April 17, 2026 11:19 AM UTC

Ministry Leaders Win Spots in GOP Colorado Governor Primary

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• by: Steve Rabey

(The Lord himself will be asked to take a side — Promoted by Colorado Pols)

As posted at the Colorado Times Recorder

Two ministry leaders from Colorado Springs qualified Saturday for the top two spots in June’s primary to determine the Republican candidate for Colorado governor in November’s election.

Democrat Jared Polis, who has served as governor since 2019 and was the nation’s first openly gay governor, is term limited.

Scott Bottoms is a state legislator and Assemblies of God pastor who leads Church at Briargate. Victor Marx was a Marine who worked for Focus on the Family before launching With God All Things Are Possible, or ATP Ministries, in 2003.

Both are lifelong Republicans who support President Donald Trump, both decided to run after praying about it, and both say they care deeply about the abuse of vulnerable children. Both say it’s past time for the godly to root out the wicked (Democratic) leaders in the Denver statehouse.

And both thank God they can freely campaign in churches after the Trump administration “reinterpreted” the Johnson Amendment, which had restricted nonprofits, including churches and parachurch ministries, from endorsing candidates. Marx says he has spoken to 12,550 people in 10 churches.

Bottoms received 45% of Saturday’s delegate vote while Marx received 39%. More than a dozen other GOP candidates failed to qualify.

2020 election conspiracist and antisemite Joe Oltmann dropped out of the race and is campaigning to become the state’s GOP chairman.

Pastor Bottoms, who is now in his second term in the Colorado Legislature, doesn’t have a single legislative victory to celebrate but says he’s “breaking down some of the status quo.”

“Democrats made an agreement four years ago that they will never pass a bill that my name is on,” he said. But his supporters praise him for boldly standing up against transgender people and other “evils.”

“I don’t see myself as a politician,” Bottoms said. “I see myself as a pastor.” He says his service to the state is part of his sacrificial service to God. “My life is not my own. It belongs to the Lord.”

Bottoms claims Democratic state legislators and other officials are behind an extensive but secretive pedophile ring — an echo of the unfounded Pizzagate scandal prompted by QAnon in Washington, D.C. He doesn’t trust the Colorado Bureau of Investigation but has instead says he has provided his evidence to the FBI.

“There are pedophiles that traffic children that are elected representatives, all the way up to governor’s office,” he said in an interview. “When I’m governor, I will use all the resources I have to go after these perpetrators.”

Bottoms also promised to eliminate property taxes and expects pro-gun rights groups to endorse him again.

Victor Marx has no experience in elected office, which he claims is a benefit. “Colorado does not need another politician,” he told the state assembly crowd. “We need a leader, someone who has experience doing what other people say can’t be done.”

His thought is this: “Either I leave Colorado, and move to Florida or Texas, or I stay right here and fight and run for office and make a difference from the governor’s seat.”

Marx says he didn’t think a race crowded with 20 GOP candidates needed him but changed his mind after assessing the other candidates. He assembled a disciplined team and has toured the state. “He knows all the pastors,” said one campaign aide.

Marx was working as an assistant to James Dobson when he told them his testimony of believing in Jesus after suffering horrific childhood abuse and neglect. They told him his testimony could encourage other people and helped him launch ATP Ministries for his motivational talks, books and films.

ATP Ministries also works with incarcerated juveniles, and Marx says he organizes teams of military veterans to travel into high-risk areas around the world to rescue women and children. He says he recently negotiated with “Barbecue,” the notorious Haitian gang leader, as part of a mission to protect an isolated Christian orphanage surrounded by gang members.

Marx knew Turning Point USA’s Charlie Kirk and announced his candidacy last fall at a memorial event for Kirk held at Brave Church in Denver. He boasts endorsements from U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert, retired Gen. Mike Flynn and guitarist/activist Ted Nugent.

He hopes to add Trump to that list, saying he knows the family, Trump’s White House spiritual adviser Paula White, and has spoken at events held at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago.

Pastor Bottoms salutes Dobson for leading evangelicals into political activism in the 1980s and is doing all he can to make up for the fact that many of his sometimes otherworldly Pentecostal brethren were latecomers to politics.

John Ashcroft, who served as President George W. Bush’s attorney general, was one of his few Pentecostal political role models.

Bottoms says Pentecostals, of all believers, should “jump into these things because we are being led and empowered by the Holy Spirit.”

This story was originally published in Baptist News Global.