August 26, 2025 02:09 PM UTC

You Can't Handle Rep. Ryan Armagost's Parting Manifesto

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• by: Colorado Pols

Last week, as readers will recall, GOP Rep. Ryan Armagost resigned suddenly as the special session of the General Assembly kicked off in order to avoid an expected resolution from majority Democrats censuring Armagost for his churlish behavior toward a female colleague. Armagost had already given notice of his resignation and was excused from attending the special session, but was still drawing a paycheck from taxpayers until he realized that the only way to avoid this blot on his permanent record would be to resign immediately. Even this may reportedly not be enough to spare Armagost official sanction, with a resolution condemning his actions without the sting of a formal censure under debate as of this writing.

But late Sunday night, presumably from Armagost’s new digs in Arizona, the former representative fired off a lengthy last word to the people of House District 64 and Colorado as a whole, in which he finally breaks his self-imposed silence after refusing to comment on the controversy that drove him from office.

Like most such nighttime rants in moments of adversity, he should have stayed quiet.

So if we’ve got this right, the next time you take a photo of a colleague for shaming purposes and get called on your bad behavior, the solution is to “soar away like an eagle.” That sounds nice, but doesn’t really describe Armagost’s situation. From there, Armagost takes a swipe at his frenemies at Rocky Mountain Gun Owners who broke with Armagost for reasons still unclear during the debate over gun bills this year that both parties opposed. But if you were hoping for an apology to the colleague Armagost tried to shame with a photo from the House floor, the closest you’ll get is “I offend the weak.”

After all the headaches Armagost has caused for his boss Minority Leader Rose Pugliese, who helped cover up Armagost’s actions until they blew up in the press, a few decent parting words would have helped. If Armagost couldn’t manage that, he could have at least kept quiet.

We feel comfortable predicting that after this unapologetic exit in disgrace, Ryan Armagost won’t be back.