February 28, 2026 10:44 AM UTC

House Majority Leader Monica Duran Responds To CO-08 Piñata Controversy

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• by: Colorado Pols

EDITOR’S NOTE: This morning, House Majority Leader Monica Duran released the following statement addressing an ongoing controversy we’ve discussed in this space, first reported by John Frank at Axios, after a piñata with the face of Democratic CO-08 candidate Shannon Bird was displayed on stage at a candidate forum featuring Bird’s opponents. We’re reprinting her response in its entirety:

As the first Latina to represent House District 23, and as the Colorado House Majority Leader, I carry both history and responsibility on my shoulders.

In a recent article published by Colorado Pols titled “What in the hell are these people doing,” a piñata was used to depict a candidate in a negative and political way.

Let me be clear. Our children and our state deserve better than this.

They deserve politics that model respect. They deserve leaders who can disagree without demeaning culture. They deserve a public square where debate is rooted in ideas, not imagery that trivializes identity.

As Majority Leader, I manage some of the toughest debates in this state. I understand passion and I understand sharp political differences. Democracy is not always polite but it must always be principled.

A piñata is not a punchline. For our community, it represents childhood joy, family gatherings, quinceañeras, baptisms, and birthdays. It represents unity. It represents something breaking open not to harm, but to share sweetness with everyone standing around it.

To take that symbol and turn it into political theater strips it of its meaning. It reduces culture to caricature, and is not leadership.

What is equally troubling is that neither candidate stepped forward to call for its removal. As of today, neither the candidates nor the organizations involved have issued a public apology to the candidate.

Leadership is not only about what we say when it benefits us. It is about what we correct when something misses the mark. Silence in moments like this speaks loudly.

In today’s climate, this matters even more. Across this country, with leadership in Washington D.C., Latino communities continue to feel targeted, detained, vilified, and treated as less than human in national rhetoric and policy debates. Families live with fear. Workers feel scapegoated. Children hear language that questions their belonging.

In a moment when our community is already navigating hostility at the federal level, why would the very advocates we count on to protect vulnerable communities choose to use cultural imagery in a way that diminishes us?

Why would we mirror tactics that reduce identity to spectacle?

The Latino community did not arrive in positions of leadership by accident. We fought segregation. We fought exploitative labor conditions. We fought discrimination in housing and education. Our parents and grandparents organized, marched, registered voters, and demanded representation.

My own family worked the fields. They endured hardship so their children could walk into rooms they were once locked out of. Today, we sit at the decision making table and we did not get here by tearing people down. We got here by building coalitions, passing meaningful policy, and holding ourselves to a higher standard.

I will not stay silent when our culture is reduced to a prop. Not because I am thin skinned but because leadership requires clarity. It requires courage. It requires us to say when something undermines the very values we claim to defend.

We can debate fiercely. I do it every day on the House floor. We can draw sharp contrasts. That is democracy but we must not trivialize culture in the process.

This is about tone. This is about accountability. This is about whether we elevate our politics or erode them because our children are watching and they deserve leaders who show that strength and dignity are not opposites. They are partners.

Our culture is not a prop. It is our history. It is our resilience and it deserves respect.

Sincerely,

Majority Leader Monica Duran
Candidate for State Senate District 22