American Constitution Party (Colorado)

The American Constitution Party registered as a political party with the state of Colorado on July 23, 2000.^[6] In July 2013, the ACP had just over 7,000 registered Colorado voters affiliated with it.^[7] Some of the party's positions include:

ACP members ... call for the abolition of the Food and Drug Administration, the Internal Revenue Service, the departments of Education and Energy and the Federal Election Commission. They seek the repeal of a number of laws, including one aimed at preventing threats and force against abortion clinics and women seeking abortions and a 1960s-era law meant to end discriminatory election practices.^[8]

For most of its existence, the ACP has existed as one of Colorado's "minor parties", and has never elected one of its candidates to office.

The American Constitution Party of Colorado seeks to:^[8]

• Allow state legislatures, not voters, to pick U.S. senators (i.e., repeal the 17th Amendment)
• Repeal legislation making it illegal to use force or the threat of force to interfere with a woman seeking an abortion
• Abolish congressional pensions
• End the Endangered Species Act
• Terminate the U.S. Departments of Energy and Education, the Food and Drug Administration, the Federal Election Commission and the Internal Revenue Service
• Ban electronic voting to prevent voter fraud
• Repeal all federal campaign-finance laws
• Repeal the Voting Rights Act of 1965
• End compulsory public school attendance and promote homeschooling, private schools or religious schools
• End any domestic federal aid not provided for in the U.S. Constitution, as it is "not only illegal, it is immoral"
• End foreign aid and participation in multinational groups, such as the United Nations, as well as multinational treaties
• Retake the Panama Canal for the United States
• Prevent women from serving in combat as "these 'advances' undermine the integrity, morale and performance of our military organizations"
• "Cease financing or arming of belligerents in the world's troubled areas"
• Return to the people all federal lands held by the government without constitutional authorization
• Revoke the legalization of the union of gay couples in either marriages or civil unions
• Immediately collect all foreign debts owed to the U.S.

The ACP is affiliated with the national-level Constitution Party, which has developed a party platform as well.^[9]

Former Republican Congressman Tom Tancredo ran as the party's candidate for Colorado governor in 2010 after the campaign of Republican Party nominee Dan Maes collapsed politically. He won around 36% of the vote, receiving more than 2.5 times the vote of Republican Party nominee Maes.^[10] Democratic candidate John Hickenlooper won the election with just over 51% of the vote.

Although the American Constitution Party's political and organizational sophistication did not grow despite the attention brought to it by Tancredo's 2010 gubernatorial candidacy, the party fielded more candidates in the 2010 and 2012 cycles than it had in the entirety of the previous decade.^[27]

In the 2022 elections, the party fielded candidates in races for US House, in Districts 2, 4 and 5, as well as in statewide elections for Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Secretary of State, and in District 8 for the Board of Education. All were unsuccessful, recording less than 1% of the vote in most of these races.^[28][29]

• Politics of Colorado
• Electoral history of the Constitution Party
• List of state Constitution Parties