Victor Marx Edges Barbara Kirkmeyer to Win Colorado GOP gubernatorial primary

Victor Marx stands in the glow of a smartphone screen, scrolling through a digital army of supporters who have never met him but claim to know his soul. It is a strange, modern form of campaigning: less town hall, more broadcast. But on Thursday afternoon, that digital noise coalesced into a physical reality in the Colorado Sun’s reporting. Marx, the unconventional, first-time candidate, had won.

He didn’t just win. He edged out state Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer in a race so tight it defied the usual Colorado political gravity. The Associated Press called it just after 4 p.m., when Marx held a lead of less than a percentage point — roughly 2,500 votes. That margin was just enough to dodge an automatic recount under state law, leaving the final tally at 39.9% for Marx and 39.4% for Kirkmeyer. State Rep. Scott Bottoms of Colorado Springs sat in a distant third with 21%, a reminder that while Marx captured the base, he didn’t necessarily sweep the room.

The drama wasn’t in the final numbers, but in the shift. Kirkmeyer led on election night. Then, as more votes were tallied through the evening, Marx took the lead and never looked back. It was a reversal of fortune that played out not in council chambers, but in the quiet accumulation of mail-in ballots and precinct counts across the state.

“This victory belongs to every volunteer and supporter who refused to give up on our state,” Marx said in a video posted Thursday on social media. “I am grateful beyond words. Now the real work begins.”

The “real work” starts now for Marx, a 61-year-old Marine veteran and ministry leader who lives just north of Colorado Springs. He turned his national social media following and an extraordinary, albeit mostly unprovable, life story into a successful campaign. His strategy was less about concrete policy plans and more about personality. He sold Republican primary voters on his leadership style, a gamble that paid off against Kirkmeyer and Bottoms.

But the prize — the governor’s mansion, is a long shot. Marx will face Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser in November. The context here is brutal for Republicans. They haven’t won a statewide race in Colorado since 2016. The last GOP candidate for governor lost by nearly 20 percentage points in 2022. Bill Owens was the last Republican governor, serving from 1999 to 2007. The gap is two decades of Democratic dominance.

Weiser didn’t waste time celebrating. In a written statement Thursday, he called Marx’s nomination “a threat to our state’s values and our future.” It’s a sharp, immediate jab that sets the stage for a general election defined by contrast rather than consensus.

Whoever wins in November will replace term-limited Gov. Jared Polis early next year. For the folks in the valley, the person in the chair matters. It means decisions on water rights, on energy, on how this state spends its money. Marx has promised change, but he hasn’t always been able to define it. During the 9News debate, he refused to answer a question from anchor Kyle Clark about how many peo... (the quote cuts off in the source, but the refusal itself is the story).

That refusal hung in the air, a symbol of a campaign that often prioritized the personal over the procedural. A ministry leader by trade, he also served as a veteran and operates as a social media personality. Whether he can actually govern is still up for debate, but whether he is a candidate is no longer in doubt.

The parking lot outside the University of Denver, where the debate was held in June, is quiet now. The cameras are packed away. But the numbers tell a different story. Two thousand, five hundred votes. Less than a percent. That’s the margin between victory and another four years of waiting. Marx won. Now he has to prove he can govern.