New political party is forming, based in Brush
Organizer says MAGA Patriot Party will seek to elevate regular people through politics, instead of only elevating party insiders
The MAGA Patriot Party, a new third political party, is forming with plans to place their headquarters in Brush.
The Colorado MAGA Patriot Party Chair, Kr ystal Gabel, has been involved in grassroots politics for years. She was the co-chair of Legal Marijuana Now, a third party out of Minnesota, Iowa and Nebraska, and competed in the 2018 Nebraska Gubernatorial Republican Primary.
“The MAGA Patriots Party really stemmed from our work there, and that the establishment, Democrats and Republicans alike, really don’t represent the people. They’re representing their party and the party’s interests, which are special interests,” Gabel said.
The name MAGA, short for Make America Great Again from former President Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, reflects an admiration of the former president that doesn’t extend to the Republican Party establishment.
“Trump, really in my memor y, is the only elected of ficial who has done what his voters, his electors, wanted him to do. Whether people agreed with (him) or not, whether they liked his politics or not, he was really true to his platform and what he wanted to deliver,” Gabel said.
Gabel said the new party will seek to elevate real people through politics, rather than par ty insiders. She claimed that in the Nebraska Gubernatorial Primary she was sidelined by the party, and in a Omaha City Council race she faced Democrats flooding the field with seven candidates.
“There’s a lot of effort by the establishment party to keep people off the ballot, and then when you do figure out how to get on the ballot, they go through a lot of effort to make sure you don’t get votes,” Gabel said.
The MAGA Patriot Par ty will seek to correct this by elevating regular people for office, and governing with regular people in mind if elected, she said.
“When we talk about the name itself, Make America Great Again, we’re really talking about bringing law back into our hands,” Gabel said.
The party is in its infancy, and is seeking to register 1,000 citizens to be designated as a minor political party. Gabel said the party is growing through grassroots action, involving direct conversation with citizens.
“In order to build us up in a grassroots way, it’s literally me talking to each individual, seeing what they what they want, listen---
ing to their needs of either a candidate or a volunteer, and plugging them into that and … providing the scaffolding they need to either be a candidate or to be a volunteer,” she said.
The effort is not just in Nor theast Colorado, and it has received interest across the state as has their sister par ty in Nebraska.
“Our main uphill battle will be getting 1,000 people registered to vote with our party, which I don’t think will be a problem if you read statistically how many people in Colorado have left the Republican Party and are looking for something else,” Gabel said.
Gabel said criticisms of third parties taking votes from either of the two major par ties is framed poorly, and that additional voices would inevitably benefit the democratic process.
“Competition is how capitalism works, and that’s what our countr y is built on, and we’ve completely eliminated competition when it comes to capitalism. Now we have extreme crony capitalism, and we’ve done the same thing to our politics,” Gabel said.
The par ty is seeking to expand, and Gabel said anyone interested in volunteering can contact her directly at 303-3040370.