December 09, 2022 10:41 AM UTC

Morgan Carroll Ends Term In Blaze Of Electoral Glory

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• by: Colorado Pols

As the Colorado Sun’s Jesse Paul reports, after six years at the helm of the Colorado Democratic Party, former State Senate President Morgan Carroll is passing the proverbial baton to a successor to be elected in the spring who will inherit a big responsibility: protecting historic Democratic majorities in Colorado that Carroll presided over the making of.

Morgan Carroll, who has served as chairwoman of the Colorado Democratic Party since 2017 and presided over her party as it secured more sustained power in the state than ever before, will not run for a fourth two-year term in the leadership position…

“I don’t know what I’m doing next, but I feel proud enough of where I have left the state party that I feel like I can hand this off to somebody else,” she said. “I have loved this so much, and the results make a difference and that is incredible.”

Carroll is stepping down with Democrats in solid control of state government, including every major statewide office, until 2027.

Leaving Democrats with the most lopsided control of Colorado since Franklin Delano Roosevelt was President is a personal and vocational triumph for former Senate President Carroll, who lost a punishing race against then-Rep. Mike Coffman in 2016–which would become Coffman’s penultimate race for Congress–and then rebounded to win the race for Democratic Party chair in 2017. What followed was three subsequent landslide elections for Colorado Democrats, while Republicans burned through failed leadership in each of those two-year cycles. Although Carroll’s Republican counterparts received much more media coverage from failed recall campaigns and gas station press conferences, Morgan Carroll’s Democratic Party delivered something more important: a functioning infrastructure that helped candidates win.

The first announced candidate to succeed Carroll as chair of the Colorado Democrats is the very capable Shad Murib, longtime top staffer for Democrats like Gov. Jared Polis and Sen. John Hickenlooper and the spouse of former Sen. Kerry Donovan. There are other candidates likely to announce in the coming days, and the winner will face first and foremost the substantial challenge of defending the sweeping gains made by Democrats under Carroll’s leadership. With only the presidential statewide race to contend with in 2024, the job is to hold the ambitious state House and Senate majorities won in 2022, solidify control of swing CD-8, and knock Lauren Boebert out in CD-3 now that her vulnerability has been exposed.

For today, Morgan Carroll is leaving Colorado Democrats at an unprecedented pinnacle of power.

That legacy is secure.