Colorado Republicans just chose a candidate who claims he killed a man at seven years old and refuses to say how many others he has put in the ground since.
After nine days of agonizing ballot counting, the Associated Press finally called the state's Republican gubernatorial primary on July 9, 2026. Victor Marx, a 61-year-old Marine veteran and evangelical ministry founder, managed to squeeze past establishment favorite State Senator Barbara Kirkmeyer by just over 2,500 votes. Marx pulled in 39.9% of the total vote. Kirkmeyer finished right behind him at 39.4%, while State Representative Scott Bottoms took a distant third with 20.8%.
The narrow victory lets the Marx campaign bypass an automatic recount, but it does absolutely nothing to fix the gaping wound inside the state's conservative coalition.
This is a massive gamble for a political party that hasn't won a governor's race in Colorado since Bill Owens left office in 2007. By rejecting a seasoned legislator for a high-risk missionary with three million social media followers and an unverified backstory, primary voters chose internet fame over electoral viability.
Now, they have to face the music in November.
The Wild Backstory the Establishment Couldn't Kill
Marx didn't win this primary by talking about tax code or zoning laws. He won it because he's fascinating. He runs All Things Possible Ministries from El Paso County and claims he has led more than 150 high-stakes missions into dangerous territories, including saving girls from ISIS.
Local journalists tried to pin down the details. They failed. Marx consistently dodged specific questions about his organization's funding and operations.
The real fireworks started when 9News anchor Kyle Clark asked Marx directly how many people he had killed during his international operations. Marx refused to answer, stating that the exact number wasn't important. He has also stated publicly that his abusive stepfather forced him to shoot and kill a man in Mississippi when he was only seven. Journalists checked with local Mississippi law enforcement, who found zero records of any unsolved homicides or cases matching that description from the era.
Kirkmeyer tried to use these bizarre claims to sink him. She failed. On his campaign website, Marx used his outsider status to position himself as a renegade who could break a corrupt system. In her concession statement, Kirkmeyer couldn't resist one final jab, writing that she was proud of her campaign and adding, "for the record, I still haven't killed anyone."
A Broken Party Faces an Upstream General Election
Winning the primary was the easy part. The general election looks like a nightmare for the GOP.
Colorado isn't a swing state anymore. It's deep blue. The state backed Kamala Harris over Donald Trump by more than 10 points in 2024. No Republican has won a statewide race here since 2016. When the last GOP gubernatorial nominee ran in 2022, they lost by a devastating 20 percentage points.
Marx will face Democratic nominee Phil Weiser, the current state attorney general who easily won his own primary against U.S. Senator Michael Bennet. Weiser is already weaponizing Marx's public image. Minutes after the race was called, Weiser released a statement calling Marx's nomination a direct threat to Colorado values. He described the choice as one between serious governance and a politics of deception and distraction.
Marx fired back in his victory video, calling Weiser a smart guy who represents a broken system that has made Colorado expensive and unsafe. It's a classic populist message. The problem is that Marx lacks the unified party support needed to deliver it effectively.
The Math Behind a Divided Electorate
The raw numbers from June 30 show how deeply unpopular Marx is with a huge portion of his own party.
Marx took 208,085 votes. Kirkmeyer secured 205,570 votes. Bottoms drew 108,283 votes. That means 60% of Republican primary voters actively chose someone other than Marx. Both Kirkmeyer and Bottoms explicitly stated during the campaign that they wouldn't support Marx if he won, calling him a con man who tells tall tales.
Can he convince those voters to come home by November? It's highly unlikely.
Marx skipped traditional debates and forums entirely during the primary season. He relied on his massive Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube following to raise money and talk directly to his base. That strategy works wonders when you only need 40% of the hardest-core Republican voters to win a three-way split. It fails miserably when you need to convince moderate independent voters in the Denver suburbs who actually decide statewide elections in Colorado.
Next Steps for Colorado Voters
If you want to understand how this race unfolds, you need to look past the social media clips. Watch the fundraising numbers and look for party establishment endorsements. Trump hasn't endorsed Marx yet, and major state donors are already hinting they might sit this cycle out.
Keep a close eye on the following developments over the next month:
- Check if Marx releases actual policy proposals regarding Colorado's cost of living and housing crisis, rather than relying purely on his personal biography.
- Monitor whether independent voters buy into his outsider narrative or see his unverified past as a liability.
- Watch how down-ballot Republican candidates handle top-ticket association with Marx during their autumn campaigns.
The political reality here is brutal. Marx proved he can command an online audience and capture a fractured primary base. But running a general election campaign against a well-funded, disciplined state attorney general requires infrastructure, discipline, and broad appeal. Right now, the Colorado GOP doesn't have any of those things.
