Colorado GOP Will Cancel Primary, Shift to Caucus System if Trump Stays Off Ballot

The Colorado GOP has stated that they will not let the state’s Supreme Court ruling to kick Trump off the primary election ballot stand.

If Trump is not allowed on Colorado’s ballot, then the state’s GOP says it will withdraw from the primary altogether and convert to a pure caucus system.

BREAKING NEWS: If Trump ballot decision stands, Colorado GOP says it will move from primary to caucus systemhttps://t.co/oEB7KjBc42

— Fox News (@FoxNews) December 20, 2023

After Colorado’s decision, Vivek Ramaswamy pledged to withdraw his name if Trump isn’t put back on the ballot and called for the other GOP candidates to do so.

The Colorado GOP posted this in response:

You won't have to because we will withdraw from the Primary as a Party and convert to a pure caucus system if this is allowed to stand.

— Colorado Republican Party (@cologop) December 20, 2023

In an interview with the Colorado Sun, the state’s GOP Party chair, Dave Williams, confirmed their plans if the Trump ballot ruling is not overturned:

Colorado GOP Chairman Dave Williams told The Colorado Sun on Tuesday night that if Trump isn’t on the ballot, the party would ask the state to cancel the Republican presidential primary. Instead, Republican voters would caucus to select delegates to the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee next year.

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There are 37 delegates up for grabs from the state.

“’I’m not going to let these sons of bitches dictate who we’re going to nominate,” Williams said in an X Spaces event Tuesday night on the site formerly known as Twitter.

The Washington Times also had this to say about the Colorado GOP’s response:

The Colorado Republican Party said Tuesday that it will cancel its presidential primary and instead hold a caucus if a court ruling stands denying former President Donald Trump a place on the ballot.

The party made the vow on social media platform X hours after the state Supreme Court ruled that Mr. Trump engaged in an insurrection surrounding the 2020 election and thereby disqualified himself from next year’s primary.

The state GOP said if that ruling isn’t overturned on appeal, the party would “convert to a pure caucus system” in order to pick its nominee, thus avoiding the primary-ballot issue altogether.

Mr. Trump has already vowed to appeal the state high court’s 4-3 decision to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The four-justice majority acknowledged that it was breaking new legal ground with its ruling, but said under the Civil War-era 14th Amendment’s insurrection clause, Mr. Trump did foment an insurrection by encouraging the chaos that delayed counting of the Electoral College votes on Jan. 6, 2021.

That, the justices said, means he is barred from holding office — and therefore under Colorado law is not qualified to appear on the primary ballot next year.

Way to go, Colorado GPO!

In response to the party’s stand against the election interference attempt in the state, some X users are even switching their affiliation.

Take a look:

I just changed my voter registration from libertarian affiliated to Republican affiliated.

— Mark Patterson (@papapotato108) December 20, 2023

I'm changing my voter registration from Independent to Republican. As a veteran, I swore to help protect America against all enemies, foreign and domestic.

— I'm 60% Huey & 41% Riley (@JewelzFinazzo) December 20, 2023