739: From Spoilers to Allies - LP of Colorado and the GOP's Game-Changing Pact

Brian Nichols  0:15  
the Libertarian Party of Colorado and the GOP of Colorado have entered into a historic first, we're gonna talk about that instead of focusing on winning arguments. We're teaching the basic fundamentals of sales and marketing and how we can use them to win in the world of politics, teaching you how to meet people where they're at on the issues they care about. Welcome to The Brian Nichols Show. Hey there, folks, Brian Nichols here on The Brian Nichols Show. Thank you for joining us on a course, for the fun that build episode. I am as always your humble host. Joining you live our BNC Studios here in lovely Eastern Indiana and we're gonna hop skip and jump a few states to my West. Go ahead and talk about some happenings with the LP of Colorado and the GOP of Colorado. Entering into Yes, a historical first one is that an agreement that the LP will not run, quote unquote, spoiler candidates, when the GOP actually goes through and runs some Liberty oriented candidates, so discuss that today from the LPs, Colorado, Colorado headquarters, shall I say, Jordan Marinovich. Thank you for joining us here on The Brian Nichols Show. How're you doing?

Jordan Marinovich  1:24  
Good, good. How are you, Brian?

Brian Nichols  1:26  
Doing good. Thanks for joining us. And Jordan, do us a favor, introduce yourself here to The Brian Nichols Show audience and all what's going on over there at the LP of Colorado?

Jordan Marinovich  1:36  
Yeah, thank you so much, Brian, for having us on. So as you said, I am the Communications Director here for the LP of Colorado. And yeah, we've been just shaking things up here in the state of Colorado. We just had our convention earlier this year where we renewed a lot of the board positions. And we're rockin and rollin here in the state making waves bring in some new fresh energy into the party following the Reno takeover two years ago. So we've got a fully solidified board. And we're really focused on some new efforts. Internally, we're doing a lot of things to get organized and have some workflow processes. If anyone's familiar with Elton, John traction method, we're utilizing that to get organized internally. But externally, we've had a lot of focus and change on things such as our social media presence, specifically on Twitter, with the takeover from Elon Musk, we really see an opportunity there. So just all around just so big refresh here in Colorado, following some big changes in the party as a whole.

Brian Nichols  2:45  
And then, of course, the naysayers, right? Which Which leads us to today's conversation, because over on Twitter, if you talk to some of the larger l libertarians from more or less yesteryear, they are throw it throwing a hissy fit that How dare the LP of Colorado, enter into this agreement with the enemy, the GOP of Colorado now, for anybody listening here, The Brian Nichols Show, I'm obviously saying this very tongue in cheek, I think this is absolutely the right way for us to actually make some political Hey, but do us a favor, give us some context? What is this agreement? How did this come to be? And maybe a little historical context of how we got here?

Jordan Marinovich  3:24  
Yeah, definitely. I'll start. I'll start from the beginning. And we can work our way there quickly. So during that first convention, where we personally took over right before Reno and sending our own candidates to national to do the national takeover, we had our convention in which it was it was sort of split where we got most control with the Mises caucus, but we that was an electoral year. So previously, in the LP, we have what's called placeholder candidates, right? So if anyone, there's not really a rush for, for LP candidates to competing for a position, so really, if you live in that district, you're eligible and you wanted to run an LP ticket, you're a member of the party, just show up to the convention, say I want to run for that seat. And it was kind of like rubber stamp, right? Might as well put them on the ballot, placeholder. And there were some candidates that really, you know, had a campaign manager, they were raising funds or door knocking, and they were actually trying to make a good solid run and things as well. But you know, about half of our candidates, you know, just put their name on it. So at least we were on the ballot people can see us, and you know, it's a presence, right. So we nominated a man named Dan ward for the CD eight position. He did not run a campaign he did I think he went to one state fair and talked to a couple of folks but in some of the interviews post election, yeah, he was pretty much like a line holder candidate really didn't take it seriously so to speak, and then woke up the next morning after Election Day realize he almost got 5% of the vote in CDA, so that ended up being the deciding factor in that election because the Republican candidate lost by I think less than a percent. And the prevailing thought is, is that the LP took those votes from the GOP. A little bit more context with Dan Ward is that he really is no longer affiliated with us. He did not enjoy the takeover, he does not enjoy the more visas caucus type of thing that we're doing now. So he's not really even affiliated with a party anymore, which is, which is kind of funny twist of fate there. But he came from kind of a more left leaning, you know, the original party type of folks. So our our thing was, number one, we didn't run him as a spoiler, because we didn't know he would do that. Well, he was just a line holder. And, you know, our pushback was to the GOP and the media was number one, he's more of a lefty. So who knows how many Democrat votes he got, how much of that was split, but two, he didn't even campaign and he got 5% of the vote. So you guys should have run a better candidate. If you really want to put the blame on anybody, you know, we spoil the election we weren't even trying. So that's kind of the context of what's led to where we are now, similar to what we did two years ago, it seems that there has been a shake up in the GOP, Colorado party as well, where Dave Williams is now the chairman. And he's formerly with young Americans look for liberty, I believe. So from his, you know, from his perspective, he's more of that Liberty caucus type of of Republican. And we were pushing back, you know, saying like, hey, shoot you. Like I said, we didn't even run a guy like you didn't even campaign like your candidates suck to that much that, you know, we pull 5% And we we held the line, right, we were saying, you know, we're gonna run candidates, no matter what, and, you know, you guys are equally as bad. So it doesn't really matter to us. But when Dave got elected, and we elected Hannah Goodman, as our new chairman, they started to talk and they reached out and said, Hey, look, you know, I want to reform this party, I want to make it. Well, I shifted more to the libertarian position, we plan on running candidates that you guys probably would agree with, can we come to some type of agreement where if we run somebody you guys like, well, you guys, you know, not spoil, run a live holder or whatever the case may be. And then and then there was some more reciprocal things there, you know. So they're, they're agreeing to stay out of local elections that we want to run people in, because from our strategy, that's where we feel like we want to start from the ground up and get local and county elections under the libertarian banner. But that's really the context of it is that, you know, people were saying, Oh, you guys bow the knee to the GOP, they came to us, they know that we have this power. And, you know, from a pragmatist standpoint, and pragmatically it makes sense to use that leverage. And, and I guess to put a bow on it completely is looking at it from this perspective. Would you enjoy us as the Libertarian Party of Colorado blocking a Thomas Massie or Rand Paul from coming out of Colorado and letting another Democrat come in who's going to be like all the other ones when when we could you know, put our resources to another race that we could do well in and let so to speak the that Rand Paul or Matt Massey come out of Colorado? So that's that's it, you know, it's a handshake agreement. It's there's nothing written in blood. And we have contingency plans to make sure that we hold their feet to the fire. But you know, it's it's caused quite a ruckus.

Brian Nichols  8:49  
Yeah, sure. Has. I've heard that it's the end of the Libertarian Party as we know if this is the way we're gonna move forward. Oh, my God. Yeah, no, this is how we actually get like good people into office. To your point. Do you want to keep the Rand Paul's the Thomas Massie is Justin Amash is out of Congress? If they are in fact, the the actual like chance we have to get some libertarian leaning individuals from the GOP perspective into office. I think that this is a no brainer, right like that for me, versus the alternative, which is basically shooting in more and more Democrats. Now. This is also part of the conversation I hear. Well, Jared Polis is like one of the most libertarian members out there. You know, you're a libertarian governors. He was a great libertarian Congressman back in the day. So some of the more left leaning libertarian say and they always cite well, he and Justin Amash are BFFs. And I say, Well, you know, I like Justin Amash. But I think Justin's wrong here. So give us a little context in terms of this this divisive, I guess, not really nature that that's taken place in Colorado between politics and your Libertarian Party, but guess what's led to you decide I think that this is the right path, in fact, for liberty to get more of the masses to get more of the polls into Office versus relying on Jared Polis and his, I guess, pseudo libertarian benefit, he's here.

Jordan Marinovich  10:13  
Yeah. So you know, it all comes down to the fact that they know that, that we want 5% without even trying. So, in the long run, if we run somebody that we want to put some money and influence behind, it's going to be trouble for them. They know that, and they see that we're only growing and influence. And an organization from from, like, I was saying before the board perspective, so our this is only the beginning of our influence. And this is something that I've championed inside the party since since getting involved a couple of years ago is let's leverage this spoiler effect, you know, we literally get to choose who gets into some of these races. So let's use it to our advantage as we build our credibility and move towards where we can outright win elections, and move it to that point. So everyone outside of Colorado is going to have a trouble kind of understanding this, but you got to Colorado is pretty solidly blue. Yeah, you get a bow bar down. But you know, it's because she lives down to Colorado Springs, over Pueblo and then Mountain West. And that's really the only foothold that the Republicans have. And she won by 500 votes. So they are very, very on edge, about their position here in Colorado. So all the incentive to work with us is in our favor. And as far as polls is concerned, look, I understand that while he was in Congress, he was part of the Liberty whatever and and he was good friends with with Amash and things like that. That's not the politician that we know, here in Colorado, at least from the last few years. You know, living here, being under his mandates, you know, walking into grocery stores and being harassed because of his mask mandates. I had to leave my former position in my job because of a vaccine mandate. That was part and parcel price pressure from the government to institute these things. He wiped clean, you know, any type of credibility he had as a libertarian for his actions during the COVID pandemic. So unless you lived under this guy, as the governor, you don't know what you're talking about all due respect. So so that's why me as well, you know, heading up the Twitter account, we really been hammering him anytime he claims to be libertarian, like when he read and when he won reelection earlier this year, there was this libertarian, you know, tour you went on mayor, he went on Kennedy, you know, you went on all these shows, and they all described him as this libertarian leaning governor. He's the best libertarian ever. And you know, we went to bat on Twitter and other places against that and and I said at my speech at the convention, we decide the Libertarian Party of Colorado decides was libertarian in Colorado, not anybody else.

Brian Nichols  13:08  
Yeah, I don't think folks in particularly the red states understand how bad so many of these blue state governors really got during COVID. Once they were handed the keys, they did not look bad, they went forward, you know, pedal to the metal, petty tyrants and it really destroyed any credibility frankly that they may have had even to some of their their libertarian sensibilities. Now I see Jared Polis over on Twitter every now and then you know, sharing a Frederick Hayek or a Murray Rothbard quote, but that alone does not equal good policy. Now, I've heard the argument well, he's now you know, he's he's limited by term limits, and maybe he was just trying to appease that Democratic base in order to to win his reelection and now he can sit back and actually be some, you know, some good libertarian policy bringing us to the table here. I call BS on that. Jordan, what are your thoughts?

Jordan Marinovich  14:05  
How many libertarians Do you know? And how many of them waffle on principle based on the scenario virtually never were an autistic level of of sticking to our principles, right? So again, like you know, I understand pragmatism you know, if it's like hey, I have a Democratic legislature you know, I'm gonna I'm gonna veto more traffic light cameras I'm gonna veto gun bills but if you know something I get being you know, the chief executive of a state you have to work with what you got but no that doesn't that doesn't fly with me if that's your if that's your if that's what you want to be, then be that but don't call yourself a libertarian because like I mentioned, you know, it's we all know libertarians and it and that's that's why I appreciate there's so much pushback from some people on our do deal with the GOP, it says same mentality of being so purist than that urge to be a very pure libertarian that is giving people a lot of of issues about this arrangement. But again, what people need to understand is, is that we have the power here, okay? They know that if we try, we're gonna call, we're gonna, we're gonna mess up their their stuff even more. So there's really no incentive for them to go back on this deal with us. But if they do, we'll, we'll do what we got to do.

Brian Nichols  15:31  
And we're gonna talk about how you guys are holding their feet to the fire. But this goes back. Also, before we get there, too. I see a lot of folks from the CLC, the classical Liberal caucus who those same people back in 2016, were preaching vote for principles not party screaming to the members of the GOP to vote for Gary Johnson. Now we're like having the exact same conversation when it comes to actually voting for libertarian oriented candidates in the GOP on a principle standpoint, and where are they where has that mentality gone? It's completely hit the trashcan, I guess in their mind, they hit empty recycle bin, and it's gone forever. But let's go towards actually how we're holding these GOP candidates, feet to the fire, because that's definitely one of the concerns I've heard. And I think it's a legitimate concern, you know, how do we actually know that they are going to run as libertarian leaning candidates and then govern as libertarian leaning? Representatives? So what's the contingencies in play here? For the LP to keep the the GOP to their word?

Jordan Marinovich  16:40  
Yeah. So you know, a lot of people have concerns about well, the conventions and when they're nominated officially are so tight that, you know, once they nominate officially, there's then how are you going to have time to do do your thing and everything like that? Let's let's be real here, especially for the two major parties, those campaigns ramp up months in advance, right, they're there, they're trying to get that nomination way ahead of time. So there's, there's lines of communication open, so that we know ahead of time who they plan on running for that, it's going to be very obvious, it's kind of hard to keep that a secret within the party. And again, if there's a bait and switch, then then what was like what was this all for, at the end of the day, we will have our contingencies, we will have folks lined up ready to jump in into races as we can and like with the case with Dan Ward, and CDA, he didn't even run. So you know, the concern about us like ramping up campaign and things like that, you know, if we have to scramble and and, you know, throw somebody into the race, because we were duped by the GOP. And so be it bringing on and we're gonna come back at you harder, even the next cycle. So it's really in the back to libertarianism, the incentivizing humans to do to do the right thing, right, through a free market type of thing. All the incentives are there, to to stick to this deal and cooperate with us. And, you know, if everything you know, we can think about all of you know what's bad and what could go wrong, but think about the upside, think about if everything does go right with this, and they do throw up a mass, your Rampaul. And then we can focus our resources on local elections. And we can move, you know, Colorado back to a more sensible thing. This will be a smashing success if it goes too according to plan.

Brian Nichols  18:33  
And by the way, folks, if you want to get the GOP side of this story, go ahead and check out Clint Russell's Liberty locked on podcast, he interviewed Dave Williams here. Back I think I was trying to look here really quick. They're gonna 15 So two days ago. So go ahead and check that episode out. And yeah, Dave Williams, he was a Young Americans for Liberty guy much more in that Liberty leaning GOP mentality. So I'm definitely on board for the vision. And hopefully this all works out. But I know one major concern. major objection I've heard from some folks is how does this impact Libertarian Party of Colorado's ballot access standing? Is there anything in terms of compromised issues here?

Jordan Marinovich  19:09  
Not that Not that I'm aware of. That's definitely something that that we're discussing internally to make sure that that's not an issue. But it's not not a concern, right at this moment. But you know, that that obviously, is going to take our legs out from underneath us. If we allow that to happen. If we can't run for a certain race, then we have no leverage there. So it's not not in our best interest to allow ballot access to slip away from us.

Brian Nichols  19:36  
Cool. All right, Jordan, we're getting towards the end of the episode. So what we like to do here is we call it final thoughts. So I will kick things off. And my final thought for today is yes, yes. This is the approach we need to take. And I know there are a lot of folks listen to the show, who are going to be you know, just like screaming at their earbuds right now hearing me say this. I'm sorry. The reality is though, and if you've been a longtime listener, The Brian Nichols Show this should not be a surprise but the real What is the GOP, like, without a doubt is easily more friendly towards the Libertarian Party than the Democratic Party. That's just reality. And if we refuse to acknowledge that, and that's going to hurt us. So the fact that you guys in Colorado have acknowledged that, and now we're actually looking to build a strong foundation, which, let's be real, right? Again, that's how you will have legitimate success. We go back years here in the show we've been talking about, okay, you want to win people's hearts and minds? Well, you have to first win their trust, and how do you win their trust, start running for those local, those local elections, school board, city council, Mayor, county legislature and then work up build that bench, then go towards the state legislature, then once you have some success there then actually have a legitimate shot at running congressional candidates and Senate candidates? And yes, of course, presidential candidates, but do you just have somebody run for the presidential nomination and expect they're gonna win with a big ol next to their name? Of course not. We have to get over 5% First, and the same thing is true for Senate and Congress. And the same thing is true for the State House. So let's get candidates who people actually look at and say, oh, yeah, I know, Jim, Bob, the Libertarian who ran for mayor of my hometown, he did a great job. I would love to see him as State Representative x. And then once he has state representative x, then move him up the ranks. But again, if we have folks in office, who are GOP next to their name and doing a great job as small l libertarians, then why would we want to kick them out? Why would you want to get rid of a Thomas Massie of a Rand Paul, when by far they are easily the best libertarian allies we have both in the Congress in terms of the house in the Senate, it doesn't make sense from not only a strategic standpoint, but frankly, from an outcome standpoint, if the goal is to get liberty in our lifetimes, and to progressively progressively, systematically move things more and more towards a libertarian lens, and this is the path forward. That's my final thoughts, Jordan, what do you have for us on your end,

Jordan Marinovich  21:59  
just go and take a look. And we linked it on our Twitter account at LP co a story from the former chair of the GOP here in Colorado, she is very upset about this and so are some of the legacy members of the LP here and nationally. So you know, people who have done the same thing over and over again, expecting different results are both on both sides of this upset so you know, it was it's whatever within the party if we have some conflict, but to see the former chair representing kind of the status quo on their side also upset by this agreement, kind of you know, puts us together at a good position. Yeah, check out LP SEO on Twitter. Apart from what we're doing there, we're we take a very strong headed approach to our messaging we just left for these last three years, we're not going to take on the chin anymore. We're not going to hold back we're not going to play these little pity Patty, Patty Cake gains with folks anymore, we're gonna say things straight up how it is. And that's the strategy we're going to move forward with whether people like it or not. So keep an eye on Colorado, we're going to do what we can to keep the GOP to the feet to the fire. Yeah, there's there's a lot that can go wrong. But as I said, imagine if this goes right, imagine if this works, how huge this is going to be not only for Colorado, but for the whole liberty movement.

Brian Nichols  23:25  
Jordan Marinovich you're joining us here from the LP of Colorado where can folks go ahead find you on social media find the LP of Colorado on social media if they want to continue the conversation?

Jordan Marinovich  23:36  
Yeah, me personally on at King libertarian on Twitter, and then the LP co LP CO on on Twitter. We also have our LinkedIn or excuse me, not LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, a Libertarian Party of Colorado and LP colorado.org to visit our website.

Brian Nichols  23:54  
Folks, if you got some value from today's episode, please do me a favor, go ahead. Give it a share. When you do, please go ahead and tag yours truly here at be Nichols liberty, and also go ahead and tag Jordan in the LP of Colorado as well. And make sure you include all those links in our show notes. And by the way, if you are joining us here on YouTube. Hey, thanks for joining us. Do me a favor, hit that like button first, then hit that subscribe button second, and then do me a favor. Go ahead and share the episode and also if you're joining us on the video version of the show. Well, you also have alternative options like rumble but also Ben swans sovereign I'm a big fan of sovereign s o v r e n. And if you're over there, you're gonna see today's episode before anybody else does as a sovereign exclusive. So go ahead and give us some love over on sovereign and also you can find us on your favorite podcasting platform, whether that's YouTube Music, Spotify, Apple podcasts, or elsewhere. Just go ahead again, hit that subscribe button. So we pop into your RSS feed every single week, three times a week. And speaking of which, we had a great conversation with Aidan Matt Let's hear back on Monday. It was a great conversation where we discussed the conspiracy that is the Tartarian mud flood. Yes, Aiden has an amazing channel over here on YouTube called the lore Lodge. So go ahead, give him some love as well. And by the way, for today's episode, if you are joining us on YouTube, you're gonna see a video pop up right about here, that's gonna be my going through and ripping apart Jared Polis as the most libertarian governor in the United States, please. Yes, I know, Georgia, give us a thumbs up there. If you guys want to go ahead and hear my case. Continue the conversation over there. I will see you over there. Otherwise, go ahead and make sure you tune in for our Friday episode with Kenny Cody, as we continue our weekly conversation, usually talking all things Deep State Donald Trump, GOP and all that fun stuff. So otherwise, folks, thank you for joining us a great conversation here with Jordan again, please go ahead and support all the great work they are doing. They're over in Colorado. And if you have some feedback, well guess what? We would love to hear about it. Go to the comments, let us know or email me Brian at Brian Nichols. show.com. Any final words for a start before we wrap things up?

Jordan Marinovich  26:02  
No, I love Ben swan. Good choice.

Brian Nichols  26:04  
Ben swans a great dude. All right, guys. Thank you for joining us here on The Brian Nichols Show. That being said, Brian Nichols signing off here for Jordan Marinovich from the LP of Colorado. We'll see you later.

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