April 03, 2026 12:33 PM UTC

Hope Scheppelman Is So Bad Even Donald Trump Couldn't

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• by: Colorado Pols

The Washington Post’s Kadia Goba has a post-mortem out today on the erratic decision by President Donald Trump to un-endorse freshman GOP Rep. Jeff Hurd of Colorado in a fit of pique over Hurd’s vote against Trump’s tariffs on Canadian goods among a list of other dissentious slights–only to rescind that un-endorsement a few weeks later, ushering the Republican challenger Trump had endorsed out of the race, and re-affirming support for Hurd after an unspecified “coming to Jesus” between Dear Leader and the prodigal congressman.

The story confirms what we had already surmised, which is that Trump did not realize how disastrously unqualified Hope Scheppleman was to run for Congress, and had to be educated on this important point after having already announced his switch of support:

It was hardly the first time a GOP lawmaker had drawn Trump’s public wrath for crossing him. But what followed was highly unusual in today’s Republican Party: Within hours, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) was on the phone with Hurd to hatch a plan to support the incumbent. Soon after, an army of lobbyists from tech, energy and other sectors, along with current and former lawmakers, urged the White House to reconsider what some viewed as a costly mistake heading into the midterm elections…

Trump’s nod can alter the course of Republican primaries. Many party members both in Washington and Colorado argued that if Scheppelman became the party’s nominee, Democrats could prevail in the district at a time when Republicans are defending a razor-thin majority in the House. Hurd won his seat in the Republican-leaning district by five percentage points against Democrat Adam Frisch in 2024.

“Hope is way out of the mainstream of the 3rd District, and she would have been a terribly weak candidate,” said Dick Wadhams, a GOP strategist and former Colorado GOP chairman.

Former Colorado Republican Party chairman Dick Wadhams historically hasn’t been right about many things, but one thing he has been able to foresee through the years is the steady slide of the state party and their slate of candidates out of the mainstream. Hope Scheppleman was the chief lieutenant of former Colorado Republican Party chairman Dave Williams, who turned the party apparatus hostile toward at least somewhat more electable candidates in favor of his own hard-right clique who with the sole exception of Rep. Lauren Boebert went on to lose in the general election.

Not only was Scheppleman unrepentant after helping run the Colorado GOP into the ground, she concluded the experience qualified her to run for Congress! Meanwhile, as readers know, Dave Williams was rewarded for his loyalty to Trump with a plum patronage appointment to the Commerce Department. Despite the obvious weakness of these candidates once they got out of primaries stacked in their favor, after Trump pulled his support from Hurd, there was a real chance that Scheppleman could have beat him.

The high likelihood of disaster after that motivated Speaker Mike Johnson to launch an unprecedented effort to save Hurd from Trump–and in so doing, potentially save Trump from himself:

Scheppelman, whom Trump endorsed over Hurd, is a former vice chair of the Colorado GOP who was ousted by party membership after backing an election denier over Hurd in his 2024 congressional primary. During the early stages of her congressional bid, Scheppelman drew further controversy when a Colorado Indian tribe criticized her for what it characterized as exploiting for political purposes an appearance at a “spiritual and cultural” tribal ceremony…

House Republican leaders, with Johnson at the forefront, and with the encouragement of other members, moved quickly to defend Hurd, arguing that he was best positioned to prevail in November and House leadership should not break with its tradition of supporting sitting members.

In the end, Hurd’s loyalty on the Republican budget bill that broke all of his promises to constituents to expand rural health care was worth more to Johnson’s wafer-thin GOP majority than his mostly token opposition to some of Trump’s more conspicuous excesses. The whole experience was certainly not good for Hurd, who the Republican base was given the all clear to despise by Trump for weeks before changing his mind. Hurd’s Democratic challengers were given plenty of rhetorical ammo to work with.

But Scheppleman would have been much worse, bad enough even for the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) to write off the race. That would have embarrassed Trump much more.

Don’t worry, though–if Hurd does lose in November, Trump will say Hurd always had it coming.