EAGLEVAIL, Colo. — Dave Williams reshaped his local Republican Party after 2020 election deniers took it over and shrank attendance by 80%. He rejected a MAGA pledge sent to him by the Colorado Republican Party to run for state House District 13 (HD13). And he has actively sought the removal of Donald Trump loyalist Dave Williams (no relation), chairman of the Colorado GOP.
But after all of that, the 73-year-old Buena Vista homebuilder and chairman of the Chaffee County Republican Party says he still supports Trump for president.
“Yeah, I will,” Williams said during a sit-down interview in EagleVail recently. “And I’ll tell you why. Because the only thing that matters to me is policy.”
Asked what policies in particular, the Republican candidate who’s engaged in a longshot race to unseat Colorado Speaker of the House Julie McCluskie (D-Dillon) on Nov. 5, brought up Title IX. Specifically, he said Democrats have opened the door to biological males competing against females in sports by repeatedly saying Title IX means no discrimination due to sexual identity.
“So if it’s an issue I care deeply about like men competing against women in sports, and the way [Democrats are] blowing that up, I need a Republican administration there to do that,” Williams said of the key GOP culture-war issue. “I don’t like [Trump] but that’s what we’ve got to have.”
Williams’ main issue with disputed Colorado GOP Chairman Dave Williams was the hateful email the state party aimed at the LGBTQ community during Pride Month in June, but critics of the politicization of the very rare issue of transgender or non-binary athletes in sports say that movement is part of the same relentless attack on LGBTQ people in America.
Williams was asked about the policy issues around protecting free and fair elections and honoring the peaceful transfer of power – something Trump stands accused of violating with the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection. Colorado Newsline readers in a recent statewide survey said the top issues they want candidates to address this election are “good government and democracy.”
“Well, [elections] are policy, but they’re sub-policy,” Williams said. “The election, what you’re looking for is less regulation … I had the nail bags on until I was 45 years old. I come out of the trades. I said, ‘If I’m elected, give me a three-pound mini sledge. Give me a cold chisel. Send me down to the state Capitol. Show me this giant bureaucratic administrative regulatory monolith and just let me start chipping away at that thing.’ That’s what I don’t like. I don’t like that overreaching government that affects every part of our lives.”
Colorado’s elections are considered the “gold standard” nationally for access and security.
McCluskie, in an email interview, addressed the seeming dichotomy of her opponent, Dave Williams, voting to remove state party chair Dave Williams in August but still supporting Trump, who endorsed party chair Williams in his failed bid for Colorado’s 5th Congressional District.
“Our democracy depends on our ability to listen to one another and the willingness to find lasting, sustainable policy solutions,” McCluskie wrote. “Extremism in either party erodes this ability to find compromise and threatens democracy at the local, state and national level. I am rooted in approaching community issues with a commitment to problem-solving in a bipartisan way.
“I am strongly supportive of Vice President [Kamala] Harris for president,” McCluskie added. “Trump wields power to undermine election outcomes, which weakens the very foundation of our democracy and will never earn my support.”
Buena Vista’s Williams says he helped former Olympic athlete and El Paso County Republican Party Chairman Eli Bremer assume control of the Colorado Republican Party in late August. A week later, Colorado Republican Party Chairman Dave Williams held a separate vote confirming his position. A judge will decide who the real chairman is in October.
“There’s no secret out there about where my loyalties lie. It was with anybody besides Dave Williams,” Williams said. “Right now, in Colorado, it’s fair to say that there’s about 50% going with Dave Williams, way more hard right, and the other 50% are kind of guys like me. I jumped on board with getting him out of there when he made that lousy thing with the LGBTQ.”
Colorado Republican Party Chairman Dave Williams, a former state lawmaker, did not return an email requesting comment on HD13 candidate Dave Williams of Buena Vista, who added another problem he had with the state party was when it dropped pre-primary neutrality.
“Dave Williams picked those hardcore MAGA people to endorse. They weren’t winners in any way. They didn’t represent the values of Colorado, their positions on LGBTQ, a lot of the stuff just wasn’t mainstream,” Williams said, adding he also had a huge problem with a questionnaire the state party sent him if he wanted their support for his state house run. He says it contained a statement disavowing Americans for Prosperity – a PAC supporting Jeff Crank for CD5.
That’s the U.S. congressional district surrounding Colorado Springs where state party chair Williams ultimately lost to Crank by a wide margin in June’s primary election.
“I wadded it up and threw it away and I sent [Dave Williams] an email and said, ‘Don’t even come to my friggin’ county. Don’t even come over. I’ll have my sheriff escort you out. Get outta here,’” Dave Williams said. “And I haven’t talked to anybody down there since. I’m not going to play these games.”
Locally, Williams said the way he reclaimed the Chaffee County Republican Party was by changing bylaws to expand the executive committee to 19 members – 17 of whom backed the effort to oust state party chair Williams. That’s what it took to dilute the power of the hardcore MAGA election-deniers, he said.
“You can’t take this hardcore election conspiracy b******* that they’re doing and create a party around that,” Williams said. “And that’s what they wanted to do. They went from having meetings of 40 people down to about seven or eight. In every adversity, there’s always opportunity.”
That opportunity, in his mind, includes getting down to Denver to roll back state regulations that are impinging on the housing industry he’s worked in for so many years. The main reason he’s challenging McCluskie is the lack of affordability in the state’s housing sector, which he blames more on regulations than market forces. McCluskie disagrees.
“Land use and housing development policies are largely under local government control, not state,” McCluskie emailed. “The affordability crisis has hit us hard here in the high country and this is why I have championed legislation to incentivize housing development and cut red tape.”
McCluskie was the prime sponsor of HB21-1271, which established the Affordable Housing Guided Toolkit and Local Officials Guide, the Planning Grant Program, and the Housing Development Incentives Grant – all state tools to support local governments as they struggle to lower housing costs.
“Additionally, I carried legislation to ensure rural resort communities would have equal opportunity at accessing Proposition 123 funding,” McCluskie added. “I supported tens of millions of dollars of investments in rural housing development (HB22-1304), and supported land use policies that will incentivize greater density in transit-oriented communities and the construction of more ADUs [accessory dwelling units].”