In 1976, Callaway and his family moved to Colorado, where he acquired the Crested Butte Mountain Resort. In 1980, he was an unsuccessful candidate for the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate in Colorado, having been defeated by an intraparty moderate challenger, Secretary of State Mary Estill Buchanan. Buchanan then narrowly lost to the incumbent Democrat Gary Hart despite the victory in Colorado of the Reagan/Bush ticket. From 1981 to 1987, Callaway served as the chairman of the Colorado Republican Party and as head of the political action committee GOPAC.