Reflections on Assembly
By: Chad and Derek
The Colorado Democratic Party caucus and assembly process just wrapped, culminating in the state assembly on Saturday, March 28th in Pueblo. Thank you to the hundred-plus comrades who participated. Your presence made a palpable difference.
We learned in Pueblo that Democrats are hungry for material change. Some of the loudest cheers from delegates came when candidates named wealth discrepancies and the purchase that the billionaire class has on Colorado politics. Concrete demands landed with far more force than the vague platitudes so common in stump speeches.
That energy translated into results. DDSA-endorsed Melat Kiros beat Diana DeGette 158-77, nearly locking the fifteen-term incumbent out of the primary ballot entirely. Julie Gonzales won roughly 75% of delegates, not only securing ballot access but preventing Karen Breslin from clearing the 30% threshold. David Seligman closed the gap to within a percentage point of Jena Griswold for Attorney General. Amanda Gonzalez beat out Jessie Danielson for Secretary of State by a nearly two-to-one margin.
It is notable that establishment figures of the Colorado Democratic Party, Senators Bennet and Hickenlooper, were absent from the assembly. They chose to bypass the democratic process rather than face a base that has moved well past them. That choice concedes that the progressive and socialist base now sets the terms of engagement, and it may cost them more in credibility than an expensive signature-gathering campaign ever could.
The platform told the same story. DSA members had fought to defend progressive language against establishment attempts to water it down in the lead-up to the assembly. When that language came before delegates on Saturday, they reinstated it by an overwhelming margin. The platform now includes opposition to the genocide of Palestinians, support for their right to statehood, a call to cut off aid to Israel, and support for 340B drug pricing. The Abolish ICE minority report won 92.4% support. While the platform is both imperfect and non-binding, it represents a clear demand by Democrats to move away from establishment politics, and a real opportunity for DDSA to capitalize on.
Despite these wins, there were hard lessons. In the state treasurer race, two progressive candidates, Brianna Titone and John Mikos, both ran on a public bank of Colorado as part of their platform. They split the vote, each missing the 30% threshold. This allowed Opportunity Caucus-adjacent Jeff Bridges to easily make the ballot and run unopposed in the primary. Mobilizing just fourteen more delegates could have swung that race. When aligned campaigns falter like this, we should study them as organizing blueprints and as the clearest argument yet for Ranked Choice Voting in the caucus and assembly process.
Electoralism is simultaneously a point-in-time checkpoint where we get to see what people are responding to and an opportunity to build a movement that extends beyond any one campaign. This cycle's wins show that progressives are ascending, and we socialists are the clarion call for that work. We should not turn away from the hard work of electoral campaigns and the piecemeal gains that come with it. Nor should we let our vision of a mass movement prepared for a true rupture atrophy. Instead, we double down and use these results to organize harder between elections so that our skills and influence grow while others wait for the next cult of personality to seize them.
This is not the end but the beginning. Now that ballot access has been secured for Melat, the work is just starting. Will you join us in ensuring she wins the June 30th primary and is the Democratic nominee for CO-1? Will you help us build lasting power across the metro area to advance socialist values? There are many ways to get plugged in: join our electoral meetings or the electoral Slack channel to learn more.
