Scott Bottoms believes that if he can secure the GOP nomination as the gubernatorial candidate, he can win the Colorado governor’s race.
To win the nomination, he has to beat out 20 other Republican candidates including Sen. Barb Kirkmeyer, who is leading the pack with fundraising and has been referred to as the front runner by some media analysts, including Ashley Michel of Fox31 Denver, and the Denver Post’s Sunday opinion columnist Krista Kafer, called her “the best Republican candidate to run for governor in years.”
Bottoms sees his chances differently, and he is playing a long game, though some might call it a long shot game.
“We are so far out ahead of all of the rest of them in pretty much every metric,” said Bottoms about the other primary candidates.
“We’ve done a lot of different polls, straw polls. We did a governor’s forum in Loveland a couple of months ago, and did a straw poll at the end of that. And I am twice, more than twice as far ahead as all of the rest of the Republicans put together. So that gives us good confidence. We know what we’re doing. “We’re definitely getting there,” Bottoms said confidently.
The third-term state house representative from District 15, which includes much of eastern Colorado Springs and Cimarron Hills in El Paso County, was in Estes Park last week and spoke to a group of 30 at Park Fellowship Church. Bottoms is also the lead pastor at Briargate Church in Colorado Springs.
Policy priorities
In an interview with the Estes Valley Voice before the meeting, Bottoms outlined his policies on various issues and made some political predictions. One of the most conservative and controversial members of the legislature, Bottoms says Colorado is the most progressive state in the union and that it is going in the wrong direction.
“We’re in the top two-three-four-five in the entire country, for all the bad reasons, not good reasons, second in crime, and when you break that down, we’re first in many different categories in crime, like car thefts and assault and rape,” said Bottoms.
While California leads in total car thefts by volume, Colorado ranks as the top state in the nation per capita for car thefts according to the National Insurance Crime Bureau and AutoInsurance.com, two auto insurance connectors. In 2023, the state recorded 583 thefts per 100,000 residents — meaning Coloradans were 91% more likely to have a vehicle stolen than people elsewhere in the country.
Bottoms asserts that Colorado is “the most human trafficking friendly state in the United States, and the most pedophile friendly state.”
Although Colorado has both high rape and child sexual assault rates, the state does not lead the nation in these categories, according to data from the Child Welfare League of America. In 2022, Colorado ranked 23rd among U.S. states for the rate of child abuse cases, with a rate of 8.0 victims per 1,000 children, placing it slightly above the U.S. average rate of 7.7 victims per 1,000 children that same year.
In Colorado, of all types of child abuse reported, sexual abuse accounts for 10.3%. Comparing data from state to state is not always an accurate way to measure and compare child abuse statistics because differences in reporting methods can influence state rankings for child abuse data.
Government regulation, energy, and the economy are among his top concerns
Bottoms represents a district that has had rapid growth and infrastructure challenges. Over the past 15 years, El Paso County, which encompasses the Colorado Springs area, has had the largest population increase in the state since 2010.
“Everything is exploding. We’re the fastest growing district in the whole state,” said Bottoms.
With a population of 90,000, House District 15 comprises approximately 80% white non-Hispanic residents and 20% Hispanic or Latino residents. In 2022, the district’s 56,000 registered voters were split: 32% Republican, 18% Democrat, and 48% unaffiliated.
Bottoms expressed his concerns about government regulations and the potential impact of electric-only housing mandates. In November, the Colorado Public Utilities Commission voted 2-1 that investor-owned gas utilities must cut carbon pollution by 41% from 2015 levels by 2035. This goal builds on the state’s commitment to reach 100% net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
As of 2024, Colorado was the fourth-largest oil-producing state, accounting for approximately 4% of the U.S.’s total crude oil output, and the eighth-largest natural gas-producing state, with the eighth-largest natural gas reserves.
According to Bottoms, if the legislature passed a bill to eliminate natural gas and require homes to convert to electric energy, “it would completely implode the housing market in Colorado Springs.”
He also discussed the fiscal impact on Colorado of the Trump administration’s decision, announced in September, to relocate the U.S. Space Command’s headquarters from Peterson Space Force Base in Colorado Springs to Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama.
Because Space Force is located in Colorado, the state has the largest private aerospace industry per capita in the country. Since 2020, employment in the industry has grown by 24% with more than 3,500 new aerospace and defense jobs added in the past year. The state currently has more than $31 billion in federal contracts that service the industry. Losing Space Force will mean lost revenue to the state.
Bottoms struggles against progressives
Bottoms emphasized his grassroots support among not only conservatives but also among Democratic voters, many of whom, he says, think the Democratic Party has pushed too far.
As an outspoken conservative who has promoted theories about voter fraud, Bottoms has run into many roadblocks in the Colorado legislature. He is unable to sponsor legislation because if his name is on a bill, the Democrats will kill it.
“The Democrats have an agreement in the House that any bill that I have my name on will not pass. It doesn’t matter what it’s about,” said Bottoms. “Democrat leadership has come and told me, ‘If you’ll take your name off of it, we’ll pass the bill, but as long as your name is on it, we won’t.’ They’ve made this very public, very clear.”
Among his top social policy concerns are human trafficking, pedophilia, transgender ideology, and illegal immigration.
“We cannot get a law passed that goes after pedophiles. The Democrats completely defend pedophilia, defend human trafficking, defend illegal immigrant crime, and so that’s a major push to what I’m doing. I believe in the kids and the parents, and that’s what I’m going to fight for,” Bottoms told the Estes Valley Voice.
The 2026 race for governor
Looking ahead to the primary race, Bottoms predicts U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet will be the Democratic nominee for governor, beating out challenger Phil Weiser, Colorado’s Attorney General, and says Bennet will have a “$40 to $50 million war chest, yeah, $20 million of that, $25 million probably come straight from Polis.”
“Bennett and (Gov. Jared) Polis have an agreement. Bennet will be two years through his six-year senate term. If he gets elected governor, he’s going to appoint Polis to that Senate term to finish it out, to continue to pad Bennet’s presidential resume,” he said.
“You can put this on the record that I said this, that Secretary of State Griswold and Attorney General Weiser will most likely be indicted before the ’26 election, and it will be for sedition. There are some other things that they’re being investigated for right now,” said Bottoms, who also claimed Griswold will go to jail.
On Thursday, Dec. 11, the DOJ filed suit against Griswold for refusing to release unredacted voter registration data, including voters’ full names, dates of birth, address, and either their driver’s license numbers, last four digits of their Social Security numbers, or their unique identifiers provided under the Help America Vote Act. The DOJ is claiming it needs the information to verify that the Centennial State is complying with federal voting laws. Colorado is one of 18 states the DOJ is suing to obtain voter registration records.
Bottoms stated that there are four other investigations underway by the DOJ and claimed that Polis is under investigation regarding the 2020 election, the release of BIOS (Basic Input/Output System) passwords for state voting machines in 2024, and what Bottoms identified as voter anomalies in Arapahoe County.
“Polis is wanting to separate himself from Griswold and Weiser, because he doesn’t want to be drugged down with this. He’s trying to run for president, and any of this is going to make him look bad, which, by the way, I think he’s actually going to pardon Tina Peters before the end of the year. I may be wrong about that, but I think he’s going to try to use that as leverage to distance himself from Griswold and Wiser,” Bottoms predicted.
Despite the campaign odds, Bottoms believes he has a path to win the governor’s race if he can secure his party’s nomination. “We really do believe that, and that comes from just the fact that our grassroots effort is so strong around the state that we’ve got 1000s of people that are really standing by, ready to knock on doors.”
To beat Bennet, whom he calls a weak candidate who doesn’t show up at events, Bottoms says he needs 350,000 Democrat votes between Denver and Fort Collins, including Boulder.
“The average Democrat across the state of Colorado is not okay with what is happening in this state, and they’re specifically not okay with the grooming,” said Bottoms, who claims grooming is the state’s number one issue, followed by crime.
Bottoms is banking on a shift in voter sentiments in 2026 and referenced an Oct. 5 Forbes magazine article that suggests that Colorado, a traditionally blue state, is in play for Republicans. According to internal polling conducted by the Democrats, which he says shows that as the party has become more liberal, it has left many Democratic voters behind. Bottoms says a Democrat lobbyist came to him last spring and told him, “We know we’re going to lose all four state seats in Colorado. Even if he’s half right, I’m the next governor.”