Joe Oltmann, the conservative Colorado podcaster who has repeatedly called for Colorado’s top elected officials to be executed and whose uncorroborated claims that the 2020 election was rigged spawned multiple defamation lawsuits, declared his candidacy for the Republican nomination for governor l ate Friday night. Oltmann joins a crowded field of Republicans seeking to take over from Democratic Gov. Jared Polis, who faces term limits after the 2026 election. Two of the state’s leading Democrats, three-term U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet and term-limited Attorney General Phil Weiser, are vying for their party’s nomination in a state that hasn’t elected a Republican governor in more than two decades. In recent weeks, Oltmann has described Polis, Weiser and others who have defended Colorado’s election system as “treasonous traitors” who should be designated as “enemy combatants,” subject to arrest and hanging. After teasing a potential candidacy for weeks on social media, Oltmann made it official in a 75-minute livestream, saying he’s running for governor to give a voice to the 40% of Coloradans whom the state’s ruling politicians have left behind. “I want to take care of the people that deserve an opportunity, just like your kids deserve an opportunity in Highlands Ranch or in some of the most affluent areas of Colorado,” Oltmann said. “I want to make sure that farmers have the ability to be heard and that the Eastern Plains and the Western Slope are not just an inconvenience to what the most dense part of Denver represents.” Added Oltmann: “Let’s find a way to undo all the damage that’s been done by politicians over the last 25 years. Republicans have to find a way to stop talking to the echo-chamber and start talking to the have-nots.” Oltmann said the only way to accomplish that is to eliminate the state’s mail-in balloting and banish “the machines,” in a reference to his allegations that vote-tabulation equipment supplied by Denver-based Dominion Voting Systems was responsible for throwing the 2020 election to Democrat Joe Biden. “If I am honest, I would be lying if I told you that, short of getting rid of the machines and mail-in ballots, there was hope,” Oltmann said Friday night. “I do not think there is, nor will there be. The lack of transparency and the hubris of the gatekeepers on either side of the aisle will certainly see that none of us win who want to serve and restore the voice of the people.” Oltmann is being sued for defamation by Eric Coomer, the former Dominion executive whom Oltmann accused without evidence of boasting on an “antifa conference call” that the 2020 presidential election was rigged so that President Donald Trump would lose. Earlier this year, a federal judge imposed more than $90,000 in attorney fees and sanctions on Oltmann after he fled the courthouse last year in the middle of a deposition related to Coomer’s lawsuit. Oltmann said that his first priority in office will be to free Tina Peters from state prison, declaring the former Mesa County clerk was unjustly convicted on seven felony and misdemeanor charges related to breaching the secure election equipment she oversaw. Peters, who is serving a nine-year sentence and ran unsuccessfully for Colorado secretary of state in 2022, is appealing. Trump has repeatedly demanded that Polis release Peters and transfer her to federal custody. Earlier this month, the Republican issued a pardon to Peters, despite the president’s inability to intercede in a state criminal matter. Peters’ attorneys are suing to enforce the presidential pardon under an untested legal theory. “Tina Peters sits in jail, so my first commitment would be to pardon Tina Peters — not to commute her sentence, not to listen to some half-wit politician who tells me that it was a free and fair trial and that she was found guilty by a jury of her peers,” Oltmann said. “That is absolute nonsense, with over 40 motions that were denied and her affirmative defense denied.” Oltmann and other Peters backers insist that her trial last year in Grand Junction was faulty because her attorneys weren’t allowed to present evidence to support debunked claims of election fraud. Calling Peters a “charlatan” who betrayed her oath of office, 21st Judicial District Court Judge Matthew Barrett said in sentencing remarks that the defiant Peters was “(peddling) a snake oil that’s been proven to be junk time and time again.” In recent social media posts, Oltmann has included Barrett among the “traitors” he believes deserve to be executed, along with Polis, Weiser, Secretary of State Jena Griswold, a Democrat, and Mesa County District Attorney Dan Rubinstein, the who prosecuted Peters’ case. “They are traitors,” Oltmann said in a post on Thanksgiving. “They deserve to be tried for treason in military tribunals and hang. They are irredeemable and disgusting and they and many many others must pay.” Weiser called Oltmann’s bid “unserious” in a statement to Colorado Politics. “Joe Oltmann’s campaign for Colorado governor is an unserious one,” Weiser said in a text message. “The public deserves candidates committed to governing, not hurling threats and insults.” Podcast host Joe Oltmann, left, pumps his fist in reaction to a point made by 2022 Colorado Republican gubernatorial nominee Heidi Ganahl, who welcomed Oltmann’s endorsement on Nov. 7, 2022. (Screengrab via Conservative Daily) Oltmann has circled the governor’s race in recent years, including declining a nomination for the office from the floor at the 2022 Republican state assembly. Months later, he welcomed the eventual GOP nominee, Heidi Ganahl, to his podcast and endorsed her, days before she lost to Polis by nearly a 20-point margin. More than 20 Republicans have filed to run for governor in next year’s election, including former U.S. Rep. Greg Lopez, state Sens. Barb Kirkmeyer and Mark Baisley, state Rep. Scott Bottoms, Teller County Sheriff Jason Mikesell and Colorado Springs-based ministry leader Victor Marx. During his announcement, Oltmann took a few shots at some of his primary rivals. “I don’t believe Victor Marx is equipped to handle the problems in this state,” Oltmann said, arguing that Marx’s statements that Peters had a fair trial were misguided. Oltmann also said he plans to talk to Kirkmeyer about her voting record after a viewer asked if she’d voted with the Democrats too often. Marx declined via a spokesman to comment on Oltmann’s candidacy, but Kirkmeyer said in a text message to Colorado Politics that her plans haven’t changed. “I respect our nomination process that allows anyone to step forward and run for office, Kirkmeyer said. “My focus remains on sharing a clear, conservative vision for Colorado that lowers costs, fixes our roads, keeps our communities safe, and puts families first.” Bottoms called his new opponent “a man of integrity” and said he has no objection to Oltmann joining the field in a statement to Colorado Politics, but added that he expects the number of viable Republican candidates will dwindle as the primary approaches. “We are a republic. Our state is a caucus state. Anyone that wants to get in the gubernatorial race has every right to do so. I have no problem with Joe Oltmann jumping in to the race. I think he is a man of integrity,” Bottoms said in a text message. “With that said, I also believe the race will be thinned down quite a bit over the next three months.” Colorado’s June primary ballot will be set beginning in the first week of March, when Republicans and Democrats convene at precinct caucuses and county assemblies, before the parties’ state assemblies in early April. Candidates can also qualify for the ballot by petition. In a lengthy question-and-answer session after making his candidacy official, Oltmann said he intends to institute a cost-cutting program at the state level modeled on the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency, known as DOGE. He also vowed to abolish property taxes and toll roads, repeal Colorado’s gun-control laws, make Election Day a holiday and close the state’s primaries by prohibiting unaffiliated voters from participating. Oltmann also warned that “the fake news” would mischaracterize his campaign, including his plans to reverse a state policy aimed at curbing natural gas use by Colorado residents over the next 25 years in an effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. “If you want to have the ability to dictate that they can’t get rid of natural gas by 2050, get rid of the machines and the mail-in ballots, get to a place where the people of Colorado can have a voice and stop thinking that the mainstream media knows what they’re talking about,” he said. “These guys are entertainers,” he added. “They’re a part of the kabuki theater. They parrot the same message that you see in every community around the country. It is a tool to control you by lying to you; they have lied to you about everything.” Oltmann said that while he used to listen to National Public Radio, he no longer does because “it’s all trash.” “It’s all designed to make men weaker and make us think that, frankly, we are in a society where we can’t trust our neighbors,” Oltmann said. “I think the only people we can trust are our neighbors. The problem is that the bureaucrats and the elected officials walk around telling us that there’s a boogeyman behind every tree.” ...read more read less