A district court judge on Friday granted the Colorado Republican Party’s request for a temporary restraining order blocking Republicans critical of the state party from holding a meeting the next day to consider whether to fire state GOP Chairman Dave Williams and other members of his leadership team.

Arapahoe County District Court Judge Thomas W. Henderson issued the order just over an hour after Republican U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert called on Williams to do a better job supporting GOP candidates “up and down the ballot” or face removal from office at the Saturday meeting called by Williams’ opponents.

Late Friday, the organizers of the disputed state party central committee meeting — set for Saturday morning at a church in Brighton — announced that they were canceling the meeting and would ask the judge to reconsider his ruling. Instead of convening as planned, they said they would hold a rally “to discuss the issues confronting us and how we can and will proceed upon succeeding in the courts.”

A spokesman for the group told Colorado Politics that their attorneys expect the lower court judge to reverse his order, which they characterized as riddled with “demonstrable factual errors” and termed “completely unlawful.”

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“Due to today’s totally unexpected TRO ruling, we will not hold a CRC meeting tomorrow,” said organizer Todd Watkins, vice chair of the El Paso County Republican Party, in an email to Republicans. “We will not gavel in and conduct any GOP business. We will respect the judge’s order and not risk entangling any of you by conducting a meeting.”

The group plans to reschedule the meeting sometime in August as soon as the court throws out the temporary order.

“We’ll contest the TRO, have it thrown out, reschedule the meeting and throw out the chairman,” an organizer said.

The jostling followed an unprecedented ultimatum calling for Williams to resign released by nearly all of the state’s other Republican congressional nominees.

Minutes after Boebert posted her statement, six of the state’s seven non-incumbent GOP candidates for U.S. House seats — including two candidates running in nationally targeted races — demanded that Williams step aside or be voted out at the same Saturday meeting later halted by the judge.

“We, the undersigned Republican political leaders in Colorado, write to you today to formalize what we have individually relayed to you. We urge you to resign from your chairmanship, today. If you elect not to resign, we implore the members of the State Central Committee to remove you tomorrow, July 27,2024,” wrote the Republicans in an email made available to Colorado Politics.

Signing the email were U.S. House nominees Valdamar Archuleta in the 1st District, Marshall Dawson in the 2nd District, Jeff Hurd in the 3rd District, Jeff Crank in the 5th District, John Fabbricatore in the 6th District and state Rep. Gabe Evans in the 8th District.

Also signing was State Senate Minority Leader Paul Lundeen, a Monument Republican.

Hurd is running in the Republican-leaning district abandoned by Boebert earlier this year when she moved across the state to a more favorable seat. Evans is challenging Democratic U.S. Rep. Yadira Caraveo in the state’s lone toss-up district.

The now-cancelled party meeting — called earlier this month by Watkins and denounced as “fraudulent” and illegal” by Williams and his supporters — was also set to include a vote to remove the state GOP’s vice chair, Hope Scheppelman, and party secretary Anna Ferguson. If any or all of the officers were voted out, the agenda allows attendees to replace them at the same meeting.

At least four Republicans had announced campaigns to replace Williams: former U.S. Senate candidate and El Paso County GOP chair Eli Bremer; state Rep. Richard Holtorf, R-Akron; former Routt County Treasurer Brita Horn; and, Douglas County GOP chair Steve Peck.

The Colorado Republican Party has been wracked with internal divisions for months amid mounting calls for Williams to step down.

Critics charge that the former state lawmaker commandeered party resources to benefit Williams’ unsuccessful congressional campaign, while fueling strife when the GOP abandoned its longstanding policy of maintaining neutrality in Republican primaries. The latest round of calls to replace Williams at the party’s head sparked in June when the state GOP sent out emails and social media posts attacking the LGBTQ community and Pride Month, including a directive to “Burn all the #Pride flags.”

Williams and his allies, however, contend that his combative approach is what state Republicans signed up for when they elected him to chair the party nearly a year and a half ago.

Watkins, who was at one time aligned with Williams, issued a formal call for the Saturday meeting earlier this month after he said the state party ignored a petition submitted by Watkins demanding a vote to remove Williams.

Jefferson County GOP chair Nancy Pallozzi initiated the petition last month, though within weeks her county party’s executive committee ordered her to stop collecting signatures and ruled that her efforts were “null and void,” arguing that Pallozzi hadn’t run it by the county party’s governing board before proceeding.

Calling his petition insufficient under party bylaws, Williams’ lieutenants nonetheless went ahead and scheduled a competing central committee meeting, which took place a week ago in a public park in Bayfield, a small town in the southwest corner of the state. The party told Republicans not to bother attending, however, since the plan was to gavel in and immediately adjourn until yet another meeting already scheduled for Aug. 31 in Castle Rock.

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to reflect developments since it initially posted.