A campaign poster circulating among Colorado Republicans depicts Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser, who is Jewish and whose family members are Holocaust survivors, with devil horns, which critics say invokes a classic antisemitic trope.

Weiser is the Democratic nominee for governor of Colorado.

The poster promotes, but was not created by, Victor Marx, the GOP gubernatorial nominee, who has a bizarre and extremist history, including claiming to have killed and exorcised several people. It describes Weiser, depicted in front of a menacing background, as “the next threat to Colorado” and “radical,” “extreme” and “dangerous.” 

Montrose County Commissioner Sean Pond, who created the image, told KUSA-TV’s Kyle Clark, who first reported on it, that he did not know Weiser is Jewish, that the poster did not have any religious message and “Weiser does not receive immunity from political satire because of a personal fact I did not even know.”

In promoting Marx, one version of the poster makes multiple references to Marx’s “faith,” including depicting him alongside an icon of a cross. Marx is the founder of a Christian humanitarian organization.

Marx responded supportively to an X post by Pond calling for unity among Colorado Republicans, which included a version of the devil horns image.

“We get one shot[,] one. If Republicans spend the next few months attacking each other instead of presenting a united front against Phil Weiser, we’ll have no one to blame but ourselves if we lose,” Marx said in his comment. “We don’t have to agree on every issue or every decision, but we do have to remember what’s at stake. Colorado can’t afford more division. It’s time to unite, stay focused, and win.”

Many Republicans in the state have kept Marx at arm’s length since his primary win, owing to his strange and controversial history, declining to endorse his campaign. During the GOP primary, his Republican rivals said they would not support him if he became the nominee.

“Depicting Jews with horns is a centuries-old antisemitic trope. Victor Marx and Colorado Republicans should reject and condemn this graphic and call it what it is — antisemitism,” Weiser said in a statement to Jewish Insider. “These images have no place in our state. Hate against any group must be treated as hate against all of us. Coloradans deserve a governor who will always fight back against bigotry and for the rights and freedoms of all.”

Marx’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment.

The Colorado Democratic Party called the poster “antisemitic and disgusting” and demanded that Marx and other Republicans condemn it.

Melat Kiros, a far-left Democratic congressional nominee in the state who herself has faced criticism for refusing to describe the firebombing of an Israeli hostage awareness march in Boulder, Colo., in which a Holocaust survivor died, also condemned the post.

“This is a shameful characterization that perpetuates antisemitic conspiracy theories and there is no room for this bigotry in our politics,” Kiros said.