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    "original_url": "https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/09\/29\/us\/victor-marx-colorado-republican-governor-candidate.html?emc=edit_nn_20260930&nl=the-morning&segment_id=227287",
    "parsed_content": "The Race for CongressNational Citizenship DatabaseWhen to Vote in Your StateLatest PollsCompetitive RacesAdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTSupported bySKIP ADVERTISEMENTHe Says He Killed a Man and Cast Out Demons. He Wants to Run Colorado.Some Republicans in the state fear that the sensational biography of Victor Marx, their party\u2019s candidate for governor, could drag down the rest of the ticket.Listen \u00b7 9:20 min Share full articleVictor Marx, pictured outside his ministry\u2019s training center in Colorado Springs, Colo., says he wants to be governor to bring the state \u201cback to God.\u201d Credit...Rachel Woolf for The New York TimesBy Jack HealyReporting from Victor Marx\u2019s ministry complex in Colorado Springs.Sept. 29, 2026See more of our coverage in your search results.Encuentra m\u00e1s de nuestra cobertura en los resultados de b\u00fasqueda. Add The New York Times on GoogleAgrega The New York Times en Google Victor Marx, a Christian ministry leader, martial arts black belt and Republican nominee for governor of Colorado, knows how to weave a wild story.There is the one about how his stepfather forced him to kill a man at age 7. Or his claim that he cast a demon out of a teenage girl. Or his accounts of dodging mortar fire in Iraq to rescue civilians from the Islamic State.\u201cMy father was a drug-dealing pimp,\u201d Mr. Marx, 61, said this month as he introduced himself to voters at evangelical church near Denver. \u201cI know what it\u2019s like to put a pistol in my mouth.\u201dMr. Marx\u2019s biography, from an abusive childhood in Mississippi to commando-style ministry missions, is the centerpiece of his long-shot run to become Colorado\u2019s first Republican governor in two decades. But his outsized, sometimes hard-to-verify claims have made his campaign a late-night punchline and splintered Colorado\u2019s beleaguered Republican Party.AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTGrassroots conservative evangelicals have embraced Mr. Marx, who has never held elected office, as a spiritual warrior. But some establishment Republicans call him unqualified and say that his candidacy could be a body blow in a once-purple state where Republicans hold no statewide office. The party is fighting to retain three competitive seats in Congress.\u201cHe is not fit to be the governor,\u201d said Dick Wadhams, a former Colorado Republican Party chairman who plans to vote for an independent. \u201cI want Victor Marx to lose by as large a margin as possible. This party has got to come to its senses.\u201dRep. Lauren Boebert, a far-right Republican representing a rural Colorado district, has endorsed Mr. Marx. But most major Republicans have declined and avoid talking about him altogether.\u201cThere isn\u2019t a strong top of the ticket,\u201d said State Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer, the establishment favorite, whom Mr. Marx narrowly defeated in the Republican primary. \u201cI\u2019m not saying anything else, because I\u2019m not going to get blamed for his loss.\u201dAdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTMr. Marx\u2019s Republican critics fear that his candidacy, dogged by campaign-finance violations and questions about truthfulness, could hurt the party in the midterms and reduce it to a superminority in the state legislature.ImageMr. Marx greets voters at a campaign event in Golden, Colo.Credit...Rachel Woolf for The New York TimesBut Mr. Marx\u2019s supporters say they like him precisely because he is not a regular Republican politician. They are drawn to a candidate they see as an outsider with a folksy drawl and a personal shooting range who vows to redeem a fallen state.Mr. Marx said he believed Colorado\u2019s problems \u2014 including its high cost of living, crime and shrinking middle class \u2014 did not stem from simple mismanagement, but from a deliberate plan to drive out residents and make way for socialism.\u201cIt\u2019s an insurgency into the state \u2014 a well thought-out plan to take over,\u201d he said in an interview. \u201cA takeover by the Socialist Party. I completely believe that.\u201dMr. Marx is finding support at biker bars, tailgate parties and in church pews, where working-class voters and evangelicals say they are fed up with Colorado\u2019s spiraling home prices, homelessness and liberal policies on guns and transgender rights.AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENT\u201cIt\u2019s gotten out of control,\u201d said Adrian Delgado, pastor of Holy Spirit and Fire Church near Denver, who invited Mr. Marx to speak at a \u201cBless Fest\u201d revival meeting this month. \u201cWe need to get back to our biblical values.\u201dMr. Marx\u2019s campaign staff starts each day with a prayer conference call, and in speeches he likens himself to the Apostle Peter. He promises to consecrate Colorado \u201cback to God\u201d on his first day in office.Several of Mr. Marx\u2019s supporters said his Christianity is more important than his grasp of Colorado\u2019s budget or the veracity of his statements.Get updates when new midterm election polls are added to our poll trackers. When new polling data drops we\u2019ll send an update straight to your inbox. Get it sent to your inbox.\u201cTell me a story from your childhood that you didn\u2019t embellish,\u201d said Thayne Brenkman, a construction contractor who attended one of Mr. Marx\u2019s recent rallies with dozens of leather-clad bikers. \u201cThat part doesn't matter. These other people running are demonic.\u201dMr. Marx\u2019s supporters said they were not bothered by his odder moments, such as when a journalist with 9 News in Denver asked Mr. Marx if he had killed anyone as an adult. \u201cDoes it matter?\u201d Mr. Marx answered.AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTAny Republican candidate for governor would have struggled in Colorado, where polls show President Trump is deeply unpopular. But his Republican primary opponents have not endorsed him, and Mr. Marx is not participating in debates with the Democratic nominee, Attorney General Phil Weiser, who is running as a fighter willing to stand up to President Trump.ImageAttorney General Phil Weiser of Colorado, the Democratic candidate for governor, at Bluebird Caf\u00e9 in Glenwood Springs.Credit...Cheney Orr for The New York TimesStill, Mr. Marx, who calls himself a \u201cconservative centrist,\u201d says he can win if every Christian votes.About half of Colorado\u2019s adults identify as Christians, according to the Pew Research Center, but they are by no means uniformly conservative. Forty percent of state residents are religiously unaffiliated, and conservative Christian organizations like Focus on the Family, based in Colorado Springs, no longer have the political power they did a generation ago.Mr. Marx\u2019s ministry, All Things Possible, describes itself as a \u201chigh risk\u201d humanitarian group bringing aid to people in chaotic corners of the world. It reported more than $7.5 million in revenue in 2024, and its employees included two of Mr. Marx\u2019s children, according to income-tax returns.AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTIn the interview at the ministry\u2019s training center in the ponderosa woods near Colorado Springs, Mr. Marx insisted his stories were true. He pointed to photographs of himself on ministry missions, surrounded by children in head scarves or standing with security forces in the Middle East.On one wall of his office, framed under glass, was what Mr. Marx described as a piece of a Hamas rocket and a backpack that belonged to a Hamas fighter. Across the room was a photograph of Mr. Marx praying beside a person he said was a Haitian gang leader.The five-acre compound features a building for combat training for high-risk missions and a studio where Mr. Marx records videos, podcasts and campaign media hits.Mr. Marx and his wife sold the property to All Things Possible for $2.9 million in 2024, drawing scrutiny from critics. Mr. Marx said they donated $1 million of that back to the ministry.Mr. Marx said the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, a friend who wrote the foreword for Mr. Marx\u2019s second book, helped spur him to run for governor. Mr. Marx said he could restore Colorado because his entire life had been a struggle to impose order on chaos.AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTHe describes his childhood in Mississippi as a nightmare of abuse. He said he was sexually assaulted by a neighbor and later beaten, given electric shocks and nearly drowned in a bathtub by his stepfather.When he was 7, he has said, the stepfather took Mr. Marx to a wooden house where a grave had been dug and another man was waiting. Mr. Marx said his stepfather, who has since died, put a pistol in Mr. Marx\u2019s hands and forced him to pull the trigger.ImageMr. Marx\u2019s office features displays of photos taken during his ministry missions around the world. Credit...Rachel Woolf for The New York Times\u201cHe told me, \u2018Boy, you know, this is your first kill,\u2019\u201d Mr. Marx told a PBS station in a 2013 interview.Chris Wallace, an investigator with the sheriff\u2019s office in Simpson County, Miss., south of Jackson, said he had scoured records, talked to retired deputies and searched newspaper archives but had found no evidence of the crime.AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENT\u201cEvery box I could find, every single file,\u201d he said. \u201cNothing. I\u2019m not saying the man\u2019s lying, but I can\u2019t say he\u2019s telling the truth, either.\u201dMr. Marx served in the Marines and then pursued a career in martial arts, where his claim to fame was snatching a gun at lightning speed. He moved to Colorado in the early 2000s and worked at Focus on the Family. He has had legal and financial troubles, including a plea of no contest to disturbing the peace in California in 2012 and a federal tax lien totaling $83,452 filed against him and his wife during the 1990s.Mr. Marx said the California charge stemmed from a staff member placing a firearm magazine into Mr. Marx\u2019s bag before a flight, which Mr. Marx called \u201can honest mistake.\u201d He said the tax lien came after he disputed how much he owed to the I.R.S., and he said he had resolved the issue decades ago.In videos and podcasts, Mr. Marx and his wife, Eileen, have discussed his struggles with anger and childhood trauma. His wife often appears beside him in video messages. She recently announced a 21-day fast, to encourage God to heal Colorado as the election nears.AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENT",
    "published_at": "2026-09-29T16:46:09+00:00",
    "author_name": "Jack Healy",
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