Victor Marx, founder of an evangelical ministry and former Marine, has secured the Republican nomination for Colorado governor after edging out state Sen. Barb Kirkmeyer in a razor-thin primary vote count. Marx captured 39.9% of the GOP vote to Kirkmeyer's 39.4%, with state Rep. Scott Bottoms finishing a distant third.
The June 30 primary result sets up a November general election between Marx and Democratic state Attorney General Phil Weiser, who won his party's nomination. The matchup will determine who succeeds two-term Democratic Gov. Jared Polis, who is term-limited.
Marx claims a dramatic personal history that has drawn scrutiny this year. He says an abusive stepfather forced him to kill a man when he was just 7 years old, a story that resurfaced when Marx told NBC affiliate KUSA-TV in May that he may have killed others as well. "I've been in other situations where, possibly, people or persons died as a result of me defending myself in other countries," he said in the interview. When asked directly if he thought he had killed people as an adult, Marx responded, "Does it matter?" The context of those statements remains unclear, though his military service and work overseas with his All Things Possible Ministries suggest potential connections to his claims.
According to his campaign materials, Marx endured sexual abuse during childhood before enlisting in the Marines, where he says his life turned around. His ministry operates what he describes as rescue operations for women and children, including a mission to extract kidnapped girls from Islamic State-controlled territory.
The general election presents a significant hurdle for Marx. Colorado has not elected a Republican governor in more than two decades. Weiser, a two-term attorney general and former dean of the University of Colorado Law School, won the Democratic primary by running against the Republican establishment and the Trump influence in national politics.
Author Sarah Mitchell: "Marx's narrow victory and his bizarre claims about childhood killings make this one of the strangest gubernatorial contests in recent memory, but Colorado's two-decade Democratic streak in the governor's office means Weiser likely has the advantage."
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