Douglas County GOP Vice Chair Warns Party Base Has Shrunk To 34 Percent

The Douglas County Republican Party's own vice chair delivered a bracing reality check at a recent party assembly: registered Republicans now make up just 34 percent of voters in one of Colorado's most reliably conservative counties, a share that no longer constitutes a majority.

The warning from Vice Chair DiCarlo landed as a cold-water moment inside a day that had already veered toward spectacle. The assembly included election fraud claims, a mailer calling a fellow Republican a traitor, and a credentials meltdown that nearly led to a revote, all before conservative commentator Joe Oltmann had even landed: he arrived by helicopter.

The same delegates who had cheered Oltmann's claims about rigged elections were greeted at the door with a mailer from Rocky Mountain Gun Owners' super PAC calling Republican state Rep. Anthony Hartsook, who represents House District 44 in Parker, a "traitor." The mailer cited three Republican-sponsored bills, including one RMGO claims would let the state freeze gun sales and another that would share concealed carry permit holder biometrics with the FBI.

In February, Oltmann had made similar claims at a Douglas County GOP governor forum, where he alleged Elon Musk sent a "strike team" to stop Serbia from stuffing American ballot boxes. The crowd at the assembly was receptive, applauding his claims even as they acted as the party insiders who help decide which Republicans voters will send to the general election in November.

DiCarlo's 34 percent figure echoes a trend that has been building for years. Douglas County voters are 33 percent Republican, 18 percent Democrat and 47 percent unaffiliated, according to the Colorado Secretary of State's Office, figures that date to the 2023 school board race and have shifted only marginally since. The unaffiliated bloc, at nearly half the county electorate, now holds far more sway over general election outcomes than either party's base alone.

Democrat Bob Marshall has won House District 43, which covers parts of Douglas County, in recent election cycles, making it a competitive general election seat. Republican candidate Nate Marsh, who says HD43 is "one of the most winnable seats" for Republicans in 2026, attended the assembly and secured the nomination unopposed. Marsh is running on a platform of tougher criminal penalties, eliminating cashless bail, reducing regulations, and opposing what he describes as government and school interference with parental rights.

Inside, the credentials committee had miscounted its own voters, a congresswoman had urged civility in a room full of traitor mailers, and an election denier had already flown away to his next stop.

DiCarlo's math problem, meanwhile, would still be there on Monday. With the June 30, 2026 primary election approaching, the party faces a fundamental strategic question that no amount of helicopter arrivals can obscure: how to win over the unaffiliated majority that now decides who actually governs Douglas County.