Kirkmeyer, Bottoms blast Victor Marx as ‘unfit’ and ‘corrupt’ during GOP gubernatorial debate
“I also said he was corrupt, and I also said he lies. He lied to me personally quite a few times.”
DENVER | Colorado Springs ministry leader Victor Marx faced his two rivals for the Colorado Republican Party’s nomination for governor in a debate for the first time on Tuesday night, and quickly found himself the target of stinging criticism from both of them.

“You can’t keep your word. I can’t trust you,” state Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer of Weld County, a veteran GOP political figure backed by the party’s establishment, told Marx. “You’re unfit. You’re unqualified.”

Both Kirkmeyer and state Rep. Scott Bottoms of Colorado Springs reiterated during Tuesday’s debate, hosted by 9News in Denver, that they wouldn’t support Marx’s campaign if he wins the party’s gubernatorial nomination on June 30. Bottoms, a pastor and a two-term lawmaker with a reputation as a fringe far-right figure at the Capitol, said he stood by his comments labeling Marx a “con man.”

“I also said he was corrupt, and I also said he lies,” Bottoms said. “He lied to me personally quite a few times. I can’t put somebody like that any more than I can put a Democrat into the governor’s seat.”

Victor Marx’s atypical campaign for governor — and sometimes-incredible backstory — makes him a force in GOP primary
Nine months ago, Victor Marx was a political unknown. Outside of his own orbit, he was perhaps most familiar to parts of the Christian nonprofit world, to listeners of a certain brand of podcast and to anyone who’d seen videos of him laying claim to the title of the world’s fastest gun-disarmer.

The Republican gubernatorial candidate has attended only one debate alongside his two opponents. He’s never run for office before and has few prominent Republican officials backing him. His backstory is extensive and full of the sort of bizarre detail that, in a pre-Donald Trump world, would likely have caused his campaign to implode before it left the launchpad.

And after the June 30 primary, Marx very well may be Colorado Republicans’ candidate for governor.

I’ve followed and covered Colorado politics closely for 22 years. It’s been a long time since I encountered a major statewide candidate I’d never heard of before announcing.

I’d also never encountered any candidate for office who couldn’t answer the question, “How many people have you killed?”

That is, until Victor Marx, a Republican candidate for governor who isn’t passing the smell test. On Wednesday night, 9News anchor Kyle Clark released a most peculiar interview with Marx. Not two minutes in, Clark asked how many women and children have been rescued by the missionary organization he leads. He pointed to Marx’s own campaign website’s since-removed assertion that they’d rescued 45,000.

A candidate who raises money off rescues he won’t verify, claims credit for operations his organization didn’t conduct, and files campaign finance reports that raise red flags isn’t the “Dangerous Gentleman” he claims to be. Except to Colorado Republicans.