September 17, 2025 10:10 AM UTC

The Worst-Case Scenario For House Minority Leader

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• by: Colorado Pols

UPDATE: Rep. Ken DeGraaf responds to your humble hosts:

We feel like we’re speaking for everyone when we say…okie dokie then.

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Following the sudden resignation of Republican House Minority Leader Rose Pugliese at the beginning of the week, the jockeying is on among the “Mighty 22” to find a successor willing to take on the thankless job of managing one of the more fractious and undisciplined minority caucuses in recent memory. Like we wrote on Monday, the name immediately circulated following Pugliese’s announcement is Assistant Minority Leader Ty Winter, a far-right ideologue who would do little to improve the already toxic relations both across the aisle and within his caucus.

As bad as that sounds, something even worse could be in the offing:

One way House Republicans could “solve” the problem of policing the conduct of their more embarrassing members would be to appoint one of the very most embarrassing such members to serve as the next Minority Leader. Rep. Ken “Dildo” DeGraaf considers being gaveled down for dragging debate wildly off course to be a badge of honor. Whether he’s reading sexually explicit material into the permanent record for shock value or turning the debate over a Black History Month resolution into a discussion of the “Darwinian construct of race,” DeGraaf is more often the source of the minority’s image problems rather than the cure. It would be a whiplash change from Pugliese’s mousy, absentee leadership style, and the end of any remaining pretense of bipartisan responsibility.

Despite his profound unsuitability for improving the Colorado House GOP’s public image, DeGraaf does have support in the caucus, with Rep. Brandi Bradley quick to endorse his run for Minority Leader. With no real power to change the legislature’s course on any issue, the question for the GOP caucus is whether they want to even try to work across the aisle to accomplish shared goals–or just make obstructionist noise until the majority is forced to procedurally shut them down over and over again.

The latter is the future that Minority Leader Ken DeGraaf offers.