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March 31, 2025 12 mins
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
All right, let's do this. I am so pleased to
welcome to the show Bretta Horn. Bretta and I have
known each other for a long time because she's a
fellow grad of the leadership program of the Rockies. Berta
is I've always thought a very interesting person and funny
and larger than life, and I always enjoying my conversations
with Britash. She's also a fire chief, among other things.

(00:22):
And for purposes of today's conversation, she is the newly
elected chair of the Colorado Republican Party.

Speaker 2 (00:30):
And Berta, congratulations.

Speaker 3 (00:32):
I think Martin kmarty takes you still have to pinch us.
We're still smiless. Give me.

Speaker 1 (00:40):
I don't want to go too deep in the weeds
on this part, but give me a little bit of
insight into what actually happened on the day of your
being elected, kind of the behind the scenes stuff and
how you got elected after some other people started dropping
out because there were multiple candidates.

Speaker 3 (01:00):
Exactly, there's about seven of us if I have it correctly,
and then we just you know, we saw the first
round and I think it was ahead like twelve from
from Lasane, and then we just you know, follow the
other numbers and you could just see there was like
this two minute thing where people could you know, candidates
could stand up and says that you know, they're stepping
down and uh, you know who they're giving their support to.

(01:22):
So there was, like you said, there was already people,
my people are people, you know, the majority of people
going to those people saying, hey, we need you, We
need you to come over on our team. You need
to come over here, we can what do you.

Speaker 2 (01:33):
Need to do.

Speaker 3 (01:34):
And so there was a lot of, like you said,
a lot of it's not deal making. It was just saying,
you know, we're going to continue with what you want
to do, and we want you on the team somewhere.
Do you know what I mean, Like, we want you
to be able to still get out your voice and
what you see and how you wanted to, you know,
make these changes that we need to make.

Speaker 1 (01:53):
So I saw it reported, but I wasn't in the room,
and you know why, I'm unaffiliated, not a Republican, so
I wouldn't have been in the room. But I reported
that basically candidate after candidate.

Speaker 2 (02:03):
Who dropped out.

Speaker 1 (02:04):
It ended up you versus LORI saying uh, But the
way I read it was candidate after Candida after candidate
who dropped out all supported you, correct, I.

Speaker 3 (02:12):
Mean, it was it was, it was. I was so grateful,
if you're a correct, It was just so nice to
see that they saw that going. Okay, here's where we are,
here's the divide, okay, and everybody already you know, you
felt like everybody already knew how they were going to vote.

Speaker 2 (02:26):
Yeah, I mean, I don't think.

Speaker 3 (02:28):
I don't think, you know, I was. I made all
the phone calls, you know, I made you know, I
made sure I left messages. I did the work. I
just kept my head down into the work while the
shenanigans were going on last few weeks, and I let
ever other people handle those. But it was just, you know,
I just called and called and called and called everybody,
and you know, and then to be able to look
at up the facebool and you didn't call me back,
and they're like, yeah, I'm sorry, because you know I

(02:49):
knew their name. I would have a relations with them,
a relationship with them. We have a community together, and
it's just like we need to wipe the ship and
start working towards the goal and get that infrastructing.

Speaker 2 (03:00):
The good news for.

Speaker 1 (03:02):
The Colorado Republican Party, and I would argue for the
whole state of Colorado because we must have two functioning
political parties. You can see I'm talking to listeners now
now to Brita. You can see the damage that Democrats
are doing to this state with one party control. And
even if you're not a conservative or not a Republican,
if you're a you know, a normal unaffiliated moderate like

(03:24):
so many Colorados are, you should be hoping and praying
that Brita can do what she says she wants to
get done. And you should be very glad that Laurie Say,
who was basically Dave Williams plant to continue the Dave
Williams administration and all the grifting and nonsense that the
party had been going through for the past few years.
Be very glad that Lori Sayin lost and that Brita

(03:45):
Horn won. So Britta, tell me what are what are
your top goals for the short term?

Speaker 3 (03:51):
Well, obviously the top goals is doing the transition. I
mean we've been working on that. You know, you know
the gabble hit you know where you know we ended
the meeting Man transition. We have pieces that we have
to get on. We have to get in the office.
We got to see what's going on. You know, you
got to get to the you know, all the unsexy stuff,
you know, the stuff that is like you want to say,

(04:11):
they're just logistics, you know what. I meant to get
the Bold accounts. So we got to see what's going on.
We got to answer a lot of questions. We've got
to see who's on the team. You know, we just
got to get moving and going forward. And we got
a gift about about a week ago when Dave wrote
to us all the talents, going, hey, heads up, they're
closing down the office and Boomwood Village and you know,
I got two more months for you for you know,

(04:32):
for the transition, you know, for the landlord and then
the lease. And I'm just like, you know, that's great.
But it actually gave us a gift because we're already
looking at putting regional offices in. Everybody knows the you know,
the four corners of the state, which I twenty five
and I seventy. Let's start doing our regional offices. Instead
of putting all you know, deskin in chairs and storage
and trying to find a place in Denver, Let's just

(04:54):
start looking for those ones on the outlying areas and
start putting on the desk in chairs in there and
start getting to work and that community that we promised
we were going to do.

Speaker 1 (05:02):
Okay, So part of the what you need to overcome
is the fact that Dave Williams was really a destroyer
of unity and of the Republican Party's reputation. So let's
talk about those two things separately. How are you going
to unify the Republican Party? And you're you're never even
get the most hardcore Dave Williams people, but you and

(05:24):
I know you pretty well. You're you know, you're trumpier
than I am. But I think I've always thought of
you as as smart and rational, and I think you're
someone who can bring together sort of more traditional Reagan
style conservatives all the way over to you know, much
of MAGA.

Speaker 2 (05:41):
You don't need the Dave Williams lunatics. How are you
going to do that?

Speaker 3 (05:46):
Oh, we're definitely then, thank you for that. I appreciate you.
You see that at me because it is You're right,
We're a unifier, and I think putting out that all
the branch and just saying okay, where you know, what
can we do. What can we work on together? I
know we didn't see I I what kind of things
can we work on? And we're going to get some
of them. I'm already seeing them. Like when I got
up blessing on the yesterday morning, I was in Colorad spring,
so you know, three hundred and forty four messages and

(06:08):
then I drive, you know, go prayer, all my tasks
and then I drive home and I get home over
two hundred more messages in less than three hours. So
there's people that are now congratulating. We're going, okay, we're
seeing a difference. We're going to this a chance. What
can we do to help? And I think that's and
if we we have, if we this is I guess
is fire thing. You know, if you give task to
a firefighter, you know, or training to a firefighter, you

(06:31):
keep them busy, so you keep the drama and the
you know, and the gossip down in the firehouse. So
what would we do that with these regional offices going,
let's get together, let's find community, and let's find the
piece that these people work on and that they're good at.
Because some people are good at making phone calls and
people are good at knocking doors. Some are good at,
you know, scheduling events. We just got to find what
people are good at, and let's start doing that, because

(06:53):
then people will start feeling part of the team and
feel good about the things that they accomplished.

Speaker 1 (06:57):
I just mentioned it in passing, But since you gave
that metaphor using a fire department, just tell people why
you know that piece of your background, why you're using
fire department metaphors.

Speaker 3 (07:10):
They've done a volunteer fire chief here in McCoy Halfway
teamca Boat, Springs and Vail, and we actually started this
fire department. It's a nonprofit five one C three, no
self service, two hundred and forty four square miles. Love
taking care of our community. I mean, I'm blessed to
be able to care for our community and emergencies. And
we started it right up in nine eleven when we
realized that, you know, we had to wait for veil

(07:31):
or nearly steamboat to come down into our calls, you know,
to the emergencies. People were on their own out here
before me. You know, So a group of us got
together and we just said, you know what, we need
to start a fire department. So to be a part
of that and to be a inception and then just
be a firefighter, first responder, a EMT, and then to
be elected the fire chief the last seventeen years justly

(07:51):
just you know, a great service back our community and
being able to use that same service and apply it
here to the color of the state GOP, so.

Speaker 1 (08:01):
Like it or not, being effective in politics requires money.
And as I've often said about elections, you don't have
to have the most money.

Speaker 3 (08:10):
Right.

Speaker 1 (08:10):
If having the most money was the thing, we'd have
President Jeb Bush.

Speaker 2 (08:14):
He didn't even get very far in the primers.

Speaker 1 (08:16):
But you need to have enough money to get your
message out and do other things that parties do. And
because of you know, some of the dynamics created by
your predecessor, the GOP has had a hard time raising
money the past couple of years.

Speaker 2 (08:31):
How are you going to address that?

Speaker 3 (08:33):
Well, so I already addressed it before a while I
was running since you know, for months now. So we
already have people that are ready to write checks. Literally,
some of those messages received said that, you know, hey,
where can we send the check? I'm like, okay, let's
get together, let's figure this out. Because those people have
to said they closed their checkbooks the last two years
and to Colorado and sending in our money out of

(08:56):
state to other candidates and to other states, and that
was just such, we need them, and they know we
need them, and so they're wing are coming back, and
a lot of there's something people are are looking at,
and there's a lot of new names. There's a lot
of new money that we can get some help from,
and we just have to strategically use them, use those
funds to do that infrastructure in those regional offices and

(09:17):
really do that up and start having field directors and
start having people, you know, like you said, create community.
We were so fortunate to have majority of the young
Republicans not only endorse our team, but also you know,
voted for us because they're seeing it that they're the
new Conservatives, the young Republicans, the enderd forties, there are
no they're my kids too. My kids are trying my

(09:39):
daughters at twenty eight and thirty, and so that age
group is like, where, you know, where can we go?
What can we do? And they got so shut out
of all these different counties and at the state level,
we're like, no, you need to come over here. We
need you guys. We want to be a part of
this team. And Ross, I'm gonna be honest with you.
I want to we want to hand it over to them,
you know, we want to teach them how to do

(09:59):
it them mentors, but handed over to the next generation.
It's their party, it's not ours.

Speaker 2 (10:04):
I couldn't agree more.

Speaker 1 (10:06):
And I do think it's been very interesting to see
the rise of you know, a more outspoken young conservatives
and libertarians. You know, Britt, I'm more libertarian, you're more conservative,
but we're on the same side on.

Speaker 2 (10:21):
Most issues most of the time.

Speaker 1 (10:23):
And it's been quite heartening to me to see the
rise of a lot more young adults getting involved here,
and and the rise of more young adults who are
no longer afraid of cancel culture and wokeness, you know,
shutting them down and you know, cutting them out of
polite society because they believe something that the Denver Post
editorial board doesn't want them to believe. So that was

(10:46):
just my my editorial comment. Let me we ought about
a minute and a half here, Britta. Can I safely
assume that the Republican Party is no longer going to
get involved in endorsing candidates in Republican primaries.

Speaker 3 (10:58):
Absolutely complete disaster. Oh but seventeen out of nineteen. No,
we can't be doing that. We can't be involved in that.
That's not the model of the party. A lot of
the party is to be like that that work engine,
that factory that that you know does the work and
it's gotten so you know, sideways for so many terms
that it just was going into a direction where it

(11:18):
was more you know, the person's platform for their agenda
and then for their for their activism. And you know,
I got some calls yesterday like we want you to
get on this board for this activism piece and this coalition.
I'm like, no, no, no, no, you'd understand. I needed
to reteach and let them understand. This is a factory,
this is a way of process. We're going to help

(11:38):
people get give them the tools and give them the
volunteers and give them whatever we need. But this is
not a place for activism. We're not going to be
just jumping on all these different coalitions. It's the coalitions
and responsibility to do it. And we'll give them as
much help as we can and we're parallel with them.

Speaker 2 (11:53):
All right.

Speaker 1 (11:53):
Last quick question, Britda, what do you think your biggest
hurdle will be in achieving these goals because.

Speaker 3 (12:00):
He is, like you said, the transition. I see, you know,
everybody getting on the same page, you know, tampering down
that drama and that negativity. Negativity. We've just got to
get positive and get people that are going to work
for it. And if we found counties that are just
going to be sought and no, no, no, they're not
going to work with us, We're going to find other
people in that county. So we're going to find other
people that are willing to step up and do the work,

(12:21):
and they're not going to matter of just this one
vote that they have for the next you know, meeting
that we have next year. We'll be fine. We'll find
other people. And that's what we're looking for, people that
want to work and want to move towards the goal
and win elections, grow the party.

Speaker 1 (12:35):
Berta Horne is the newly elected chair of the Colorado
Republican Party. And thank goodness for that. She was the
best candidate. I told other people she was the best
candidate as Britta as Britta Knows a fellow grad of
the LPR of the Leadership Program of the Rockies as
well congratulations Britta, and we'll certainly keep in touch.

Speaker 3 (12:54):
Thanks a lot, ross I appreciate the time

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