Tonkins to lead divided El Paso County GOP for third-consecutive term

EL PASO COUNTY, Colo. (KRDO) -- Vickie Tonkins won her third-consecutive term as chairwoman of the El Paso County GOP, setting up another two-year battle within the party.

The reorganizational meeting Saturday was run by Gregory Carlson, a neutral third party appointed by the Colorado GOP after El Paso County republicans alleged Tonkins was unfit to run the meeting for fear of an unfair election.

Tonkins sued, claiming the state GOP didn’t have the authority to remove her or other precinct committee members from their positions. A judge dismissed the lawsuit ahead of Saturday’s election.

“Many of the accusations that they presented are just that, accusations, because when I went down their list of ‘complaints’, I had documentation on every single thing that would prove them to be lying,” Tonkins said.

However, despite the controversy, Tonkins won the chair position with 55% of votes. Her running mates include Todd Watkins as vice chair and Adriana Cuva as secretary.

Karl Schneider, the former vice chair of the party, said nearly all the leadership positions elected as well as the 14 bonus members are aligned closely with Tonkins. He said the election wasn’t illegal but that Tonkins and her supporters took advantage of the system.

In the last two years, Tonkins appointed new precinct committee leaders. The state GOP questioned if their votes should count at the reorganizational meeting but ultimately allowed it. Senator Larry Liston said the organization and support of those precinct committee leaders at the meeting helped Tonkins win reelection.

The results show that there is still a split within the county’s Republican party, and the moderates are the clear minority.

“The party organization itself has demonstrated that there is a more radical group of people who have taken over the party itself,” Schneider said.

But Schneider and Liston said the leadership within the party doesn’t align with El Paso County Republican voters. But Tonkins disagrees there’s a major divide.

“I don't think the party is divided and split as much as they would like us to think,” she said.

Tonkins said her goal for the next two years is to grow the party. She said the reorganizational meeting had the most people in years. However, Republican voters have slowly declined in El Paso County. At the end of 2020, according to Colorado Secretary of State data, there were 162,482 registered Republican voters in El Paso County. Since then, that number has declined by about 15,000, with about 147,000 at the end of 2022.

“One of the main (reasons) is that they were tired of the type of people who have been getting elected and not representing them properly, not representing the Republican values when they take these positions,” Tonkins said of Republican voters who have flipped to unaffiliated.

Tonkins said the newly elected leaders of the El Paso County GOP are better fit to represent their constituents.

“This time I have people who believe in our Constitution, people who believe in the Republican platform,” she said. “We're going to all three work from those documents, plus our bylaws, to really grow the party.”

But Schneider and Liston said the county’s leadership is moving further and further from representing El Paso County Republicans as a whole. However, neither of them said they would leave the party.

“Republicans at large, are not aligned with the party leadership at this time,” Schneider said. “They haven't been for the past two years and they won't be going forward.”