Colorado’s first Republican gubernatorial debate revealed a sharp divide between Barb Kirkmeyer’s establishment-focused approach and Scott Bottoms’ far-right rhetoric, underscoring major questions about electability, policy direction, and the GOP’s path in a blue-leaning state.
by Chase Woodruff, Colorado Newsline
Two of the three candidates vying for the chance to carry the Republican Party’s torch into the 2026 Colorado governor’s race faced off Thursday in the GOP primary’s first televised debate.
State Sen. Barb Kirkmeyer of Weld County and Rep. Scott Bottoms of Colorado Springs participated in the debate hosted in Denver by Denver7, Colorado Public Radio and The Denver Post, offering starkly different visions for the Republican Party as it seeks a way back from nearly a decade of political irrelevance in Colorado.
Kirkmeyer, a longtime GOP insider with the backing of much of Colorado’s conservative establishment, touted her years of experience in state and local government, and promised to continue her efforts at the state Capitol to cut taxes and regulations to ensure the state is “open for business.”
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“You have to work across the aisle to get anything done,” Kirkmeyer said of her work in the minority at the Legislature, where she has served since 2021. “Working with Democrats … I’ve been able to pass legislation that has saved us money, cut regulations, (and) made sure that we have access to healthcare in our state.”
Bottoms, a far-right pastor with a reputation for controversy during his two terms in the state House, vowed to “DOGE everything in Colorado” and repeated a well-worn litany of falsehoods and conspiracy theories about immigration, mail-in voting and widespread corruption in state government.
“I don’t believe that this is just about the budget and potholes. I believe it’s about some much bigger issues,” Bottoms said. “That’s what leadership is. I’ve tried to pass many bills that have specifically to do with that leadership. Grooming our kids, trafficking kids, parental consent, pedophilia, all of these different subjects.”
A third candidate in the GOP primary, pastor Victor Marx, declined an invitation to Thursday’s debate, moderators said.
Former Gov. Bill Owens, the state’s chief executive from 1999 to 2007, is the only Republican to have been elected governor of Colorado in the last 50 years. Recent election results and historical trends mean it’s unlikely that the GOP will reverse its fortunes in the Centennial State this year.
In 2022, even as Republicans gained ground nationally and retook the House in the congressional midterms, Democratic Gov. Jared Polis cruised to reelection with a 19-point victory over GOP challenger Heidi Ganahl, helping to cement the state’s shift from purple to solid blue.
Four years later, the midterm advantage belongs to Democrats, with polling and special election results pointing to the likelihood of a major swing toward the opposition party in November. And the GOP’s gubernatorial nominee will face the winner of a head-to-head Democratic primary between U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet or Attorney General Phil Weiser — both mainstream figures with multiple statewide electoral wins under their belt.
Kirkmeyer — a former Weld County commissioner and director of the state Department of Local Affairs under Owens, who has endorsed her campaign — argued that Coloradans are tired of “one-party rule.”
“People are telling us that it’s about the affordability,” she said. “Are they going to be able to afford to keep in their house? Can they afford the rent? That’s what the people are talking about. They’re talking about whether or not they’re safe in their communities, and they are talking about the roads.”
Kirkmeyer offered a handful criticisms of President Donald Trump, faulting his withholding of federal disaster relief funds and his veto of federal assistance for the Arkansas Valley Conduit water pipeline, and stating that she opposed plans to dismantle the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder.
All three of those actions are widely viewed as retaliation for Colorado’s ongoing incarceration of Tina Peters, the pro-Trump former Mesa County clerk convicted in connection with a security breach of her own elections equipment in an unsuccessful attempt to uncover evidence of fraud. Kirkmeyer did not mention Peters, but she placed blame for Trump’s targeting of Colorado on the state’s top Democrats.
“It doesn’t help that my Democrat opponents in this race keep poking at him, and keep going after him,” she said of the president. “Lawsuit after lawsuit doesn’t necessarily make for good relationships.”
Bottoms offered an altogether different theory of how to win unaffiliated voters — who make up more than half of all registered voters in Colorado — over to the Republicans’ side.
“The reason unaffiliateds are going to come across and vote for a Republican governor is because of the major issues — they don’t want boys in girls sports,” said Bottoms. “They are sick and tired of the pedophilia. They don’t like the illegal immigrant crime that is happening in our state, and crime in a general sense.”
During the debate, Bottoms falsely claimed that line items in Colorado’s state budget show “hundreds of millions of dollars right now that are going to illegal immigrant abortions and transgender surgeries,” and that there are “45 to 50,000 Venezuelan cartel (members) in this state.” Kirkmeyer noted both assertions are untrue.
Debate moderators pressed Bottoms on baseless allegations he made earlier this year that a pedophile ring operates at the state Capitol, which he claims to be working with out-of-state federal law enforcement officers to disrupt. Over the last decade, such conspiracy theories have been a hallmark of extremist movements like QAnon.
“There’s no way I can prove this right now, because I’m not a federal investigator. I’m also not a prosecutor,” Bottoms said Thursday. “But we’ll see.”
Bottoms is currently a plaintiff in a lawsuit seeking to block unaffiliated voters from participating in GOP primary elections this year, arguing alongside two other Republican candidates that the state’s open primary system violates their constitutional rights.
Bottoms and Marx qualified for the GOP ballot through the party’s assembly process, which tends to favor more ideologically extreme candidates, while Kirkmeyer — who said during Thursday’s debate that the attempt to opt out of an open primary was a “big mistake” — qualified through petition signatures.
“This isn’t anti-unaffiliated — this is for Democrats and Republicans,” Bottoms said in defense of his lawsuit. “If you’re part of that team, you choose the person for your team. If you’re not part of that team, you don’t choose the person for that team.”
Colorado’s primary elections will be held June 30.
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Colorado Newsline is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Colorado Newsline maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Quentin Young for questions: info@coloradonewsline.com.
