The Denver Gazette’s Ernest Luning reports that Colorado Republicans have elected Craig Steiner, a software engineer and former Douglas County GOP chair, to fill the vacant state chairman position. The vote happened Saturday at a state central committee meeting in Buena Vista, just over a week before primary ballots go out and five months before the general election.
Steiner takes over a state party that has been chewing on its own shoelaces for a while now. The Gazette notes this makes him the Colorado GOP’s third chairman in a little over a year, following Brita Horn’s resignation and a brief interim stretch under Eric Grossman. That is not a leadership pipeline. That is a plumbing problem.
The good news is this: somehow, some way, a teeny tiny bit of sanity may have prevailed. I do not know Steiner personally, but people who do speak highly of him. I do know enough about the reputation of some of the other options to say this plainly: the Colorado GOP may have dodged a few crazy bullets.
The Bullet Point Brief
- Steiner won on the second ballot with 54% after Curtis McCrackin dropped out and backed him. That is called coalition-building, which used to be a basic political skill before everyone decided Facebook tantrums were strategy.
- He beat Jeremy Goodall and Joe Oltmann in a crowded field, which means the state party chose the software engineer over the circus tent. Small miracles still happen.
- Steiner previously chaired the Douglas County GOP and designed apps the state party uses for voter turnout and delegate selection. So yes, the obvious question is whether he can debug this operation, or whether the code is too corrupted by ego.
- Former state Sen. Ted Harvey praised Steiner’s Douglas County turnout record, saying Republicans hit 97.2% turnout when Steiner was chair. In politics, turnout is not a vibe. It is the scoreboard.
- Steiner said Colorado Republicans will win when they love defeating Democrats more than they hate each other. That line should be printed, laminated, and stapled to the forehead of every consultant, influencer, county warrior, and committee-room Napoleon in the state.
My Bottom Line
Colorado Republicans are tired. Not tired of conservative principles. Not tired of fighting the left. Tired of the internal drama, vanity projects, purity contests, and party machinery that often seems better at holding meetings than winning elections.
The Gazette article paints a party that knows it is in trouble. Eric Grossman said Republicans are “not a functional entity.” That is not spin. That is the fire alarm finally admitting there is smoke. Democrats have carried every statewide election in Colorado for a decade and held both chambers of the legislature since 2018. At some point, adults have to stop narrating the collapse and start fixing the beams.
Steiner may or may not be the guy who can do it. But choosing someone known for organization, turnout, and actual technical competence feels like a refreshing break from the usual Colorado GOP hobby farm of grudges, podcasts, side hustles, and circular firing squads.
So here is the challenge: prove this was more than a mood swing. Stop mistaking noise for leadership. Stop treating every disagreement like a theological war. Build the lists. Raise the money. Register voters. Turn them out. Win races. Colorado does not need a Republican Party that performs conservatism for applause in a banquet hall. It needs one that can count votes, fix problems, and remember the point of a political party is not self-expression. It is winning.
Source: The Denver Gazette
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