Marine veteran Victor Marx is angling to clinch the Republican Party’s primary nomination next week as he campaigns to become Colorado’s next governor and flip the seat blue.
Polls indicate Marx holds a decisive lead over GOP rivals State Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer and state Rep. Scott Bottoms ahead of the June 30 primary election, as the field of candidates vie to succeed outgoing Gov. Jared Polis (D-CO). Both Kirkmeyer and Bottoms say they won’t support Marx’s campaign against Sen. Michael Bennet (D-CO) or Attorney General Phil Weiser, if the Republican wins the nomination, framing him as an unqualified “con man” who tells “tall tales.”
Marx, 60, is endorsed by Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO). He has positioned himself as the outsider in the group, as his gubernatorial bid marks his first run for public office. A ministry leader from Colorado Springs, Marx says he was abused as a child and fell into drugs before joining the Marines, and later started an international ministry designed to rescue “women and children who have been held captive by traffickers and other abusers.”
He garnered attention during his campaign for stating that his stepfather forced him to kill a man when he was a 7-year-old child. Marx told CPR News that the incident occurred in a rural area of Mendenhall, Mississippi.
“Yes, I was made to shoot a man who I watched get buried, and that affected me deeply most of my life,” he said. “Which is why I went to 123 visits to a trauma specialist. And I’ve been on Depakote, Depakine, Prozac, so I’ve been on the medications. But I think I’m living proof that you can rise above being a victim and be victorious.”
While he was politically unknown before launching his gubernatorial bid, Marx built a notable profile as the founder of All Things Possible and amassed a large following on social media.
The nonprofit humanitarian ministry leads trauma response operations, along with “high-risk” rescue missions helping thousands of women and children trafficked in Northern Africa and the Middle Eastern nations, such as Syria, and delivers dried milk and toys to war-torn, impoverished nations such as Iraq and Haiti, according to Marx.
Critics say Marx has intentionally overblown rescue numbers and overstated his role in helping victims.
“Here’s the total number of kids I’ve rescued: not enough,” Marx said when pressed on the issue during a gubernatorial debate on June 2. “For folks who want to pigeonhole me on stuff that will absolutely cause safety issues for our teams still out there, I won’t do it.
“I can’t help it if I’ve had an extraordinary life,” he said. “I’m an ordinary fella, and starting from my childhood all the way to now, me standing up on a stage running for governor.”
What are his policies?
Marx has said his top three priorities are affordability, public safety, and targeting taxes and fees. The Republican candidate wants to prioritize three industries — advanced manufacturing, clean-tech production, and outdoor recreation — through tax credits and expedited permitting, among other policies. Some of his signature promises center on targeting state spending he believes has helped trigger a cost-of-living crisis, including by conducting expansive audits of state agencies.
Earlier this month, Marx vowed to restore the spirit of Colorado’s taxpayer bill of rights, which was enshrined into law decades ago and requires voter approval for all tax increases. He expressed concern that bureaucrats have found loopholes to essentially raise taxes by instituting fees and other practices that allow them to avoid TABOR.
“As governor, I will treat TABOR not as a hurdle, but as a promise,” he wrote in an op-ed in the Summit Daily. “I will oppose any effort, whether through amendments, statutes, or budget maneuvers, that weakens voter approval for higher taxes. If politicians want more of your money, they should make their case to you directly.
“Coloradans are working too much, they’re receiving too little pay, and they’re being taxed by an overspending government that the only way the government can keep up with what’s going on is to pass on their habitual addictive spending patterns to us, the people,” Marx later told KUNC. “I’m telling you, Coloradans are sick of it. The pain point is so high that that’s exactly why they’re going to elect me.”
He favors a freeze on regulations and a cap on property taxes to help incentivize growth and help expand housing affordability. Marx believes that by doing so, 150,000 new homes can be constructed by expediting building permits through a one-stop shop, giving permitting agencies a 90-day limit for consideration and offering automatic approval if the clock runs out.
“We have to reform some laws to make it reasonable and common sense,” Marx said at the May 28 “Building Colorado’s Future” gubernatorial forum. “You do that, and then you fast-track permitting.”
What would it look like if Marx wins? Data centers and more
Marx offered a more extensive outlook on policies he would pursue if elected during an interview with the Colorado Sun earlier this month.
On the issue of data centers, Marx said they should be regulated “but not strangled.” He favors tax credits for data centers, but only if it’s “performance-based,” saying they have to “earn incentives by delivering the value to our state through job creation, grid investment, energy, and then minimal water impact.
“I think data centers, they’ve got to meet standards on water use, energy sourcing, and the grid impact,” he said. “If we overregulate, we’ll push jobs and investments out of the state or keep them from coming in.”
His first move with an executive order would be authorizing a full audit of state agencies to “stop spending and get a handle on where the money is going.” He also wants to require that every state agency cut 10% of its spending immediately. Next, Marx said he would examine the state’s regulatory system to stop rules harming businesses and any fees associated with those rules.
Marx also revealed he would like to see the state legislature work to cut Medicaid spending, with a focus on reducing waste or fraud.
On the issue of residents facing high rents, Marx said he would seek to expand affordability by pursuing fewer regulations, explaining that landlords and property managers have told him their property tax rates are too high.
“It boils down to just less state involvement,” Marx said. “Let the free market do what it needs to do. I think those savings will be passed on.”
When pressed on how he would work with the Democratic legislature if elected, Marx embraced bipartisan tones.
“There’s always a greater good, mission-wise. There are Democrats that want that,” he said. “How can you not want a more affordable state? How can you not want more safety, less crime? How can you not want better education for our kids? There are major core issues to a better Colorado, happier Coloradans, that we can come to terms [on].”
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Colorado last elected a Republican governor in 2002. But Marx says that’s not stopping him.
“Here’s the deal: Coloradans, I don’t care if it’s Republicans, unaffiliates, or Democrats, we’re all Coloradans,” he told KUNC. “Colorado is facing serious problems, and we need serious leaders — people with experience in business, not just these ideological warriors, and I have the experience, bar none.”
