Podcaster's rise and Colorado primary today illustrate increasing comfort with violent rhetoric on the right wing

Joe Oltmann (Photo: Olivia Sun, Colorado Sun/Report for America)

Right-wing podcaster Joe Oltmann regularly hypes up Colorado listeners with violent rhetoric, in one recent instance suggesting that Gov. Jared Polis, a Democrat, be hanged. He said afterward it was a joke, but some listeners may not take him that way. "The violent rhetoric has contributed to such a tense political climate that Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold (D) — a frequent target of Oltmann’s denunciations — now travels with a security detail, a first for the office she said," Rosalind Helderman reports for The Washington Post. "Oltmann, a businessman who gained a national profile on the far right after he claimed he had personal knowledge that the 2020 presidential election was rigged, is hardly a fringe figure. He now leads an influential and growing political movement in Colorado that is shaking up the state Republican Party."

His influence will be tested today, as Colorado voters decide whether candidates Ultmann has endorsed will advance to the general election. One is Tina Peters, the Mesa County clerk who was indicted on multiple felonies after allegedly sneaking someone into the county elections offices to copy the hard drives of Dominion Voting Systems machines in an attempt to prove election fraud. "Peters, who has denied wrongdoing, is now running to be the Republican nominee for secretary of state, a position that would give her sway over future Colorado elections," Heldman reports. "Oltmann has embraced her as a rising political star, hosting her on his podcast and appearing at joint public events where she has received wild applause."

Oltmann's rise "shows how the stolen-election myth has vaulted previously unknown figures into positions of prominence within the GOP," Helderman reports. "It also provides a window into the state of the Republican grass roots — where belief that the 2020 election was rigged has become widespread, and comfort with extreme and violent rhetoric is growing." Arizona senator Wendy Davis is another example of a conservative who pivoted to extremist views as a means to gain power.

"Oltmann’s political organization — FEC United, standing for 'Faith, Education and Commerce' — is less than two years old, but it has been advocating for candidates up and down the Colorado ballot, from key statewide positions to obscure county jobs," Helderman reports. Federal, state and local candidates he supports in a wide variety of offices are all running on platforms focused on the myth of the stolen election. "It’s amazing. Whether they’re running for coroner or sheriff or clerk, their platform is focused on elections," Chuck Broerman, the elected clerk of Colorado’s El Paso County (Colorado Springs) and a former chairman of the county GOP, told Helderman.

"Meanwhile, FEC United has grown more active in local politics, with members showing up at school-board meetings around Colorado to complain about mask mandates in schools," Helderman reports. "During a speech last year, Oltmann bragged that the group had endorsed 53 candidates for school board elections in 2021, and he claimed that all 53 had won. He did not name them."

Some Democrats are promoting Republican election deniers, thinking them easier to beat. "Democrats are behind some of the ads promoting more conservative Republican candidates for U.S. Senate, Colorado governor and the 8th Congressional District," Sandra Fish reports for The Colorado Sun. "The strategy has been criticized by some Democrats, who warn that it could backfire by raising the profile of election deniers and potentially adding fuel to their movement." The triangulating is spurring "a wave of campaign finance complaints and raising ethical questions about some of the political maneuvering," Fish reports.