This Labor Day Weekend: Thank A Union and Help Those In Need

Workers rights, fair pay, good benefits, and safe working conditions are all things that come standard in today's workplace. But these necessities would not have been possible without unions. Unions built the middle class, and this and every Labor Day, we stand in solidarity with Colorado's union workers.

This Labor Day weekend, be sure to thank a union, and shop for union-made products for your barbeque by checking out the brands in the graphic at the top!

Because of the Trump Administration's cruel policies on immigration, there are still a number of children who have yet to be reunited with their families after they were separated at the border by Border Patrol agents. Many of these children and also adult immigrants are being held in inhumane conditions in Border Patrol facilities. Want to give to help them and fight back against the Trump Administration?

The website ActBlue has set up donation portals to help kids at the border and families separated and detained. If you donate, your contribution will be split between roughly a dozen organizations all at once, which are identified at those links. 

Additionally, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is focused on defending the rights of immigrant families. The ACLU, along with organizations like United We Dream, Mijente and Immigrant Justice Corps, is helping to coordinate advocacy and immigration services.

Click here to find out about more organizations that you can donate to!

The latest forecast for Hurricane Dorian shows the storm strengthening to a Category 4 ahead of making landfall in Florida. The National Hurricane Center said the Category 1 storm is expected to strengthen into a potentially catastrophic Cat 4 with winds of 130 mph and slam into the U.S. on Monday somewhere between the Florida Keys and southern Georgia - a 500-mile stretch that reflected the high degree of uncertainty this far out.

The American Red Cross, OneBlood, and SunCoast Blood Bank are all asking people to give blood donations in anticipation of how bad this storm will be, so if you can donate, please consider doing so!

Candidates Currently Filed in the 2020 Presidential and Colorado Senate Primaries

There have been a number of candidates who have filed to run for the Democratic nomination in the Presidential campaign and the U.S. Senate campaign here in Colorado! We wanted to give you a recap of who either has an exploratory committee or who is running as of today -- other candidates may file in the future and we'll update accordingly. The Colorado Democratic Party is strictly neutral in primaries and won't be endorsing any of these candidates while they are running in the Democratic primary. We have a number of talented candidates to choose from, and we believe any of them could defeat Donald Trump and Cory Gardner.

Filed Democratic Presidential Candidates

(read from left, listed by alphabetical order) Senator Michael Bennet (CO), former Vice President Joe Biden, Senator Cory Booker (NJ), former Governor Steve Bullock (MT), Mayor Pete Buttigieg (South Bend, IN), former HUD Secretary Julián Castro, Mayor Bill de Blasio (New York City, NY), former Congressman John Delaney (MD), Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard (HI), Senator Kamala Harris (CA), Senator Amy Klobuchar (MN), Mayor Wayne Messam (Miramar, FL), former Congressman Beto O'Rourke (TX), Congressman Tim Ryan (OH), Senator Bernie Sanders (VT), former Congressman Joe Sestak (PA), Tom Steyer, Senator Elizabeth Warren (MA), Marianne Williamson, Andrew Yang.

Next Presidential Debate: Thursday, September 12

Be sure to tune in to watch the third round of the Democratic Presidential debates in two weeks! The debate format will be one minute and 15 seconds for direct responses to questions and 45 seconds for responses and rebuttals. Candidates will have the opportunity to deliver opening statements, but there will be no closing statements. ABC News Chief Anchor George Stephanopoulos, ABC News "World News Tonight" Anchor and Managing Editor David Muir, ABC News Correspondent Linsey Davis and Univision Anchor Jorge Ramos will moderate.

The line-up will be, from left to right:

• Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar
• New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker
• South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg
• Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders
• Former Vice President Joe Biden
• Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren
• California Sen. Kamala Harris
• Entrepreneur Andrew Yang
• Former Texas Rep. Beto O'Rourke
• Former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julián Castro

The debate will be held at Texas Southern University, a public, historically black university, and will air from 6 to 9 p.m. MST across ABC, Univision with a Spanish translation, locally on KTRK-TV and on ABC News Live. The streaming channel is available on the ABCNews, Good Morning America and FiveThirtyEight websites and mobile phone apps, as well as Hulu Live, The Roku Channel, Facebook Watch, AppleTV, Amazon Fire TV, YouTube, Apple News, and Twitter.

Click here for more information!

Filed Democratic Candidates for U.S. Senate

 

 

(read from left, listed by alphabetical order) former Ambassador Dan Baer, Diana Bray, Lorena Garcia, former Governor John Hickenlooper, former state Senator Mike Johnston, former House Majority Leader Alice Madden, former state House Speaker Andrew Romanoff, Dr. Stephany Rose Spaulding, former US Attorney John Walsh, Michelle Ferrigno Warren, state Senator Angela Williams, Trish Zornio.

A Statement from CDP Chair Morgan Carroll on the Primary:

"The Colorado Democratic Party has a strict policy of neutrality in primaries and we will not change that policy. There's a lot of grassroots energy to defeat Cory Gardner, which is why so many excellent candidates have stepped up to run. At the end of the day, the people of Colorado will be the ones to decide who will run against the most vulnerable Republican Senator in the country, and it will be the people of Colorado who lead us to another blue wave in 2020."

Cardboard Cory Hits the Road!

If you're U.S. Senator Cory Gardner and you're up for re-election next year, it's never a good sign if your cardboard-counterpart got more ink than you and is seemingly more popular than you. Yet, that's exactly what happened. After wrapping up a week-long journey across our wonderful state, Cardboard Cory found that it had generated an astonishing amount of media coverage, all of which can be found by clicking here.

But none of the coverage could match this scathing editorial by the Greeley Tribune, which endorsed Cory Gardner in 2014:

That’s what the “Cardboard Cory” tour is really seeking, scheduled events at which they have direct access to their Senator. We don’t think that’s an unreasonable expectation.
...
If he continues to remain unaccountable to Colorado voters, we think there’s a good chance those voters might cut Cory out altogether in 2020.

Join us at our 2019 Statewide Outreach Stops and Senate Forums!

September 7, 2019 (Training at 10:00am. Senate Forum at 2:00pm.)
Region 10 (Montezuma, La Plata, Archuleta, Dolores, San Juan, Hinsdale)
1900 E 3rd Avenue, Durango, CO 81301

Click the Graphic to Sign Up!

NEXT STOPS

September 16, 2019, 6:00pm
Region 1 (Grand, Jackson, Routt, Rio Blanco, Moffat)
Grand Elf Golf Club, 1300 10 Mile Dr, Granby, CO 80446

September 25, 2019, 6:00pm
Region 5 (Summit, Eagle, Lake)
83 Nancy's Place, Frisco, CO 80443

September 27, 2019, 6:00PM (Senate Forum)
Region 9 (Custer, El Paso, Fremont, Huerfano, Pueblo, Teller
Colorado State University - Pueblo, 2200 Bonforte Blvd, Pueblo, CO 81001

October 5, 2019, 10:00am (Senate Forum)
West and Southwest Denver (House Districts 1 and 2; multi-county)
Loretto Heights Campus, Machebeuf Hall, 3001 South Federal Blvd.Denver, CO 80236

October 19, 2019 (Training at 11:00am. Senate Forum at 2:00pm.)
Region 4+8+10 (Delta, Garfield, Mesa, Montrose, Pitkin, Ouray, San Miguel)
Columbine Middle School, 610 York Street, Montrose, CO 81401

October 26, 2019, 11:00am (Senate Forum)
East and Southeast Denver (House Districts 6 and 9; multi-county)
Calvary Baptist Church
6500 E. Girard Ave. (Hampden/Monaco), Denver, CO. 80237

November 2, 2019, 10:00am (Senate Forum)
Northeast Denver (House District 7 and 8)
St. Thomas Episcopal Church, 2201 Dexter St. Denver, CO. 80207

November 9, 2019, 10:00am (Senate Forum)
West and Northwest Denver (House Districts 4 and 5)
Highlands United Methodist Church, 3131 Osceola Street, Denver, CO 80212

Help Fight Sham Recalls against Garcia, Polis, Lee, Pettersen

We can't let the GOP undermine democracy with these frivolous sham recalls. Visit Our Colorado Way of Life -- the issue committee that is focused on defending our Democrats -- to learn more at www.coloradoway.org. If you want to volunteer, email [email protected]!

Bob's Corner: Recalls Defraud Voters

Recalls, as Republicans in Colorado are using them, are voter suppression after the fact. They are not an attack on specific politicians. They are an assault on democracy and the people of Colorado.

More than 73% of the voters in Pueblo (Colorado Senate District 3) chose Leroy Garcia in 2018. Garcia won by more than 25,500 votes. Yet despite this overwhelming margin of victory, the party whose candidate received less 30% of the vote has decided that the votes of more than 73% of their neighbors don’t count.

Gov. Jared Polis beat his Republican opponent 53.4% to 42.8%. Brittany Pettersen, state senator for Lakewood, won with 58% of the vote.

GOP leaders are quick to point out that we don’t live in a democracy, we live in a Republic. They hate democracy because they can’t win a legitimate election based on popular vote.

We have tolerated this entitled ignorance long enough. We need to change the way we do recalls in Colorado and end this perpetual fit-throwing by losers once and for all.

You can share this letter to the editor by clicking here, where it was run in the Denver Post!

People 2 People

With People 2 People, we are trying to reach out to as many voters in Colorado with a simple question: If you could talk directly to your elected officials, what would you tell them? With that in mind, click here and please take our People 2 People survey and tell us now!

Interested in participating in the program? We’re always looking for folks to help us find more people and reach out to their neighbors with these same questions. Take a look at our one pager about the People 2 People project to learn more!

Volunteer of the Week: Barrett Rothe

I'm Barrett Rothe. I live in Highlands Ranch (Douglas County!) with my wife and two daughters, ages 4 and 9 months. There are so many fantastic grassroots organizations making a difference across Colorado, but the Democratic Party nominates candidates to make change in government. I work for the party to help ensure that we’re ready to win elections when ballots are sent out.

I founded the TABOR Reform Initiative earlier this year to help connect Democrats that want to fix some of the systemic injustices in our state budget. TABOR isn’t working for the majority of Coloradans. It takes money away from the school districts that need it most, buries people in mountains of student loan debt, kneecaps our public transit system, and leaves our state budget with nothing left to make health care affordable. TABOR is the most significant policy obstacle to justice and equity in Colorado.

Until we fix TABOR and Gallagher, we will never fix health care, public education, and infrastructure in Colorado. We can put bandaids on those problems, but the oddities in our state budget will always keep us short of systemic change. If you want to work on addressing the root causes of our policy problems, TABOR is the best place to focus. We have an exciting opportunity this November to pass Prop CC, which could put over $600 million into K-12, higher education, and roads over the next two years without raising taxes. It’s the perfect time to jump in.

Rural Spotlight from Shelia: La Plata County

Located in the Southwestern part of Colorado is the beautiful County of La Plata. La Plata is Spanish for “the silver”, referring to the magnificent La Plata River and La Plata Mountains. To the north of La Plata County is San Juan County, to the west is Montezuma County, Hinsdale County to the northeast, Archuleta County to the east and New Mexico to the south. Durango is the county seat of La Plata County.

La Plata County is home to the San Juan National Forest, the Weminuche Wilderness, the Colorado Trail, and the San Juan Skyway,a national scenic byway, and The Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad.  La Plata offers a lot of outdoor recreation opportunities, like skiing, hiking, fishing, camping, hunting and just enjoying the beautiful scenery. 

Carol Cure leads the Blue Wave across La Plata keeping the horizon blue except for a couple of local races. Some of the local races in rural counties gravitate towards electing people that are familiar to the community despite their political affiliation. This is a great reason why building community in rural Colorado is so important to help win races up and down the ticket. There are approximately 9,801 registered Democrats, 10,451 Republicans and 12,582 Nonaffiliated voters in La Plata and 63.32% had their ballots counted in 2018. This shows we can even win counties where the number of registered voters is tipped in the other direction. 

Saturday September 7th, the Colorado Democratic Party’s next Outreach Stop Region 10 (Montezuma, La Plata, Archuleta, Dolores, San Juan and Hinsdale) and U.S. Senate Forum, at the Durango Public Library, 1900 E. 3rd Ave, Durango CO 81301. We will meet at 10am with Political Updates, Messaging, Delegate Selection Plan, among so many other topics. At 2pm the U.S. Senate Candidate Forum begins. Come meet the candidates and ask important questions. I encourage everyone to attend these insightful and educational Outreach meetings and to bring a friend. 

If you would like more information about the La Plata Democratic Party please check out their Facebook page, La Plata County Democrats, or their website, www.laplatadems.org or stop by their office at 107 W. 19th Ave, Suite 3, Durango, CO 81301. 

Sign up for "Work for the Wave" Webinars!

Our party wouldn't be as organized and successful as it is without the talented and dedicated volunteers we have at the local levels. Want to brush up on your skills so you can help make sure Colorado goes blue in 2020? Sign up for an upcoming webinar:

September 5: Voter Registration (Hosted by Julia Bristor and Betsy Daniel)
One of the most important things we can do is register new voters! Learn how to do that and be able to join us at voter registration drives by checking out this webinar!

September 12: People 2 People Training (Hosted by Karin Asensio and Tyler McDermott)
Want to get involved in our People 2 People canvassing program? Help us talk to voters and find out what's important to them by checking out this webinar!

September 19: Voter Registration (Hosted by Julia Bristor and Betsy Daniel)
One of the most important things we can do is register new voters! Learn how to do that and be able to join us at voter registration drives by checking out this webinar!

September 30: Rural Outreach (Hosted by Shelia Canfield-Jones)
A blue wave is built by reaching out to all communities across our awesome state! Join our Vice Chair of Rural Outeach for how you can engage voters in the rural areas of Colorado!

March with us on Fiesta Day in Pueblo!

Join us on Sunday, Septemeber 1, 2019 for the Annual Fiesta Day Parade at the Colorado State Fair in Pueblo! We'll be marching in support of State Senator Leroy Garcia, who is facing a sham recall by Republicans. The festivities begin with morning mass in Bessemer Park at 8:00am, followed by the parade at 10:00am.

The parade route runs north on Abriendo Avenue to Northern Avenue- up all the way to Beulah Avenue and ends at Sprague Avenue. For more information about how to get involved, contact Mary Beth Corsentino (Chair of the Pueblo County Democrats) at [email protected].

Join the High Fivers Club!

On The Road

CDP Chair Morgan Carroll and 1st Vice Chair Howard Chou took part in the DNC meeting in San Francisco last week. Howard was overwhelmingly elected to the Executive Committee for the Western Caucus of the DNC! 

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