Larry Liston

Liston served as the leader of the Republicans in Precinct 217 from 1984 to 1996, and as the leader in the 16th Colorado House of Representatives district from 1997 to 2004. Liston served on the highway advisory board in El Paso County from 1995 to 1999. He served as the vice-chair of the Colorado Republican Party from 2001 to 2003. Liston served as the chair of Bill Owens gubernatorial campaign in El Paso County in the 1998 and 2002 elections. He served as the co-chair of George W. Bush's presidential campaign in El Paso County during the 2000 presidential election and attended the Republican National Convention as a delegate for Bush.[2][3]

Liston ran for a seat in the Colorado House of Representatives from the 16th district with the Republican nomination and defeated Democratic nominee Mary F. Hafner and Libertarian nominee Scott Paul Graves.[4] He won reelection without opposition in the 2006 election.[5] He defeated Democratic nominee Richard M. Flores in the 2008 election.[6] He won reelection in the 2010 election against Democratic nominee Janet Tanner.[7] He ran for the Republican nomination for a seat in the Colorado Senate from the 10th district during the 2012 election, but was defeated in the primary by Owen Hill.[8][9] He won the Republican nomination in the 16th district in the 2016 election against incumbent Janak Joshi and defeated Libertarian nominee John C. Hjersman in the general election.[10][11] He defeated Democratic nominee Andrew Smith and Libertarian nominee Hjersman in the 2018 election.[12][13]

During the 2020 election Liston was the only candidate placed onto the Republican primary ballot due to him being the only one to receive at least 30% of the assembly support. Eli Bremer claimed that Liston had defeated David Stiver in the assembly vote with 76% to 24%, but Stiver claimed in a lawsuit that there were numerous irregularities in the election and claimed that the rules were constantly changed, the number of credentialed delegates changed, and that the email account set up to receive the ballots was hacked. The Colorado Republican state committee ordered that Stiver be added to the ballot as it was too late to hold another assembly vote and maintained it ruling on appeal by a vote of 98 to 90.[14] Scott Gessler and Wayne W. Williams, who had both previously served as the Secretary of State of Colorado, opposed allowing Stiver onto the ballot.[15] Judge Michael A. Martinez ruled that Stiver could not be placed onto the ballot.[16] He won in the general election to succeed Hill, who was term-limited, against Democratic nominee Randi McCallian and Libertarian nominee Heather Johnson.[17][18][19]

During Liston's tenure in the state house he served on the Public Healthcare and Human Services, and Energy and Environment committees.[20] He voted to expel Representative Steve Lebsock in 2018.[21]

In 2011, Sarah Anderson, the secretary of the El Paso County Republican Party, resigned and accused Liston of being misogynistic and that she was warned when she was fourteen to never be alone in a room with him.[22] He signed a letter calling for Vickie Tonkins, the chair of the El Paso County Republican Party, to apologize and possibly resign after she posted "Do you believe that the Coronavirus is a PSYOP (Psychological Operation)? Post your answer…" on Facebook.[23][24] In 2021, Tonkins criticized Liston, Kay Rendleman, and Karl Schneider in an email for blocking her version of a school board candidate survey which included questions on support for an audit of the 2020 election.[25] Liston and Rex Tonkins, Vickie's husband, got into a fight at a county Republican executive committee meeting. Liston called Tonkins a thug three times although Liston claims that he stated that after an aggressive encounter with Tonkins.[26]