Vince Phillips
Yesterday, I had the privilege of meeting Victor Marx, the front-runner for the Republican nomination for Colorado Governor, at a meeting in Chaffee County. Before attending, I took some time to research Victor Marx. I had heard rumblings about problems with his personal background. To my surprise, despite many vague aspersions cast, no research showed proof was ever offered: the allegations were all sizzle, no steak. But as a skeptic by nature, I went into the session this morning with my eyes wide open.
Once I heard Victor Marx speak, my eyes were opened even wider. I found myself not only informed, but also thoroughly entertained.
Everything about Victor Marx is impressive: his intelligence, personal conviction, humor, and the way he is comfortable in his own skin. He shared powerful personal stories, including helping his in-laws relocate from assisted living in California to Colorado, and expressed deep concern about how the current administration treats senior citizens. He knows that Colorado has declined greatly during the last eight years of the Jared Polis Administration. Like the rest of us, he has lived it. Like many, he considered leaving Colorado but instead came to this conclusion with his family: he must stay and fight: hence his run for governor.
Everyone feels Colorado’s decline in their daily life, directly attributable to years of one-party Democratic rule:
• Housing affordability crisis – restrictive zoning, excessive regulations, and bureaucratic delays have created a shortage of over 100,000 units, driving home prices and rents to levels that price working families and the middle class out of the state.
• Homelessness epidemic – Colorado now ranks among the top ten states for homelessness, fueled by lenient policies on drugs, encampments, and insufficient emphasis on accountability and treatment.
• Eroding public safety – progressive criminal justice “reforms” have correlated with rises in property crime, auto thefts, and visible disorder, especially in our cities, eroding the sense of security we once took for granted.
• Soaring cost of living – aggressive environmental mandates and regulatory burdens have pushed up energy bills, insurance premiums (especially in wildfire and hail-prone areas), groceries, and everyday essentials, squeezing family budgets to the breaking point.
• Infrastructure strain and declining services – uncontrolled growth without proper planning has led to chronic traffic congestion and overburdened roads, schools, and public services.
• Educational stagnation and out-migration pressure – despite increased spending, reading and math proficiency lags, while debates over social and identity issues in classrooms have divided parents and raised concerns that schools are stepping into roles better left to families in raising children. Meanwhile, high costs and declining quality of life are prompting more Coloradans than ever to consider leaving the state.
These issues and many more have tarnished life and prosperity in Colorado. It will take a massive recalibration with new leadership to right the ship.
The Democratic candidates for Governor, U.S. Senator Michael Bennet and Attorney General Phil Weiser, occasionally go through the motion of criticizing Polis to distance themselves from his unpopular policies. But their proposed fixes are cut from the same progressive cloth: more government programs, regulations, incentives, and potential revenue tweaks to fund expanded interventions on housing, affordability, climate, healthcare, and more, not less regulation or taxation to unleash free-market solutions.
In stark contrast, Victor Marx is tough but cares, smart but listens, confident but self-deprecating. He came across as battle-tested but deeply empathetic. He leads, and people follow. You could feel it in the room. He does not need to look behind him to check who is following; he knows people are there. It is a rare quality. He exudes self-confidence, without arrogance, borne from a lifetime well and thoroughly lived.
At the meeting, Victor outlined his motivation to run as a non-politician with real-world experience, emphasizing the need to unite the Republican Party, energize the base, reach unaffiliated voters, and raise the funds needed to win, citing RNC advice that it takes $25-30 million for the governor’s race in Colorado. Sounds like a lot of money, until you consider that the future of you and your family is at stake. He highlighted his campaign’s remarkable fundraising success: over $603,000 raised in the first 90 days (breaking a Colorado record with thousands of donors from all 64 counties), momentum continuing, and ballot access secured through 28,541 grassroots signatures (well above the 12,000 minimum across districts).
As governor, he plans to make Colorado more affordable by cutting regulations, auditing state agencies, replacing ineffective commission members with experienced outsiders, using veto power aggressively, supporting law enforcement, forming a task force against fentanyl trafficking, and addressing homelessness with compassion for those with addiction/mental health needs while restoring order. He stressed genuine intent for the people, not ambition, and shared his humanitarian background helping thousands recover from abuse and trauma.
A brief background on Victor: He is a devoted husband to Eileen for 37 years, a father of five children, and a proud grandfather. A U.S. Marine Corps veteran, he overcame unimaginable childhood abuse, having lived in 17 homes and attended 14 schools by age 17. He founded All Things Possible Ministries and has led over 150 high-risk humanitarian missions in dangerous regions around the world, rescuing and restoring more than 45,000 women and children from trafficking, terrorism, violence, and exploitation (including operations in ISIS territory).
The future of Colorado is at stake: we cannot take four more years of decline. As a longtime skeptic of all things bureaucratic and political, I can say with confidence that Victor Marx is the antidote to the ills plaguing our state. We are lucky he has thrown his hat in the ring.
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