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Colorado GOP candidate’s wildest religious claims unravel in must-watch interview

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The Republican front-runner in the race to be Colorado’s governor is Victor Marx, a man who seemingly came out of nowhere to jump past the rest of the field. But his background as a Christian ministry leader is coming under close scrutiny given the apparent lies he’s been telling voters about it.

Marx is a MAGA cultist with a massive social media following who’s never run for public office before, but with a boost from conspiracy theorist Rep. Lauren Boebert and a history of serving in the Marine Corps and working as a former assistant to now-dead anti-LGBTQ bigot James Dobson at Focus on the Family, he was the sort of candidate conservatives could rally behind:

Marx is the founder of the All Things Possible ministry, a nonprofit organization based in Colorado Springs that funds projects against child exploitation. He is a first-time candidate and is endorsed by Boebert. He has raised nearly $620,000 since announcing his candidacy at the start of the year.

“Colorado does not need another politician,” he said “We need a leader.”

“Businesses are leaving (the state), families are suffering and leaving, and when we’re letting criminals out but keeping a grandmother who is a Gold Star mom in prison — that’s got to stop,” he said.

(He was referring to convicted felon and election denier Tina Peters, who was later granted clemency by the Democratic Gov. Jared Polis for reasons that defy all logic.)

The thing about a relatively unknown candidate, though, is that it raises the possibility that digging into his past could unveil surprises. Sometimes that takes investigative journalists truly probing into someone’s life. Sometimes it just takes asking basic questions about someone’s biography.

Marx wasn’t even ready for those basic questions.

Consider the biography that appeared on his campaign website after it launched:

Victor is not a career politician—he is a Marine, a humanitarian, and a problem solver. He founded All Things Possible Ministries, which has helped more than 45,000 women and children recover from abuse, trafficking, and violence. He has led over 150 high-risk humanitarian missions across the globe to rescue the vulnerable and partnered with law enforcement through a task force of retired intelligence and cyber experts to track predators and protect children. In Colorado Springs, he built a training and retreat center serving veterans, law enforcement, and first responders. Through these efforts, Victor has earned the trust of sheriffs, military leaders, and government officials because he knows how to unite people, cut through bureaucracy, and deliver results.

In 2024, he repeated a similar claim when promoting his book, saying he wrote it “after 130+ missions to rescue women & children from terror & abuse.”

This past February, he said in a campaign newsletter that his team “rescued 43 children from the grips of evil predators.” No further details were offered.

He also said in a 2015 interview about his ministry that, as a seven-year-old child, his abusive stepfather made him kill another man, an event that (obviously) traumatized him but also helped shape who he is today in terms of what he hopes to stop for future generations.

These days, Marx isn’t the sort of person to sit for interviews that aren’t with propaganda outlets, so it was an interesting choice that he sat for an in-depth conversation with Kyle Clark of 9NEWS, a reporter with an excellent track record (and a decent dude). It came ahead of a scheduled debate between the Republican candidates for governor.

Clark asked Marx if he could verify a lot of the stories he’s been sharing—the hundred-plus missions, and thousands of rescues, and if he’s killed any more people—and things went off the rails quickly.

Like that 45,000 rescues number, which has since been pulled from the campaign website:

CLARK: One claim that you make as central to your life story and your accomplishments, to me, stands out above all of the others. And it’s about saving women and children… Your campaign website falsely claimed that you had rescued more than 45,000 women and children, and that claim has since been taken down. How many women and children have you rescued from captivity and abuse?

MARX: Well, regarding the 45,000, is that the number you’re making reference to? Never did I ever say that I rescued 45,000 women and children. And I mean, I’ve been doing this for years. Our ministry website never claimed that. Our current campaign website doesn’t say it. I think what happened, the best that we can see, is an independent contractor put together our first, you know, website for the campaign, and then that individual inadvertently put “rescued.” And it was corrected as soon as we knew.

CLARK: So, mistakes happen. I understand that. How many women and children have you rescued?

MARX: We’ve never publicly given the number out for security reasons. And we don’t have a need to. I would say it’s more than one and less than a bunch. Our desire is to protect those that we have in our current network that’s in place, so there’s no benefit from us.

CLARK: Giving a number would put people in danger?

MARX: Yes.

CLARK: How does the number put people in danger?

MARX: Um, I think if those that we’ve disrupted, nefarious characters and organizations, had the number, it would put us and our network at much greater risk than we are now.

That answer obviously makes no sense whatsoever. It also doesn’t explain where the number came from in the first place.

Clark rightly pointed out that if it’s dangerous to tell people about how many victims the ministry is rescuing, why tell people that they saved “43 children from the grips of evil predators” earlier this year? That was a reference to a rescue by U.S. Marshals, but in their press release announcing the accomplishment, the government listed 25 agencies and groups that helped them do it. Marx’s group wasn’t on the list.

CLARK: You certainly do use specific rescue numbers though when you feel that it suits your purposes. You wrote in February of this year, “Just last month, our team rescued 43 children from the grips of evil predators.” Where did that rescue of 43 children happen?

MARX: In the U.S., and that was by, through, and with law enforcement, through a special operations that we do with Protecting Children’s Innocence.

CLARK: Are you referring to Operation Northern Lights in Florida?

MARX: Yes.

CLARK: Okay. So the U.S. Marshals named 25 partner agencies, including two rescue ministries, that were involved in that operation. They said nothing about you and your ministry. But you’re claiming credit for those 43 rescues. They didn’t even mention you.

MARX: Yeah, not credit. Participation [is] what we do.

CLARK: You said “our team rescued 43 children,” and the marshals who ran that operation named 25 partners and never said a word about you.

MARX: Does that mean we didn’t help them?

CLARK: No, I’m just curious why you think that is.

MARX: Uh, we don’t require that we be listed or named in any operations.

The idea that a ministry that raises money from touting its success didn’t want credit for a major success is incomprehensible. It suggests that, at best, Marx’s group has a very very tangential connection to something he later pretended to take full credit for.

What about the “130+ missions to rescue women & children from terror & abuse”?

Marx didn’t even appear to know what Clark was talking about:

CLARK: You said that you’ve performed more than 130 “missions to rescue women and children from terror and abuse.” Is what you said factually true? That you have performed more than 130 missions to rescue women and children from terror?

MARX: Where do you cite that?

CLARK: Uh, you said that on X on August 12th of 2024.

MARX: That’s not something I believe I would ever say.

CLARK: Your full quote was, “I wrote this book, Dangerous Gentleman, after 130+ missions to rescue women and children from terror and abuse.” So that’s not true what you wrote?

MARX: I wouldn’t… That doesn’t sound accurate… that I would specify how many missions…

Ooof.

At this point, we’re not even 10 minutes into the interview. Clark makes clear that, as with any politician, he just wants a way to confirm the numbers being put out by the campaign, but the only material “supporting” Marx’s claims come from Marx himself. There’s no way to talk to survivors they’ve supposedly rescued or officials who can verify his group’s involvement. Marx seems shocked that, for once, people aren’t taking his claims at face value. Which is the sort of thing that happens when you’re not speaking to people inside your Christian echo chamber.

Clark later asked a question that should have been a gimme.

Regarding the man Marx supposedly killed at age seven, has he ever killed anyone else?

The answer was not “No.”

CLARK: Your claim that your abusive stepfather forced you to kill a man when you were seven years old. Is that the only person you’ve ever killed?

MARX: Well, I would say as a, as a child, yes, I mean, without question. But I’ve been in other situations where, you know, possibly people or persons died, as a result of me defending myself and other countries… There’s no count on that, and I… there’s no photos or… But that was something, as a kid, without a, without a doubt. Yeah.

CLARK: Do you think that you’ve killed people as an adult?

MARX: Does it matter?

CLARK: Yeah, I’d say so.

MARX: Why?

CLARK: Killing somebody is a pretty weighty thing.

MARX: If someone’s trying to kill you or you’re in combat?

CLARK: It’s still… it’s still a weighty thing to take somebody else’s life. I mean, it could be self-defense, it could be justified, but it’s still a weighty thing. So I’m just asking you, how many people have you killed?

MARX: Well, if I did, I wouldn’t be telling a reporter.

All he had to do was say he may have (or has) killed people in war, but his hesitation in saying something that could have been simple raises more questions than answers.

(Gov. Polis took the opportunity to dunk on Marx for that response: “I have killed zero people, and you can take that to the bank.”)

Clark brought up a different claim that Marx once “called in a US military airstrike that killed 70 ISIS fighters,” which a civilian can’t do. Marx refused to elaborate on that.

What about a claim that he caught child traffickers at the U.S.-Mexico border and “made them pay a price”? He said his ministry was working with the National Guard and the border patrol… but couldn’t detail his group’s actual involvement.

My favorite exchange, though, was when Clark asked Marx to simply explain the idea of exorcisms, which is something Marx has discussed multiple times in front of Christian audiences. But whenever you have to explain religious nonsense to a secular audience, you come face-to-face with the reality that nothing you’re saying makes any sense. And you could see Marx grappling with that realization in real time:

CLARK: You perform exorcisms, commanding demons to come out of people. Can you explain to me how that works?

MARX: When you say I perform exorcisms…

CLARK: Yeah, you described yourself as a “reluctant exorcist,” right?

MARX: Yeah…

CLARK: Describe to me how your exorcisms work when you command demons out.

MARX: Well, that’s a joke, the way I say that, but as a follower of Christ and someone who’s very familiar with evil that’s been both forced upon me as a kid and then seeing the effects of it in humans’ lives, I believe the word of God that I can pray for people and see people set free from—whether it’s demonic oppression, I never call it possession. I believe there’s levels of demonization where people are suffering because of evil.

CLARK: But could you explain to folks who have never witnessed this, don’t understand how it works. I’ve heard you describe it a number of times. You’ve got the two angels with the swords. You’ve got the circle of judgment. And you command the demons out of someone. Can you explain to folks how that works so they can hear you describe it?

MARX: Well, I don’t command the demons to come out of someone. I think of them as assignments, or attachments, to people. And we identify the demon, like Jesus did, we ask what their name is, and then we give them commands, and they very frequently and typically will answer through the person’s mind. They’ll tell us what they hear, and then we destroy them, banish them, to perfect judgment from Christ.

CLARK: You also perform these exorcisms by phone. Are those just as effective?

MARX: They are.

I love the genre of questions where Christians running for office are asked to explain their most basic beliefs. They always come off looking like delusional fools—two angels with the swords! The circle of judgment!—and even though Marx sidesteps the question at first, his eventual answer doesn’t make him sound any more rational. The fact that all of this can be done over the phone is comically hilarious and shows just how much of a scam the whole idea is.

Clark wasn’t asking those questions, though, to mock Christianity. He was asking because Marx sold exorcisms as part of a larger $99 “spiritual warfare” guide (no longer available on his website) and in a film called “The Unseen War” (still available). But he insisted he doesn’t charge for the service. But it’s certainly part of a larger package of religious bullshit that he definitely does sell to those who can afford it.

Clark’s final question, after all this: “Do you understand why so many of your critics think you’re a con man?”

Marx’s response: “No.”

It’s just an incredible interview because it shows what happens when a religious zealot with a history of selling exaggerations to build himself up attempts to break free of the Christian bubble by seeking higher office, only to be confronted with basic questions that Christians themselves rarely, if ever, dare to ask people in a position of spiritual authority.

Whether it’ll make any different in the GOP primary election on June 30 is up for debate. Though the lies and evasion seen in this interview aren’t limited to questions about his biography. There have been plenty of serious questions raised about campaign finance and his team’s inability to file a report that makes any sense.

The contribution side contained so many errors that the campaign requested to “un-file” and replace the filing altogether. The secretary of state permitted it — despite calling the request “not a common practice.”

The refiled version corrected hundreds of address errors while materially altering contribution totals by adding nearly $3,000 in previously unreported contributions.

But more than $35,000 in excess contributions from 56 different donors apparently still haven’t been returned — despite the campaign’s assurances they’d comply with state law — including one donor who totaled $5,000 across five donations, more than three times Colorado’s $1,450 donation limit.

There’s a very good chance Marx could be the next Republican nominee for governor, but everything that’s come out about him shows you exactly why he has no business running a ministry, much less running a state. He lives in a bubble where money can always be raised by lying or exaggerating about your life. More than that, his responses suggest he’s not used to having to defend his own biography.

If he can’t be trusted to own up to things he currently believes, how the hell can he be trusted to look after people he actively thinks are evil? After all, plenty of Christians think LGBTQ people are possessed by demons or that opposition to Christian Nationalism is a form of spiritual warfare that must be defeated.

There was one interesting postscript to all this from commentator Ross Kaminsky:

Although I did not see it myself and can’t find it now, I’m told that the first social media post from the Marx team about the interview was that it was tough but fair. It seems that the negative reaction to Marx (in the comments to the post) was more than they could handle, though, and the post was deleted and replaced with one that claimed “selective editing.” It is true that the full 29-minute interview was edited down to something like 7 or 8 minutes for the air but I think if you watch the entire thing (at the top of this note), you won’t find any part of it in which Marx comes across as being truthful. Seriously, none of it. A body language expert would have a field day.

If Marx ends up being the nominee, it could be the greatest gift Democrats could have asked for. A Republican gubernatorial candidate debate is scheduled for June 2, hosted by 9NEWS. There seems to be speculation that Marx will skip it, but he hasn’t confirmed that.

Trinity Macarthur

TRINITY MACARTHUR is currently a legal intern with FFRF for the summer of 2026. She is from Colorado and received a BA in history and political science from CU Boulder. She is currently attending Penn State Dickinson Law, University Park and will serve as the Executive Research Editor for the Penn State Dickinson Law Review next year. Trinity enjoys reading, going to see orchestras play, and nice, cool weather.

The post Trinity Macarthur appeared first on Freedom From Religion Foundation.

Red Pen Logic Called This Atheist Argument Incoherent… He Was Wrong

Lisa Treu

LISA TREU is the Director of First Impressions at FFRF.  She comes to us after working in broadcasting for iHeart Radio in Madison, Wisconsin.  She hosted various radio programs for fifteen years.  Lisa and her husband ran their own Birdhouse/Birdfeeder manufacturing company called Northwoods Mfg., Inc. during the 1990’s where she had her own line of decorative birdhouses that she designed and painted herself.  Lisa is the wife of Harry and is the mother of twin daughters Katrina and Karinthia.  In her spare time she enjoys reading, painting, gardening, feeding the birds, getting silly with her daughters and lounging with her two cats.

Photo by Chris Line. 

The post Lisa Treu appeared first on Freedom From Religion Foundation.

Tira Alvarez

TIRA ALVAREZ is a legal intern at FFRF. She grew up in New Jersey and got her B.A. in political science and legal studies at the University of Wisconsin Madison in 2024. After taking a year off, Tira returned to Madison to begin law school at the University of Wisconsin. Since starting law school, she has joined Moot Court, the Neighborhood Law Clinic, and serves as Co-President for the First Generation Lawyers student organization.

The post Tira Alvarez appeared first on Freedom From Religion Foundation.

Paul Wuller

PAUL WULLER is a junior Pre-law Scholar at SMU in Dallas studying Political Science with minors in Philosophy and Law and Legal Reasoning. He discovered debate in middle school and moot court in high school, which sparked his interest in argumentation and constitutional law. Attending a Catholic college for a year before transferring led him to realize that, within constitutional law, he is most passionate about maintaining the separation of state and church and preventing indoctrination.

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Freethought Radio – May 28, 2026

What to do about religion at graduation ceremonies? FFRF State Policy Manager Ryan Dudley gives a roundup of state legislative actions this past spring. Then, Harvard student Ash Bu talks about her op-ed in The Crimson newspaper asking, “Where Are All the Atheists Hiding?”

The post Freethought Radio – May 28, 2026 appeared first on Freedom From Religion Foundation.

FFRF examining reports of House speaker’s midterm coordination with churches

The Freedom From Religion Foundation is scrutinizing disturbing reports of House Speaker Mike Johnson’s coordinated political activity with pastors ahead of the midterm elections.

As first reported by Right Wing Watch, Christian nationalist evangelist David Herzog revealed during a recent appearance on the “Elijah Streams” program that pastors attending the Trump administration’s “National Jubilee of Prayer, Praise & Thanksgiving” event on the National Mall were invited to a private briefing with Johnson and MAGA pastor Lorenzo Sewell. According to Herzog, Johnson urged the pastors to politically mobilize their congregations in support of the administration’s agenda and Republican midterm election efforts, stressing that churches and religious leaders were essential to advancing the movement’s goals.

Herzog described Johnson as telling pastors that churches and religious leaders would make the “difference” in determining whether the country “is going to go one way or the other” and emphasized the need for churches to “spread” the Trump administration’s message and mobilize the vote to preserve President Trump’s political power.

If his claims are accurate, this raises profound constitutional and legal concerns.

“The federal government may not use official events, public resources or political access to organize churches as partisan campaign machines,” says FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor. “Herzog describes the man who is third in line to be president as essentially promising select Christian churches the fulfillment of their Christian nationalist dreams if they can deliver in the midterms.”

Also alarming are Herzog’s claims that administration officials promised pastors access to “billions of dollars” in government funding for church-run programs. Those remarks come amid a broader push by the Trump administration to steer taxpayer-funded social services through religious organizations, including recent efforts by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to recruit faith-based groups for federally funded addiction and behavioral health programs.

“Directing taxpayer money to politically aligned churches while encouraging them to function as electoral organizing hubs represents a dangerous fusion of church and state,” says FFRF Legal Director Patrick Elliott. “Americans should be deeply troubled by any effort to transform houses of worship into government-favored political actors.”

Herzog additionally framed the effort as part of a broader campaign to preserve Christian nationalist political control, warning pastors about Democrats taking power and invoking inflammatory rhetoric about Muslims and “Sharia law.” He described the administration as handing churches “the baton” to advance Trump’s agenda.

FFRF is currently evaluating the potential legal and constitutional implications of the reported activities, including possible violations involving partisan political coordination, misuse of government resources, preferential treatment of religious organizations and threats to church-state separation.

The federal government serves and should represent all Americans, not just conservative Christians. Using religion as a political weapon undermines both democracy and religious liberty.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation is a U.S.-based nonprofit dedicated to defending the constitutional principle of separation between state and church and educating the public on matters relating to nontheism. With more than 41,000 members, FFRF is the largest association of freethinkers (atheists, agnostics and humanists) in North America. For more information, visit ffrf.org.

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