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Press Release
Press Release – September 2, 2026
Contact: press@celeste4sos.com
Website: https://www.celeste4sos.com/
“People Above Party” – Not “Party Above People”
Libertarian Candidate Drops Out of SOS Race
The Libertarian nominee for Secretary of State withdrew less than 70 days before Election Day, November 3rd. With the Libertarian withdrawal, the ballot is down to four candidates, including the two major-party nominees and Celeste Landry, the Forward Party nominee.[1]
If the Libertarian had withdrawn a few days earlier or the nominee had belonged to a major party, then a party vacancy committee could have chosen a new nominee. The Libertarian Party issued a press release decrying a double standard “privileging the major parties.”[2]
The Republican nominee welcomed the Libertarian’s withdrawal and reminded Libertarians that he, the Republican, signed the Liberty Pledge “to prevent libertarian [sic] spoilers in the general election for SOS.”[3] The Liberty Pledge was denounced and nullified earlier this year by the Libertarian Party.[4] The Liberty Pledge was a promise to support specific Libertarian policy positions, signed by a candidate from a party other than the Libertarian Party, with the Libertarian Party in return agreeing not to run a Libertarian in the candidate’s race.
The Republican nominee was an active Libertarian until he lost the 2025 party election to be Colorado Libertarian Party Chair. “The so-called ‘Liberty Pledge’ was another ploy designed to keep power in two parties at the expense of fresh ideas and new energy in the American body politic,” stated Keith Laube, current Chair of the Libertarian Party of Colorado.
Contrast the Liberty Pledge with the Colorado Forward Party’s policy of encouraging its members to register as unaffiliated voters before the primary election so that its members can have a voice in a party primary. This is how a party looking to reinvigorate American politics and offer new solutions behaves! Unfortunately, the two major parties put “Party Above People” and seem mostly concerned with job security for their party’s politicians.
“Unaffiliated voters, who comprise half the electorate, as well as Libertarians, Colorado Forward, and other third-party members deserve candidates who refuse to be part of the 165 years of legacy two-party dominance,” according to Dave Ryan, Chair of the Colorado Forward Party Executive Committee.
The Secretary of State’s role is not to coddle the major parties, but to ensure free and fair elections for all Coloradans. The Secretary of State should be nonpartisan. The Forward Party is about as nonpartisan as a political party can be.
Celeste Landry is the only candidate who has been fighting in a nonpartisan manner to protect Coloradans’ right to vote and against HB25-1315 and HB25-1319, which are simply and purely party-protection bills. House Bill 25-1319 has already resulted in the first-ever special election in the U.S. which prohibited registered Democrats, Libertarians, Forward Party and other minor-party members from voting (for their “elected” El Paso County District 5 County Commissioner). If these laws stay in effect, some of next year’s state legislative “vacancy elections” will disenfranchise Republicans, some will disenfranchise Democrats, and all will disenfranchise minor-party members.
Both major parties support these unconstitutional “vacancy elections.” No other Secretary of State candidate has publicly talked about these bills, much less opposed them. To keep Colorado’s gold standard of elections, Colorado must allow all registered voters to participate in special elections. Celeste proposed just such a solution in January of 2024.[5]
“Regarding spoiler candidates,” Celeste Landry said, “the solution is to vote for me, the only SOS candidate with a long track record of working to allow voters to express their true preferences on their ballots and thereby free Coloradans from the need to vote strategically.”
[1] https://www.coloradosos.gov/pubs/elections/vote/generalCandidates.html
[3] https://www.facebook.com/groups/ColoradoGOP/posts/26133122476330306/
[4] https://lpcolorado.org/2026/03/30/resolution-denouncing-and-nullifying-the-liberty-pledge/
[5] https://coloradosun.com/2024/01/27/opinion-colorado-vacancy-committee-elections/