For the Colorado Democratic Party, All Politics Is Local

Colorado Democrats hold the strongest political majority the state has seen in over 85 years. Going into 2024, they don't plan on loosening that grip.

During his first full year as chair of the state's Democratic Party, Shad Murib says he will focus on the "next frontier of Colorado politics": local offices. While Democrats hold all statewide executive offices, a majority of seats in the Colorado Legislature and seven out of ten spots in the state's congressional delegation, many local offices — such as mayor, city council, school board and county commissioner — are controlled by Republicans, particularly in rural areas.

While ten of the eleven lawmakers who represent Aurora in the legislature are Democrats, for example, the city has a Republican mayor and a Republican-led city council. Those are the kinds of local positions Murib wants Democratic candidates to focus on in 2024, especially on the Western Slope and the Eastern Plains.

"When we compete, we win," Murib says. "The right posture is always to be on the offense, whether you're in the majority or not."

Murib was elected to lead the Colorado Democratic Party in April, a year after Dave Williams took over Colorado's Republican Party.  A longtime political operative and first-generation American whose parents are from Lebanon, Murib worked under many prominent state Democrats before becoming head of the party, including U.S. Senator John Hickenlooper, Governor Jared Polis and Secretary of State Jena Griswold. He also served as chief of staff for the Colorado Senate Democrats and is married to former state senator Kerry Donovan, with whom he runs a ranch in Edwards.

He won the chair seat over two opponents, receiving 52 percent of the vote after two rounds of voting by more than 500 party members. Second place was education training consultant Tim Kubik, followed by then-party vice chair Howard Chou.

Murib took the reins months after Democrats dominated the 2022 election, maintaining control of the governor, secretary of state, treasurer and attorney general offices, as well as increasing the legislature's Democratic majority to levels not seen since 1938. But even at such historic heights, Murib says the party can climb higher: "If I flip a bunch of county commissioner seats, that scales up to Democratic victories across the state."

Murib is now working to recruit Democratic candidates for local races in 2024. He already saw some of the fruits of this labor last November, when Democratic candidates were elected to the city councils of Brush, Loveland and Thornton, and to school boards in Alamosa, Douglas County and Loveland.

"We won a huge amount of races that we had no business winning," Murib says. "These old Republican strongholds are continuing to fall. ... We're continuing to make sure that the MAGA far right loses any sort of grip that they have in Colorado."

Before election season begins in earnest, Murib has additional goals for the 2024 legislative session.

He's backing legislation to improve child-care affordability, incentivize property owners to rent to long-term tenants and implement recommendations from the Colorado River Drought Task Force. While the legislature's Democratic supermajority all but guarantees the party's policy agenda, the expanded caucus has suffered from infighting as members fracture along ideological lines.

Tensions between progressive newbies and moderate leadership have culminated in blowout fights, public reprimands, the resignation of seven Democratic legislators in 2023 and an unusually high number of Democratic primary challengers signed up for 2024. Murib, who has called himself a progressive, says he hopes to shift the tone of the party to one of inclusivity instead of vitriol.

"I reject the notion that there's any such thing as a bad Democrat," Murib says. "Whether you're a progressive or moderate, my job is to make sure you feel like you have a home in the party."

He credits state Democrats' acceptance of a wide range of beliefs for the party's success, criticizing the Republican Party for what he calls strict ideological "litmus tests."

But for all its success in elections, the number of active voters registered with the Democratic Party in Colorado fell from over 1,053,000 at the start of 2023 to 1,020,000 now (the Republican Party experienced a similar drop). While the state's increasing number of unaffiliated voters can be partially attributed to the automatic voter registration system, 30,000 voters jumping ship from each major political party could be indicative of a widening gap between partisan politicians and their constituents.

Nevertheless, Democrats are starting the new year in a strong place. Murib says fundraising is "off the charts," especially since all three of Colorado's Republican-held seats in Congress will be without incumbents in the November 2024 election. Both Ken Buck and Doug Lamborn decided not to seek reelection, and U.S. Representative Lauren Boebert opted to switch districts — a move that Murib credited to the Democratic Party's effort to unseat her.

"We're chasing them out," he says.