DENVER -- Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters continues to outraise her opponents in Colorado’s GOP secretary of state primary despite being indicted on seven felony charges related to election fraud, called on by her own party to suspend her campaign and barred by a judge from overseeing her county’s elections this year.
Peters’ main opponent in Tuesday's primary is moderate Republican Pam Anderson, a longtime election official and former Jefferson County clerk who rejects former President Donald Trump's false claims of a stolen election that Peters embraces. Anderson has raised nearly $107,000 since October, compared with $166,000 Peters raised since entering the race in February, according to financial disclosure reports from May 31.
This primary represents the latest chapter of a new fracturing within the GOP, a party torn between adherence to Trump-perpetuated claims of widespread voter fraud and those who reject those baseless claims. What's left is a tug-of-war between pro-Trump, far-right loyalists candidates and more traditional Republicans for GOP nominations in the primaries.
Colorado State Sen. Kevin Priola, the only Republican state legislator to co-sponsor a Democratic bill to bar anyone convicted of election fraud-related charges from running for office, said he believes Trump ‘s hold on the GOP may be “starting to slip away.”
“The question is: Is it happening quickly enough to the extent that rational, reasonable, fair-minded conservative Republicans can actually...
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