Top Colorado Democrats tout Harris’ accomplishments in virtual campaign call

Vice President Kamala Harris speaks to a crowd of supporters at a campaign event on March 12, 2024 at ReelWorks Denver. (Lindsey Toomer/Colorado Newsline)

Colorado Democrats gathered for a virtual call Monday night supporting Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign for president.

The “Harris for Colorado” call featured Democratic officials including Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper, U.S. Reps. Joe Neguse and Jason Crow, former U.S. Rep. Ed Perlmutter and state Rep. Leslie Herod, who all contrasted Harris’ vision for the country with Project 2025 , a Heritage Foundation plan for a second Trump administration.

“You have the prosecutor versus the felon. You have the uniter versus the divider. You have the person who will move us forward versus the person who wants to take us back,” Crow said. “But we are not going back. We won’t go back.”

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Trump is the Republican nominee for president.

Attendees on the call touted Biden-Harris administration policies that have directly supported Colorado, including the Inflation Reduction Act and the CHIPS and Science Act , as well as Harris’ commitment to protecting reproductive health care, workers’ unions and the environment. Serena Woods, senior adviser to the Harris campaign in Colorado, said more than 550 people joined the call.

Polis said Harris is “the person most prepared for the job” and that Trump’s vision for the country would “take us backwards to the days of chaos” and increase costs for Coloradans. He said the decision voters will make in November is an “existential question” about “what type of country and world do we want to live in.”

“Kamala Harris really strongly believes in protecting our freedom,” Polis said. “She believes in the freedom to live in a world that’s safe, one in which women make their own reproductive health choices, a future where we build up the middle class, where we open the doors of opportunity to every Coloradan family, every American family.”

Over 270 Harris campaign offices have been set up across the country staffed by 1,200 employees and team members focused on helping Harris make history as the 47th president and the first woman to hold the nation’s highest office. She would also be the first Black woman and the first person of South Asian descent to be president. The call was part of a series of Harris campaign activities in various states.

Neguse said Harris’ vision focuses on putting people over politics, a “stark contrast” to the “dangerous and extreme views and plans” Trump has for the country.

“She has the courage, the strength, and ultimately the vision to be an incredible president, and of course has more experience than Donald Trump and J.D. Vance combined,” Neguse said. Vance, an Ohio senator, is Trump’s nominee for vice president.

Shad Murib, chair of the Colorado Democratic Party, touted Harris’ previous experience as a district attorney and attorney general in California, as well as a U.S. senator and vice president.

“The president and people in Colorado know that Vice President Harris is uniquely qualified to keep moving our country forward and make life better for working people,” Murib said. “Vice President Harris believes in a future where every person in America has the opportunity not just to get by, but to get ahead.”

Crow credited Biden for deciding to step down, a move he said will cement Biden as one of the most “consequential and important leaders” in U.S. history.

“It just doesn’t happen in politics for people — out of deep love for country, out of understanding the right path forward — (to) make a selfless decision to step aside and to help lead and usher in the next generation of leadership,” Crow said.

State Rep. Leslie Herod, a Denver Democrat, said she’s heard from people feeling “hopeful again” with Harris becoming the presumptive nominee. She co-chaired the Harris campaign in Colorado in 2020 and said she spoke to Harris during her visit to Denver in March .

“She told me, ‘As women, when you break glass ceilings, you get cut. Do it anyways. It’s worth it,’” Herod said. “This is not gonna be an easy election. There will be glass flying, because we are gonna shatter that glass ceiling, but we need each and every one of us to be involved… She is not gonna win this thing alone. She is gonna win it with every single one of us behind her.”

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