From a corporate office park in the Denver suburbs, podcaster Joe Oltmann spins a daily vision of America’s dark and violent future.
“Pretty soon we’ll have gallows being built all over the country. We can take care of all these traitors to our nation,” he told listeners during an episode late last year.
“Stretch that rope,” he intoned during another, suggesting that Colorado Gov. Jared Polis (D) be hanged, before going on to explain that it was just a joke.
The violent rhetoric has contributed to such a tense political climate that the Democratic secretary of state — a frequent target of Oltmann’s denunciations — now travels with a security detail, a first for the office, she said.
Oltmann, a businessman who gained a national profile on the far right after he claimed he had personal knowledge that the 2020 presidential election was rigged, is hardly a fringe figure. He now leads an influential and growing political movement in Colorado that is shaking up the state Republican Party.
Oltmann’s political organization — FEC United, standing for “Faith, Education and Commerce” — is less than two years old, but it has been advocating for candidates up and down the Colorado ballot, from key statewide positions to obscure county jobs.
It has challenged GOP incumbents who want to pivot from the 2020 election obsession and will face a critical test of its influence in the state’s primary Tuesday, when candidates Oltmann has supported will be on the Republican ballot. Success for...
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