December 16, 2025 • 8 mins
POP THE POPCORN, GOP GOVERNORS RACE IS ALREADY HOT and I talked a bit about this yesterday, but this morning my colleague and new KHOW Morning Drive Host Ryan Schuiling did a barnburner of an interview with candidate Victor Marx. Find that here. In it, Marx claimed that Rep. Scott Bottoms, another candidate, had asked him to be Bottoms' Lt Governor. When asked directly about that, Bottoms said succinctly, "is not being honest". I need you Marx supporters to help me understand the kind of support I'm seeing for a person who is a political blank slate. Ryan is joining me at 1:30 to talk about the interview, you really should listen to it.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Five top candidates for governor on the GOP ticket to
have committed, one has not, and you had that one
on your program this morning, and that's.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
What we're here to talk about, yes, presenting that platform.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
Victor Marx was on Rhine show and as a matter
of fact, a Rod, let's reach out to the Victor
Marks campaign again and see if we can get them
on the show. And I've listened to about three quarters
of it, and right I'm trying to figure out why
many of our mutual friends that we love in respect
have just thrown all in with Victor Marx. Tell me
(00:32):
what's your takeaways from the interview our today? And by
the way, I linked to the interview today on my blog.
Thank you, and I would love it if everyone go
listen to it. I invite people to listen to it
as well. We will have an encore presentation of it
as I'm pulling double duty over on the six thirty
day out air waves duty. We at six to ten
am as we're all be stationed starting on Monday, January
(00:52):
five until then in that time slot this week, but
again I repurposed two to four pm and at the
two o'clock hours, so top of the R now that
you should tune away for Mandy Connell, but it will
reair there and you can find it. As Mandy mentioned
on the podcast with a link one, I'm glad he
came in.
Speaker 3 (01:06):
Yep, we had the conversation. I respect him for doing it.
It was a little hot out of the box there
between he.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
And he tried to turn the tables and make it
about you, right, And though I understand what he was doing,
I don't think he has the street credit.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
Yet to pull that off. Well.
Speaker 3 (01:26):
I think it was more like a getting to know
you session two of I am not an operative at all.
I mean I always make the Groucho Marx joke. I
think you do the same largely, Mandy when it comes
to like Republican Party politics. I would never belong to
a club that would have me as a member. That's
the Groucho Marx joke. And I don't like getting too
far into the weeds, you know. I see these chat
(01:47):
rooms and conversations about the party and the leadership and
the dissonance within it, Like I don't want to be
part of that. So what I viewed my job to
be and similar with you, is we're going to be
cooderating this debate. I just want to get to the
facts of the matter and who are these people? And
I didn't know who Victor Marx was quite frankly. I
knew Barb Kirkmeyer fairly well. I know Greg Lopez fairly well.
(02:09):
I know Scott Bottam's fairly well. And he'll be on
with me at eight oh five am tomorrow because he
wishes to refute a claim that Victor made during my
conversation with him that Scott Boddams had asked Victor one
not to run at all for governor and then part two,
would you be my lieutenant governor?
Speaker 2 (02:25):
Bottoms asking that of Mark. Scott says that never happened. Right,
Let's see.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
Let me give you the quote that I got from Scott,
who will be on my show tomorrow at one pm.
He said, I I'd like to say, he is not
being honest. Quote, he is not being honest when he
says that that happened.
Speaker 3 (02:43):
And to me again, I think Victor had me all wrong.
I don't make any presuppositions you talk about there's a
lot of people, maybe in our circles that jumped right
on the Victor Marx bandwagon and that's true, including two
people that I know that I like, that I respect
in Heidi Ganaal and Lauren Bobert, who come on my
show all the time. And I'm like, well, where did
this come from? Who is this guy? Why are they
so excited enthusiastic about him? He's got ties apparently to
(03:06):
turning point USA and Charlie Kirk.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
Charlie Kirk wrote a forward for one of his books.
Speaker 3 (03:11):
Sure, so you know, I'm factoring all of this in,
but like you, I'm not going to just jump in
for or against a candidate. I want to get to
what is the root of the matter. Who is this guy?
Why is he running for governor? Plus, he has had
such a prevalent online presence with some wild posts of videos,
and I pulled sound from that, and basically what I
(03:33):
did over the course of this conversation was play that
back for him and have him react and respond to it,
and try to explain some things where areas where I
had some points of confusion that I felt the listeners
deserved answers to. And that's where you know, you talk
about how the interview began kind of trying to turn
around on me, and I'm like, it's not about me,
(03:53):
the listeners that you're talking to right now. And one
of the biggest things I came back around to, and
there's a Mandy Connell tie in here, was he skipped
out on this debate that we're talking about that he
was invited to. Yep, there was a month's notice Sheriff
Steve Reames, Steve Wells putting this together on behalf of
the Republican Party in World County. All five other candidates
almost immediately responded. And the only reason Scott Botamston is
(04:16):
he lost his father. Yeah, within days of this invitation.
So there's a chat thread and we go over that
in the interview too. But when I pressed him on
the details, like you said, you have an out of
state event, Well, where is this?
Speaker 2 (04:27):
What is it? It's a fundraising event in Florida.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
But here's my question, Ryan, He says, before I even announced,
we had four fundraisers in Florida.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
What I need?
Speaker 1 (04:38):
Why are you fundraising outside of the state.
Speaker 3 (04:42):
I don't.
Speaker 1 (04:43):
That was a terrible answer, an absolutely terrible answer.
Speaker 3 (04:47):
I think the initial calculation might have been it was
for his all Things Possible ministry.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
That's what I got.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
But that's not how it came across in the interview.
I need some clarity on what those events are.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
Well my point, and I think a lot of listeners
would share this.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
Who are Colorado residents, Colorado voters, maybe your resident Weld County.
I had people reach out to me, Bryan, I really
want tickets to this debate that you and Mandy are moderating.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
I want to get to know these candidates.
Speaker 3 (05:11):
It was an opportunity, yep, for Victor Marx to show
up and to share that stage with his competitors and status,
policy positions, and call out his opponents, all of that.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
In Weld County.
Speaker 1 (05:23):
I don't think you could win the Republican nomination without
winning Weld County.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
It's got to be really, really hard.
Speaker 3 (05:28):
My basic question for him, and this drew some consternation,
was how is it that a fundraiser a four of
them or however many of them that you have in
Florida is more important than attending and participating in a
big debate in welld County in front of potential constituents
of yours.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
That was a legitimate question.
Speaker 1 (05:47):
There was a lot of obfuscation on his part. There
was a lot of changing the question that was answered
to be something that he was he felt more suitable.
And I got to tell you, one of the things
that I find very, very, very very off putting is
his well. I invited him to come down to our
leadership conference and I'll buy the first cup of coffee. Dude,
(06:08):
why should people you're not the wizard?
Speaker 2 (06:11):
Why should they have Why should they have to make the.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
Pilgrimage to come see you? How are you going to
serve the rest of the state. Oh, if you want
to see the Wizard, you better.
Speaker 2 (06:19):
Come to Oz. What is that?
Speaker 3 (06:20):
Another question I had from along those lines was, you know,
why is your time more important and valuable than those
of the other candidates. And we've got two state senators
in the race, you got a sheriff in the race,
You've got a former congressman Greg Lopez in the race.
Like they have plans, activities, events scheduled as well, and
they dropped whatever they had planned for Saturday, January tenth
(06:41):
at a moment's notice to participate in this debate. And
further to that point, on the text thread, you and
I were a part of both Barb Kirkmeyer and Greg
Lopez said Okay, you can't do Saturday the tent, what
about the next weekend, what about any other weekend. We
will recalibrate the schedule to accommodate you so that you
can have a play on that stage. And I just
(07:02):
think that right now he's waiting for whatever reason to
raise money.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
First, I don't know.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
Well, and Ryan, you tried to press him, like how
much notice do you need right to appear at Oh,
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
It just depends on my schedule.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
So essentially, whatever you try to plan, you have to
call Victor Marks first. You have to find out what
his schedule allows. Now, granted he's been very there's no
answer of what's on his schedule of.
Speaker 3 (07:25):
The following weekend. He just said, no, that's what I got.
And again I came back to the quest, why is
your time, Victor Marx, your time more valuable or important
than that of Barb Kirkmeyer, Brant Lopez, Scott Bottom's, Mark Baisley,
And he said, well, no, no, no, no, it's that's not
what I mean, and that's not what I'm talking But
it's kind of what is being communicated.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
There, like if you want to talk to them, they
can come to you.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
That's I don't love it.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
In this next segment, and Ryan, thank you, I put
a link to the entire interview. Not only do I
want people to listen to it, go in your Facebook groups,
share it with people that they find it interesting, let
them tell you or explain. Because I'm asking my audience
in the next segment, those of you who are Victor
Marx supporters. Make me see what I am missing, right, okay,
(08:10):
because I've watched the social media videos, I've watched the
slick rollout, I've heard the incredibly compelling backstory, and I'm
still not sold.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
I need to know what I'm missing. Ryan. I appreciate you, Man,
appreciate you.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
You can hear Ryan starting on January fifth, permanently doing
the morning show on six point thirty k hal And
I hope you would check his show out because Ryan's
one of my favorite people.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
Thank you, man, same and I'll see you January tenth,
and Greeley, you got me.
Speaker 1 (08:36):
You know we will see Victor Marx anyway,
Five top candidates for governor on the GOP ticket to
have committed, one has not, and you had that one
on your program this morning, and that's.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
What we're here to talk about, yes, presenting that platform.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
Victor Marx was on Rhine show and as a matter
of fact, a Rod, let's reach out to the Victor
Marks campaign again and see if we can get them
on the show. And I've listened to about three quarters
of it, and right I'm trying to figure out why
many of our mutual friends that we love in respect
have just thrown all in with Victor Marx. Tell me
(00:32):
what's your takeaways from the interview our today? And by
the way, I linked to the interview today on my blog.
Thank you, and I would love it if everyone go
listen to it. I invite people to listen to it
as well. We will have an encore presentation of it
as I'm pulling double duty over on the six thirty
day out air waves duty. We at six to ten
am as we're all be stationed starting on Monday, January
(00:52):
five until then in that time slot this week, but
again I repurposed two to four pm and at the
two o'clock hours, so top of the R now that
you should tune away for Mandy Connell, but it will
reair there and you can find it. As Mandy mentioned
on the podcast with a link one, I'm glad he
came in.
Speaker 3 (01:06):
Yep, we had the conversation. I respect him for doing it.
It was a little hot out of the box there
between he.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
And he tried to turn the tables and make it
about you, right, And though I understand what he was doing,
I don't think he has the street credit.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
Yet to pull that off. Well.
Speaker 3 (01:26):
I think it was more like a getting to know
you session two of I am not an operative at all.
I mean I always make the Groucho Marx joke. I
think you do the same largely, Mandy when it comes
to like Republican Party politics. I would never belong to
a club that would have me as a member. That's
the Groucho Marx joke. And I don't like getting too
far into the weeds, you know. I see these chat
(01:47):
rooms and conversations about the party and the leadership and
the dissonance within it, Like I don't want to be
part of that. So what I viewed my job to
be and similar with you, is we're going to be
cooderating this debate. I just want to get to the
facts of the matter and who are these people? And
I didn't know who Victor Marx was quite frankly. I
knew Barb Kirkmeyer fairly well. I know Greg Lopez fairly well.
(02:09):
I know Scott Bottam's fairly well. And he'll be on
with me at eight oh five am tomorrow because he
wishes to refute a claim that Victor made during my
conversation with him that Scott Boddams had asked Victor one
not to run at all for governor and then part two,
would you be my lieutenant governor?
Speaker 2 (02:25):
Bottoms asking that of Mark. Scott says that never happened. Right,
Let's see.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
Let me give you the quote that I got from Scott,
who will be on my show tomorrow at one pm.
He said, I I'd like to say, he is not
being honest. Quote, he is not being honest when he
says that that happened.
Speaker 3 (02:43):
And to me again, I think Victor had me all wrong.
I don't make any presuppositions you talk about there's a
lot of people, maybe in our circles that jumped right
on the Victor Marx bandwagon and that's true, including two
people that I know that I like, that I respect
in Heidi Ganaal and Lauren Bobert, who come on my
show all the time. And I'm like, well, where did
this come from? Who is this guy? Why are they
so excited enthusiastic about him? He's got ties apparently to
(03:06):
turning point USA and Charlie Kirk.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
Charlie Kirk wrote a forward for one of his books.
Speaker 3 (03:11):
Sure, so you know, I'm factoring all of this in,
but like you, I'm not going to just jump in
for or against a candidate. I want to get to
what is the root of the matter. Who is this guy?
Why is he running for governor? Plus, he has had
such a prevalent online presence with some wild posts of videos,
and I pulled sound from that, and basically what I
(03:33):
did over the course of this conversation was play that
back for him and have him react and respond to it,
and try to explain some things where areas where I
had some points of confusion that I felt the listeners
deserved answers to. And that's where you know, you talk
about how the interview began kind of trying to turn
around on me, and I'm like, it's not about me,
(03:53):
the listeners that you're talking to right now. And one
of the biggest things I came back around to, and
there's a Mandy Connell tie in here, was he skipped
out on this debate that we're talking about that he
was invited to. Yep, there was a month's notice Sheriff
Steve Reames, Steve Wells putting this together on behalf of
the Republican Party in World County. All five other candidates
almost immediately responded. And the only reason Scott Botamston is
(04:16):
he lost his father. Yeah, within days of this invitation.
So there's a chat thread and we go over that
in the interview too. But when I pressed him on
the details, like you said, you have an out of
state event, Well, where is this?
Speaker 2 (04:27):
What is it? It's a fundraising event in Florida.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
But here's my question, Ryan, He says, before I even announced,
we had four fundraisers in Florida.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
What I need?
Speaker 1 (04:38):
Why are you fundraising outside of the state.
Speaker 3 (04:42):
I don't.
Speaker 1 (04:43):
That was a terrible answer, an absolutely terrible answer.
Speaker 3 (04:47):
I think the initial calculation might have been it was
for his all Things Possible ministry.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
That's what I got.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
But that's not how it came across in the interview.
I need some clarity on what those events are.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
Well my point, and I think a lot of listeners
would share this.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
Who are Colorado residents, Colorado voters, maybe your resident Weld County.
I had people reach out to me, Bryan, I really
want tickets to this debate that you and Mandy are moderating.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
I want to get to know these candidates.
Speaker 3 (05:11):
It was an opportunity, yep, for Victor Marx to show
up and to share that stage with his competitors and status,
policy positions, and call out his opponents, all of that.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
In Weld County.
Speaker 1 (05:23):
I don't think you could win the Republican nomination without
winning Weld County.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
It's got to be really, really hard.
Speaker 3 (05:28):
My basic question for him, and this drew some consternation,
was how is it that a fundraiser a four of
them or however many of them that you have in
Florida is more important than attending and participating in a
big debate in welld County in front of potential constituents
of yours.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
That was a legitimate question.
Speaker 1 (05:47):
There was a lot of obfuscation on his part. There
was a lot of changing the question that was answered
to be something that he was he felt more suitable.
And I got to tell you, one of the things
that I find very, very, very very off putting is
his well. I invited him to come down to our
leadership conference and I'll buy the first cup of coffee. Dude,
(06:08):
why should people you're not the wizard?
Speaker 2 (06:11):
Why should they have Why should they have to make the.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
Pilgrimage to come see you? How are you going to
serve the rest of the state. Oh, if you want
to see the Wizard, you better.
Speaker 2 (06:19):
Come to Oz. What is that?
Speaker 3 (06:20):
Another question I had from along those lines was, you know,
why is your time more important and valuable than those
of the other candidates. And we've got two state senators
in the race, you got a sheriff in the race,
You've got a former congressman Greg Lopez in the race.
Like they have plans, activities, events scheduled as well, and
they dropped whatever they had planned for Saturday, January tenth
(06:41):
at a moment's notice to participate in this debate. And
further to that point, on the text thread, you and
I were a part of both Barb Kirkmeyer and Greg
Lopez said Okay, you can't do Saturday the tent, what
about the next weekend, what about any other weekend. We
will recalibrate the schedule to accommodate you so that you
can have a play on that stage. And I just
(07:02):
think that right now he's waiting for whatever reason to
raise money.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
First, I don't know.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
Well, and Ryan, you tried to press him, like how
much notice do you need right to appear at Oh,
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
It just depends on my schedule.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
So essentially, whatever you try to plan, you have to
call Victor Marks first. You have to find out what
his schedule allows. Now, granted he's been very there's no
answer of what's on his schedule of.
Speaker 3 (07:25):
The following weekend. He just said, no, that's what I got.
And again I came back to the quest, why is
your time, Victor Marx, your time more valuable or important
than that of Barb Kirkmeyer, Brant Lopez, Scott Bottom's, Mark Baisley,
And he said, well, no, no, no, no, it's that's not
what I mean, and that's not what I'm talking But
it's kind of what is being communicated.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
There, like if you want to talk to them, they
can come to you.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
That's I don't love it.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
In this next segment, and Ryan, thank you, I put
a link to the entire interview. Not only do I
want people to listen to it, go in your Facebook groups,
share it with people that they find it interesting, let
them tell you or explain. Because I'm asking my audience
in the next segment, those of you who are Victor
Marx supporters. Make me see what I am missing, right, okay,
(08:10):
because I've watched the social media videos, I've watched the
slick rollout, I've heard the incredibly compelling backstory, and I'm
still not sold.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
I need to know what I'm missing. Ryan. I appreciate you, Man,
appreciate you.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
You can hear Ryan starting on January fifth, permanently doing
the morning show on six point thirty k hal And
I hope you would check his show out because Ryan's
one of my favorite people.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
Thank you, man, same and I'll see you January tenth,
and Greeley, you got me.
Speaker 1 (08:36):
You know we will see Victor Marx anyway,
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