People to Watch in 2025: Dave Williams, Messiah or Pariah of the Colorado Republican Party?

The Republican Party's tumultuous status in Colorado was epitomized by the ups and downs of its state party chair, Dave Williams, over the past year.

In 2024, Williams weathered waves of condemnation for endorsing candidates in the Republican primary, kicking a reporter out of a GOP assembly and using party resources to promote his own run for Congress. The controversies earned him national media attention and the backing of Donald Trump, though it was not enough to get Williams to D.C.: He lost the CD5 primary election. His campaign conflict, coupled with a string of anti-LGBTQ statements, also spurred a recall effort that briefly claimed victory in ousting Williams as chair. But after months of legal battles, a judge ruled in September that Williams was still party leader.

Now, as the prospect of re-election looms, Colorado conservatives debate whether the ground the Republican Party gained in the state through the November election is enough to warrant keeping Williams around — or if he should be credited for the victories at all.

Amid the discourse, Williams has yet to decide whether he will seek re-election.

"I'm wanting to reassess what opportunities are out there," Williams says. "It's my firm belief that we have the majority support and that if I were to run, I'd likely win. But I'm not certain that it's something that I want to continue to do. I'm still thinking about it and praying about it." He plans to announce his decision in the next month or so, ahead of the leadership election set for mid- to late March.

Williams has been a controversial leader since he was selected as chair in March 2023. His combative wartime rhetoric appealed to a state Republican Party on the heels of an "extinction-level" 2022 election that ushered in a Democratic control not seen in Colorado since 1938. The 2024 election undid a bit of that damage, flipping one congressional seat red and ending the Democrats' supermajority over the state House of Representatives, in addition to local wins. But some Republicans question whether Williams's leadership has helped or hurt their recovery, blaming him for sowing division and infighting, and pointing out that fourteen of the eighteen candidates endorsed by the party lost their primary races.

Williams is hesitant to take credit, too. "We played our part," he says of the party's November wins. "I think one of the most disingenuous things that any traditional politician or political operation can do is take credit for themselves. Real credit belongs to Donald Trump and the voters who were simply fed up."

Even as the GOP celebrates its progress, Colorado had one of the smallest shifts in support toward Republicans in the nation. The divisive rhetoric from the state Republican Party could have contributed to Colorado voters' hesitance to lean to the right.

The party's attitude toward the LGBTQ community under Williams's leadership has inspired ire from Republicans and Democrats alike. In June, Williams sent emails attacking the LGBTQ community on behalf of the state party, saying "God Hates Pride," calling Pride Month "evil that is trying to indoctrinate children" and requesting that people burn all Pride flags. The incident ignited the recall effort against Williams, in addition to leading multiple Republican candidates to reject the state party's endorsement and one Aurora councilmember to leave the party altogether.

But Williams says he has no regrets about the anti-LGBTQ messages, adding that he doesn't believe his fellow Republicans were actually offended by his remarks. "We don't believe that the party is opposed to what we did in that situation," Williams says. "We believe that the fringe gentlemen of our party that tried to unjustly kick us out and orchestrate a coup, they were just trying to use an event that the media blew up to suit their ends. We're more than happy to continue the fight to protect our kids."

Now that the long-fought recall effort is over, Williams says he's going to hold his detractors "accountable" for trying "to destroy our party right before an election." The party recently set up an "anti-corruption committee" to investigate Republican leaders who led the push against Williams.

"These people effectively set the house on fire, we put it out, and now they're trying to shake hands and tell us, 'Let bygones be bygones,'" Williams says. "That's something that we're still figuring out...but we're pretty certain that if you want to have a voice on the state central committee, then there's got to be some sort of restoration or restitution or acknowledgment that what you did was not the right way to have gone about it."

Even as Williams seeks to punish those who stood against him, he says one of his primary goals for the party is to provide a forum for people who disagree with leadership to communicate their dissatisfaction, "fight behind closed doors" and reach a consensus, so that Republicans can "disagree but not ultimately harm the mission."

His other projects for the year include increasing party efficiency, supporting legislation to democratize the state legislature's vacancy selection process, and focusing on candidate recruitment and development for the 2026 election. Whether he will be around to do all of that has yet to be determined; Williams says he is considering multiple private- and public-sector opportunities that he declines to reveal.

"I feel like I've accomplished what I set out to do, and that was to stop the bleeding," Williams says. "We've had a rebound, and maybe it's still something I need to continue in, but then again, maybe not. My goal is just to try to do right by the party and by the people. If I stumble along the way, that's okay. At least we're trying to do what's right."

Does doing what's right include villainizing the LGBTQ community and making examples out of political opponents? The Colorado Republican Party will decide in 2025.