Barbara Kirkmeyer "For Colorado," This Time Anyway

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by: Colorado Pols

This morning, Republican state Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer of Weld County announced her bid for Congress in brand-spanking-new CD-8, set to be one of the most closely divided and watched new congressional contests in the 2022 midterm elections nationwide. Kirkmeyer opens a GOP primary matchup against former state Rep. Lori Saine, with state Sen. Kevin Priola considering an uphill “RiNO” bid against the conservative tide in today’s Republican Party.

Be assured that Kirkmeyer is running in CD-8, despite what her Twitter profile says:

Oops! You can’t blame Kirkmeyer for recycling her assets from her failed 2014 run for Congress in a much more conservative CD-4, but ready-for-primetime campaigns are supposed to fix these things before the local political blog is forced to do their quality assurance checking. Since we’re not paid by the campaign, we have no obligation to be nice about pointing out obvious mistakes.

Although Sen. Kirkmeyer is being billed as a more viable alternative to hard-charging conservative Lori Saine, it’s a label that might not work for Kirkmeyer in the general election–and that’s assuming she can prevail in the Republican primary where “viability” is a highly subjective standard at best. Kirkmeyer has long labored to appease the far-right Republican base in Weld County, including as a major proponent of the ill-fated campaign by a group of mostly-rural northeastern Colorado counties to secede from the state and form “North Colorado.”

Generally speaking, swing voters prefer candidates who want to serve their state and not secede from it.

There’s every reason to believe that Kirkmeyer will be competitive in the Republican primary–but the more Kirkmeyer does to prove her conservative mettle against an opponent with no such requirement, the more she’ll damage her prospects in the general election. At the same time, Kirkmeyer is stymied in any run to the center by her own record as a product of Weld County’s wacky Republican politics.

Not a good fit for what could be one of America’s swingiest swing districts in 2022.

13 thoughts on “Barbara Kirkmeyer “For Colorado,” This Time Anyway”

Erik Maulbetsch says:

November 15, 2021 at 12:39 pm

also, this.

https://coloradotimesrecorder.com/2020/03/gop-legislative-candidate-posts-cartoon-promising-to-be-polis-worst-nightmare/22055/

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1. Diogenesdemar says:
  
  November 15, 2021 at 5:23 pm
  
  Jeez, ya’ think Kirkmeyer’s people could’ve made Polis’s nose any more . . .
  
  . . . well, the “intended audience” for her message surely knows . . .
  
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Meiner49er says:

November 15, 2021 at 5:09 pm

I'm sorry, that's incorrect. But thanks for playing, Barbara. We have some lovely parting gifts for you.

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Gilpin Guy says:

November 15, 2021 at 5:19 pm

Any announced Dems for CD 8 or any speculation. That would be more interesting to me then the loony tunes the Repubs are lining up. They are all crap and cry babies.

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Moderatus says:

November 15, 2021 at 5:23 pm

Barbara Kirkmeyer is a great candidate. Colorado Pols is right to be afraid.

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1. Diogenesdemar says:
  
  November 15, 2021 at 5:34 pm
  
  Mommy Dearest looking to make her jump to a somewhat-slightly-less crazy train? . . .
  
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kwtree says:

November 15, 2021 at 5:53 pm

Gilpin Guy, at least two: Chaz Tedesco and Dr Yadira Caraveo.

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unnamed says:

November 15, 2021 at 9:47 pm

So, Congratulations Senator Kirkmeyer!!! The day you announce, you get the Moderanus sloppy kiss of death.

With his track record, she might not even win the primary.

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1. Genghis says:
  
  November 16, 2021 at 6:29 am
  
  Happy trails and fare thee well to the 2021-22 congressional campaign of Barbara Kirkmeyer. She and Governor Cynthia Coffman will be caucusing soon on how to obtain funding for an antidote to that sloppy, stank-breathed death kiss.
  
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  1. RepealAndReplace says:
    
    November 18, 2021 at 5:24 pm
    
    Let's not forget Governor Scott Gessler, Senator John Keyser, President Marco Rubio, President Ted Cruz, and Governor George Brauchler.
    
    "Stay the course, Senator. Some day they will thank you."
    
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2. Voyageur says:
  
  November 16, 2021 at 6:39 am
  
  Deep down, Barbara is an intelligent, creative person, rather like the taller Coffman.
  
  That will be her doom in a GOP where bat shit crazy is now the union card.
  
  Any club with room for Two-Gun Tootsie and the Fen Kuck Walgreen Wranglers has no room for a woman who can actually tie her own shoelaces without blaming her barefooted condition on the deep state.
  
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  1. Gilpin Guy says:
    
    November 16, 2021 at 11:52 am
    
    Ambitious seems more her defining quality Voyageur. I'd say she is the odds on favorite to win her primary but she has a long history of disdain for 40% of her constituents so she is going to have to do a quick Cory Gardner turn around from the primary and pretend that she really is a centrist when the general rolls around. It can be done but Dems will have lots of opposition material to bring up on her real views so it will take some clever lying on her part to pull it off. Dems better be ready to bring it against this ideologue.
    
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  2. RepealAndReplace says:
    
    November 18, 2021 at 5:28 pm
    
    Not if it is Kirkmeyer, Lori Saine, Vickie Marble, and a RWNJ w/ Y-chromosome. In a four-way race – and assuming no Kevin Priola – Kirkmeyer could slide by with the 35-40% of the party that does not subscribe to the Q Continuum.
    
    My prediction: CD 8 is today what CD 7 was 20 years ago. Drawn to be uber-competitive in which an establishment Republican gets elected (Priola or Kirkmeyer) a la Both Way Bob Beauprez, serves a couple of terms, gets tired, runs statewide and loses, the voters turn to a Democrat and never look back.
    
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