Colorado Democrats tap Morgan Carroll for 3rd term as party chair, warn against complacency (PHOTOS)
Colorado Democrats picked Morgan Carroll to chair the state party for a 3rd two-year term Saturday at a virtual meeting of the party's state central committee.
The former state Senate president and attorney from Aurora was unopposed and won reelection by acclamation.
"Our Democratic victories across Colorado didn’t happen accidentally or overnight," Carroll said, noting that Republicans recently held virtually all of the levers of power in Colorado.
"It took years of diligence and organizing to get the groundwork of registering voters and, together, working with grassroots activists and community leaders in every county and every one four corners of Colorado, we worked to elect honorable and qualified leaders to each office possible who put within the work to create a far better future for all Coloradans."
Over three hours and dozens of speakers, the party's online meeting veered from the celebration of the Democrats' historic domination in Colorado over the last two cycles — handing the party more power within the state than it's held since the 1930s — and optimism that the top of the year-old COVID-19 pandemic might be in view, to warnings that the fight is way from over against adversaries a number of the officials characterized as authoritarian.
Carroll opened the meeting with a flash of silence for the victims of hate crimes perpetrated against members of the Asian American community, a cause thrust into the headlines in the week by the deadly shooting rampage in metro Atlanta that left six Asian women dead among eight alleged victims of a white gunman.
U.S. Rep. Grace Meng, a Democrat from Queens, N.Y., thanked the Democrats for his or her solidarity and urged participation next Friday during a national day of action to support the Asian community and speak out against racism.
"We are ready to undergo some really tough times but even have been ready to have some really tough conversations," Meng said, referencing the Black Lives Matter protests and a plague of racist violence aimed toward Asian American communities.
"I just actually need to stress at this point how empowered and the way special the Asian American community feels to possess people that don't appear as if we speak up and speak out against this racism. It means the planet to us, we are stereotypically a community that doesn't speak up often. We are taught to not rock the boat and just to blend in. we've been taught that our whole life if we blend in enough, we'll be seen as American enough."
Meng said she was struck within the week that 164 Republican House members — including the three GOP members of Colorado's delegation — voted against a non-binding resolution she'd introduced that denounced anti-Asian sentiment in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak.
"I don't hold grudges, but I even have an extended memory," said Meng, who reintroduced similar legislation last month.
"We are getting to confirm through 2022 that I share my memories with others."
U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet, who is up for an additional term next year, painted an image of the Democrats' precarious control of the 50-50 Senate, where internet loss of one Senate seat would be enough handy the gavel back to the Republicans.
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"The excellent news is that after years of playing defense against Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell, the past few months are an incredibly productive time," he said. "Under Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, we've already made tremendous progress for the American people especially those that need it most."
Bennet cheered passage of an idea he's been pushing for years that's expected to chop the speed of poverty among children in half, an expanded child decrease included within the $1.9 trillion pandemic relief bill signed by Biden earlier this month.
"It's the most important reduction in childhood poverty in American history and therefore the most progressive piece of legislation that Washington has passed in decades," Bennet said. "That is what we get when Democrats are responsible. that's a replacement, an answer, to the Bush tax cuts and therefore the Trump tax cuts. We are fighting for working people, we are fighting for poor people, and that is what Democrats should do."
He said he's working with fellow lawmakers to form the decrease permanently and added that Democrats are on target to deliver steps toward universal health care, action on global climate change, immigration reform, and criminal justice reform.
"Our Democracy suffered an experience over the last four years," added Bennet.
"As Roosevelt did in 1934, when he was pursuing the New Deal, we have a historic and important responsibility to win these midterm elections and overcome the authoritarianism in our voting system. Colorado is vital. it's essential."
After her re-election was official, Carroll described the electoral landscape in similar terms.
"I really think we did nothing in need of saving our democracy during this last election," she said. "We aren't out of the woods yet."
The results of the remaining 10 state party officer positions are going to be announced Monday following the conclusion of a vote by the central committee, though they mostly lacked any suspense since all the race for secretary was uncontested. Incumbents are running for re-election for many of the opposite positions, apart from two newly created offices that every feature one candidate.
Heading back for an additional term are 1st Vice-Chair Howard Chou, 2nd Vice-Chair Sandy Baca-Sandoval, Treasurer Rosanna Reyes, vice-chairs for outreach Jeremy VanHooser and Xochitl Gaytan, vice chair for rural outreach Sheila Canfield Jones, and vice-chair for communications Patricia Barela Rivera. the 2 incoming officers are Josh Trupin, running for the newly established assistant secretary position, and Lisa Neal Graves, running for a further vice-chair for outreach post. Incumbent Bob Seay and challenger Scott Sloan are running for secretary.
The Colorado Republicans' state central committee meets on March 27 to conduct officer elections.
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