Marine veteran Victor Marx defeated Colorado state Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer and state Rep. Scott Bottoms in the state’s Republican gubernatorial primary.Marx edged out Kirkmeyer, who was the close runner-up in the June 30 contest, which The Associated Press finally called on Thursday. Bottoms came in a distant third place.”THANK YOU, COLORADO. Because of you, your time, your door knocking, your phone calls, and your belief in something bigger than politics, we just won the Republican nomination for Governor,” he declared in a part of a Thursday post on X.HUMANITARIAN HELPING TRAUMATIZED CHILDREN WAS WARNED TOO DANGEROUS TO VISIT GAZA: ‘ABSOLUTELY BACKWARDS’Marx indicates on his campaign site that “as the founder of All Things Possible Ministries, I’ve led more than 150 high-stakes missions across some of the world’s most dangerous regions — delivering trauma relief, medical aid, and hope to victims of terrorism, trafficking, and violence.”Marx alleged in his memoir that when he was 7 years old, his stepfather placed his hand around his own and made him shoot and kill someone, The Denver Post reported.”While we came up short in what appears to be the closest Republican gubernatorial primary in Colorado history, I’m grateful for every voter who placed their trust in us,” Kirkmeyer said in part of a statement on Thursday. “I’m still proud of the campaign we ran… and, for the record, I still haven’t killed anyone.”DEM COLORADO GUBERNATORIAL NOMINEE BALKS AT SOCIALIST MELAT KIROS’ RESPONSE TO BOMBING OF PRO-ISRAEL RALLYColorado Attorney General Phil Weiser is the Democratic gubernatorial candidate.”From the little we know about Victor Marx, his views and style are far out of step with Coloradans, and his nomination for governor is a threat to our state’s values and our future,” Weiser said in part of a Thursday statement.ANTI-TRUMP SENATOR DEFEATED BY FAR-LEFT RIVAL AFTER HEATED GUBERNATORIAL PRIMARYThe state has not elected a Republican in a gubernatorial race since 2002.