Time to roll up our sleeves
I woke up Nov. 4 on the ranch in McCoy, poured the coffee Gary makes every morning, and looked out at the same mountains I look at every morning. They didn’t move last night. Neither did I.
But Colorado did. Election Day was hard for Republicans in this state. Again. We have not won a governor’s race since 2002. We have not won a statewide office since 2016. Good candidates worked their hearts out, and good volunteers knocked doors in the cold. It wasn’t enough.
I’ve felt this before.
The bleak years
In the early 1990s, my husband Gary and I talked about whether we should have children at all. That’s how dark it felt. Government kept growing. Prices kept climbing. The people in charge didn’t seem to care what it cost families like ours. I honestly wondered what kind of country we’d be handing a child.
Then came 1994. Republicans stopped complaining and started working. They put a plan on paper, took it to the people, and won.
We found our courage too. We had two daughters. Today they are grown, strong, and exceptionally successful women. They are the greatest joy of my life. If I had let fear make that decision, I would have missed everything that matters most.
That’s the lesson. Fear is not a strategy. Faith and work are.
Colorado Republicans are standing at our own 1994 moment. We can mourn, point fingers, and fight each other for two more years. Or we can roll up our sleeves.
I choose the sleeves. Here is where we start.
1. Keep Colorado kids in Colorado
Ask any parent in this state what keeps them up at night. It’s whether their kids can afford to stay. A first home in the town they grew up in. Rent that leaves something for savings. Utility bills that don’t jump every winter.
Much of that cost is decided at the Capitol. Regulations add thousands to every new house. Energy mandates show up on every utility bill. This year Xcel asked regulators for nearly a 10% electric increase and more than 11% on gas, and the company says its spending has been aligned with state policy priorities. Then come the new “fees” that are taxes by another name. Republicans should make a simple promise: no new fee or mandate passes until we count what it costs a Colorado family.
2. Protect TABOR and stop the spending
Colorado voters passed the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights (TABOR) in 1992. The idea is simple. Government asks the people before it raises taxes, and it gives back what it over-collects. Every year, the majority at the Capitol looks for another way around it. In 2021 they passed a transportation bill projected to raise $5.4 billion, most of it through new “fees” no voter ever approved. That includes a fee on every gallon of gas that climbs a penny a year. That one was not set in Washington. It was set in Denver.
The spending tells the rest of the story. Over the last 15 years, Colorado’s General Fund spending has grown 134%, while our population grew 19% and inflation rose 48%. And this year, with a budget of nearly $47 billion, the state still faced a $1.5 billion shortfall. Colorado doesn’t have a revenue problem. It has a spending problem.
I served six years as Routt County Treasurer and Public Trustee. I know every public dollar was earned by somebody first. A rancher. A nurse. A small business owner. A firefighter. On a ranch, you don’t spend what you don’t have. Colorado should budget the same way. Defend TABOR, end the fee workaround, and live within our means.
3. Stand up for rural Colorado
On the Western Slope and the Eastern Plains, it often feels like Denver makes decisions about us, but without us. Wolves released onto ranch country that never asked for them. Water that leaves our valleys. Forests that need thinning and burn instead.
As a fire chief, I’ve watched volunteer departments run on grants, pancake breakfasts, and sheer grit while fire seasons get longer. Agriculture is the backbone of this state’s heritage. Republicans should be the unapologetic voice for rural Colorado, and we should show Front Range voters that their food, their water, and their mountain getaways all start out here.
4. Win back the unaffiliated voter
Unaffiliated voters now make up 52% of registered voters in Colorado. Registered Republicans are 23%. We will not win statewide with Republicans alone. Ever.
That takes fundamentals. Big fires are not won by heroics. They are won by training, communication, and showing up every time. Politics is no different. Recruit candidates early. Build county parties that work year-round. Do real voter contact and ballot chase. Raise money every month, not just in October. And talk to unaffiliated neighbors like neighbors, not opponents.
No more circular firing squads. No more purity tests that shrink our tent.
5. Tell our story where people are listening
My daughters don’t read the newspaper the way Gary does. My grandchild never will. Voters under 40 get their news on their phones, in short videos, from people they trust.
Colorado Republicans need a modern media operation with Colorado faces. Ranchers in Moffat County. Small business owners in Pueblo. Moms in Aurora and Grand Junction. Real people telling real stories, every week, not just in campaign season. We have the better message. We have to deliver it where people actually are.
6. Kill the caucus
This one is personal. I’ve chaired this state party. I’ve run caucus nights. I respect every volunteer who gave up an evening to make one work.
But it’s time to say it: the caucus system is hurting us.
Caucus night draws a small slice of our own party. Most Republicans can’t attend. They’re working a shift, feeding cattle, caring for kids, or simply don’t know it exists. Unaffiliated voters, who decide elections in this state, feel shut out. Too often, the process rewards whoever can pack a room, not whoever can win in November. And it burns months of energy on internal fights that should be spent beating Democrats.
We need a nomination process that brings people in, not one that keeps them out. Ending the caucus frees our volunteers, our money, and our time for the work that actually wins elections.
Roll up our sleeves
I’m not writing this because I’ve given up. I’m writing it because I never will. My company is called Never Give Up for a reason.
In 1994, I was afraid of the future. I chose faith anyway, and God gave me two daughters who prove every day that the future is worth fighting for. I want the same Colorado for my grandchild that I wanted for my girls. Even though they moved to Kansas and Nebraska. A state where you can afford to live, where government respects your paycheck, where energy is affordable, and where a family can build something that lasts.
We have two years. That’s enough time if we start today.
Affordability. TABOR. Rural Colorado. The unaffiliated voter. Our story. And kill the caucus.
The mountains didn’t move last night. Neither should we. Let’s get to work.
Brita Horn is fire chief of Rock Creek Volunteer Fire Department, a former Routt County Treasurer and Public Trustee, former chair of the Colorado Republican Party, and a ranch wife in Routt County. She founded Western Firebrand, a voice for ranchers and rural families built on Faith, Fire, Farm, Freedom and Finance. She writes here as a private citizen.
