The growing number of people who loathe Republican Dave Williams is starting to become a big problem for Republican Dave Williams. 

That’s because there are two Republicans named Dave Williams who are running for office in Colorado.

There’s the divisive chair of the Colorado GOP, who is running for Congress. Then there’s the other Dave Williams — the one whose name is saved in some of his friends’ phones as “Good Dave Williams” — a moderate Republican who lives in Buena Vista and is running for a state House seat in the High Country and who wants nothing to do with his notorious counterpart.

Buena Vista Williams faces a tough battle in the race to represent House District 13, a position currently held by House Speaker Julie McCluskie, a Dillon Democrat. With such a well-known opponent and a left-leaning district, Williams will need support from moderate voters to have a chance at success. But the infamous other Dave Williams may make that difficult. 

“It hasn’t been helpful to be honest with you,” Buena Vista Williams said. 

Since he was elected as state party chair last year, GOP Chair Dave Williams has repeatedly come under fire for his inflammatory decisions. He’s tried to bar unaffiliated voters from participating in GOP primaries, removed a reporter he didn’t like from a party assembly and frequently goes after fellow Republicans.

He’s used his position and the dwindling party resources to attack his Republican opponent in his Congressional race and boost his own campaign. Most recently, he sent out a note from the official party email calling members of the LGBTQ community “godless groomers” and saying they want to “harm our children.” 

There are mounting calls for the party chair to resign and efforts underway to force a vote of no confidence if he doesn’t voluntarily step down.

Like the more well-known Dave Williams, Buena Vista Dave Williams is also a longtime Republican. But unlike the hardline, conservative positions espoused by the state party chair, Buena Vista Williams describes himself as a “center right moderate Republican” who primarily focuses on rancher issues. 

The confusing Dave-nado doesn’t stop there. 

McCluskie defeated another Dave, Dave Buckley, a Republican from Kremmling, in the 2022 election for House District 13 by 12 percentage points. That Dave is now the soon-to-be chair of the Grand County Republicans and is who alerted The Summit Daily to the Dave mixup when a reporter asked if the county party planned to formally urge state party chair Williams to resign.

“I don’t want people to get confused about it,” Dave Buckley — Dave No. 3 — said. “I really do like David Williams out of Chaffee County.”

But Buena Vista Dave Williams, who is the chair of the Chaffee County GOP, feels differently. The chapter on Monday approved a statement lambasting state party chair Williams for his “hateful” statements.

“The members of the executive board and our local chair, David Williams (unfortunate same name, not the same man) are joining the call statewide for GOP Chairman Williams to resign and have joined the call for a special session to vote him out,” according to a statement approved by the chapter. 

Buena Vista Williams said he hasn’t been confused for state party Williams many times but that it’s started to happen more over the past few days, including a television reporter asking him his feelings on calls for his resignation. It was a wrong phone number. Now, he’s considering accelerating his plans to start sending out announcements on his candidacy. 

“I’m certainly not the favorite,” he said. “Having some negative name recognition does us no favors.”

Some friends in Republican circles have been confused when they see Buena Vista Williams’ name appear on their phone, leading some to save his number as “Good Dave Williams,” he said. 

“All you can do is laugh about it,” he said.

More Western Slope calls to resign

Other Republicans around the Western Slope — who aren’t named Dave Williams — have also joined in the calls to oust party chair Williams.

“He sent out a number of emails that are ridiculous and he’s acted unprofessionally and in a way that doesn’t help the party,” said Jon Kelly, chair of the Pitkin County Republicans.

The Eagle County Republicans also released a statement Tuesday evening asking Williams to resign. The chapter expressed frustration over a separate controversial decision by the chair to break with party norms by endorsing candidates in primaries throughout the state. 

The Garfield County Republican Party said it supports calling a meeting to force Williams to step down. 

“It will be the death knell of the Republican Party in the state of Colorado if he prevails,” said Gregg Rippy, chair of the Garfield County GOP. “In Western Colorado, we don’t share those same beliefs, we believe in a big tent, we believe in live and let live. We believe our friends that are gay are part of our community.”

Rippy said his dislike for Williams’ leadership started long ago and has been growing over time, especially with the use of state party funds to attack his political rivals.

“I guess I was an early adopter,” he said. 

While Grand County has not yet decided if it will officially release a statement against state party chair Williams, Buckley said local party officials have long opposed his ideology and were disappointed in the latest emails’ rhetoric. 

“It just continues to divide and that’s not what we’re about,” Buckley said.

Several other local chapters, including Summit County, planned to have meetings to discuss the matter last week. The chair of the Routt County GOP didn’t respond to requests for comment.