With the GOP primary just days away next Tuesday, Colorado Republicans are staring down a law-and-order-versus-outsider showdown for attorney general. On one side is Michael Allen, a two-term El Paso County district attorney running on a classic tough-on-crime message centered on fentanyl dealers and violent offenders. On the other hand is David Willson, a retired Army lawyer and cybersecurity consultant who says the office needs to pivot hard toward election security and keeping public officials in check.
Allen's law-and-order pitch
Michael Allen is leaning heavily on his record in the courtroom and his public-safety resume. His campaign highlights his creation of an Organized Crime Unit that it says has put El Paso County at the forefront of fentanyl prosecutions in Colorado and points to his role leading the prosecution in the Club Q mass-shooting case. According to Michael Allen's campaign website, his office has secured long prison sentences in fentanyl-death cases and launched dedicated efforts targeting motor-vehicle theft and organized crime.
Willson leans into election security
David Willson is pitching himself as the outsider in the race, arguing that his years as an Army lawyer and cybersecurity consultant are exactly what Colorado needs to protect its elections and scrutinize government power. He has made election integrity and oversight of public officials central to his stump speech.
According to CPR News, Willson represented former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters in a recount lawsuit and has said he would "investigate the conduct of the DA and the judge" involved in her case if he becomes attorney general. And per David Willson's campaign site, he is centering his platform on election security and parental rights issues as the main reasons he is running.
Race outlook as voters head to the primary
Allen is widely viewed as the more traditional choice in the GOP field, while Willson is working hard to sell himself as the guy who will flip the table in Denver. Axios Denver reports that Allen currently leads the Republican contest, and the primary itself is locked in for next Tuesday, according to the Colorado Secretary of State's 2026 election calendar.
For many Republican voters, the decision boils down to one core question: Should the next attorney general be a career prosecutor who promises more of the same approach to crime, or an outsider who argues that too much time in government is exactly the problem?
Why Tina Peters still matters
The recent commutation and early-June release of former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters has kept Colorado's election-denial battles front and center, giving Willson fresh oxygen for his argument that the attorney general should take a different tack. AP News reported that Gov. Jared Polis commuted Peters' sentence and that her release triggered sharp partisan reactions across the state. According to AP News, Democrats warned the move could embolden election-denial activists, while Peters' supporters celebrated it as vindication.
At the same time, the nuts-and-bolts work of policing judges and attorney conduct in Colorado generally falls to the Colorado Commission on Judicial Discipline and the Attorney Regulation Counsel, not directly to the attorney general, according to the Colorado Attorney General's website. That reality quietly sets some legal boundaries around what any new AG - whether it is Allen or Willson - could actually do in cases like Peters'.
Next Tuesday's result will show which theory of the job Republican voters prefer: the prosecutorial record Allen says keeps Colorado safe, or the outsider overhaul that Willson promises. However it breaks, the outcome will shape the GOP's message heading into November and help decide how the state's top legal office juggles criminal prosecutions, election disputes, and consumer protection in the years ahead.
