Colorado secretary of state receives death threats: ‘I will not be intimidated’

by Tara Suter - 12/30/23 2:51 PM ET

FILE – Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold speaks during a committee meeting in Baton Rouge, La., July 8, 2022. Colorado’s secretary of state’s office says it mistakenly sent postcards to about 30,000 non-U.S. citizens encouraging them to register to vote. It blames the error on a database glitch and insists anyone who is not a citizen and tries to register will not be able to. (AP Photo/Matthew Hinton, File)

Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold (D) said she received death threats in the wake of the lawsuit that was filed in her state that eventually led to former President Trump being kicked off the ballot in her state.

“Within three weeks of the lawsuit being filed, I received 64 death threats. I stopped counting after that,” Griswold said on X Saturday, the platform formerly known as Twitter. “I will not be intimidated. Democracy and peace will triumph over tyranny and violence.”

Griswold also linked to a HuffPost article from last week in which she discussed her fears about violence on behalf of the former president. In the article, she also noted that it wasn’t her that filed the lawsuit, but a watchdog organization named Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW).

Griswold recently praised her Maine counterpart, Shenna Bellows (D), for her decision to kick Trump off of the ballot in the Pine Tree State Thursday under the 14th Amendment.

“I do think Secretary Bellows is brave and courageous,” Griswold said in an interview on MSNBC about the Maine secretary of state (D). “She is the first individual, by herself, having to make this decision.”

On Thursday, Bellows said she had concluded that the former president “over the course of several months and culminating on January 6, 2021, used a false narrative of election fraud to inflame his supporters and direct them to the Capitol to prevent certification of the 2020 election and the peaceful transfer of power.”

Bellows said on Friday that she has received threats in the wake of her decision to remove Trump from the ballot.

“I was prepared for the possibility of threats, and I really appreciate law enforcement and the people around me who have been incredibly supportive of my safety and security,” Bellows said during an appearance on CNN. “My safety and security is important, so is the safety and security of everyone who works with me and we have received threatening communications.”

“Those are unacceptable,” Bellows continued.