January 09, 2024 10:02 AM UTC

Election Conspiracists & Jan 6 Revisionists: Colo GOP Race to Replace Ken Buck Begins

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• by: Erik Maulbetsch

(Promoted by Colorado Pols)

Just because it’s 2024 doesn’t mean 2020 isn’t still up for debate. Last Thursday night in the southeastern corner of the state, election denialism and January 6 revisionist history were hot topics with Lauren Boebert and the other congressional hopefuls trying to out-Trump one another.

Baca County Republicans held the first Republican campaign event for Colorado’s reddest district, a multi-race candidate meet-and-greet that featured not only those hoping to become the GOP nominee for the Fourth Congressional District, but also members of the state legislature, county commissioner candidates, and a election fraud conspiracist running for the state party’s National Committeewoman position.

Boebert arrived late, navigating a snow storm that caused at least one other CD4 hopeful to turn around. Sporting a cowboy hat, she opened by joking that most people there recognized her, “unlike the ushers at the Buell Theater,” referencing her recent ejection from a musical in Denver for vaping and groping her date.

In response to a question asking how candidates would fight the “administrative state,” Boebert described those arrested for their participation in the storming of the Capitol as political prisoners, and claimed that the Capitol Police escorted them through the building like it was a tour.

“We’ve seen what happened to President Trump, to the January 6th political prisoners, to moms and dads who are showing up to school board meetings and being labeled as domestic terrorists,” said Boebert. “This is enraging Americans all across our country, and it has got people involved on a much greater level. President Trump was impeached for what Joe Biden has done. He was impeached, for what Joe Biden has done in Ukraine on his perfect phone call. He was impeached for that. We are seeing the January 6th tapes released, thanks to speaker Mike Johnson, whom I nominated to be speaker of the House. Um, uh, we are seeing those tapes released. We are seeing, um, the Capitol Police officers that were escorting American citizens into the Capitol, opening gates, opening doors, and walking them through like they were on a tour. And now we have political prisoners because of that.”

Alongside Congresswoman Boebert — the most recognizable name for those who don’t live on Colorado’s eastern plains — were state Rep. Richard Holtorf, former State Senators Jerry Sonnenberg and Ted Harvey, Weld County Councilman Trent Leisy, and former talk show host and religious right activist Deborah Flora.

Harvey, as part of his explanation of decade-long job running a conservative political action committee, noted that he won’t say Biden won the 2020 election. He later blamed American intelligence agencies for Trump’s loss as well as “what they did to American citizens on January 6th.”

“When Biden got sworn in –I don’t say he won the election. I say when he got sworn in– we changed the name of the PAC from the Committee to Defend the President to the Committee to Defeat the President,” said Harvey. “We raised a lot of money and spent a lot of money in the in the US Senate races, Herschel Walker’s race and Ted Budd’s race and others around the country to try to take back the Senate as well …One of the main reasons why I’m running is because of what the intelligence community did to Donald Trump and what they did to American citizens on January 6th and after.”

Leisy declared himself an “America First candidate” who believes the 2020 election was stolen.

“I’m an America First candidate,” said Leisy. “I support Donald Trump. I believe he is our rightful president. I believe the election was stolen in 2020.”

Last October Leisy, who sells “Sexy Trump” merchandise online, became the first candidate to declare for CD4, well before Buck announced he wouldn’t be running for reelection. He recently held his own campaign event, a pro-Trump caravan that drove from Weld County to Colorado Springs and featured prominent conspiracist and MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell. Leisy’s conspiracist views extend to immigration as well. In addition to calling for an end to birthright citizen and deporting every undocumented person in America, he described the immigrations crisis as “an intentional invasion by the Biden regime.”

“We need to shut the border down on day one,” said Leisy. “We need to allow ICE to do their job and to deport every single illegal that came over here. We need to shut down birthright citizenship. We need to designate drug cartels as terror organizations so we can go after them.”

Later during the Q&A session, Leisy returned to the subject of the border.

“Look what’s going on right now at the southern border. It isn’t immigration. It isn’t asylum. This is an intentional invasion on our country. Okay? This is an intentional invasion by the Biden regime. They don’t love our country. They don’t want the United States of America as a constitutional republic. They want a socialist government. They want to be able to control us.”

In addition to the congressional candidates, Christy Fidura addressed the group via Zoom, making her pitch to become the state GOP’s next RNC Committeewoman. After recounting her background as a grassroots activist leading the Pueblo County Patriots and her various positions with the county GOP, Fidura cited another leadership role: co-captain of election fraud conspiracy group U.S. Election Integrity Plan, which sent its members into Democratic-leaning neighborhood in search of phantom votes. The group’s founders are currently being sued by the NAACP for voter intimidation under the Ku Klux Klan Act.

“I was also the co-captain here for election integrity, the U.S. Election Integrity Plan, and we worked that here,” said Fidura. “We started a month behind the rest of the teams that were doing the data collecting, and we finished a month before and we were part of that Colorado canvassing report. And I know that there are vulnerabilities and there are issues with our elections. I’ve seen it firsthand. I’ve collected the data.”

The complete video of the event is available to view on the Baca County Republicans Facebook page.