republican Party should hold a vote of no confidence on themselves…if they can first figure out who is left to preside over such a meeting.