Silverman: Morgan Carroll has helped drive Colorado Democrats to historic victories

Want to feel good about the future? Find the right vehicle. Then let Morgan Carroll drive. She knows the road to success. 

Carroll is an accomplished attorney and Aurora political pro. She achieved many leadership positions during her dozen years in the Colorado legislature. Afterward, Carroll just completed six stellar years as chair of the Colorado Democratic Party.

While Colorado’s recent Republican Party leadership has evoked clown car comparisons, Carroll’s been piloting the political equivalent of a magnificent Morgan Aero 8, handcrafted for Democratic success. Colorado Democrats have won every obtainable electoral job, with the possible exception of CD3.

In June 2021, Carroll told me the right Democrat could win back Lauren Boebert’s district, as Adam Frisch almost proved. Carroll matured in Colorado. Boebert came from Florida. Carroll is educated and progressive. Boebert is, well, Boebert. 

Rocky Mountain Values is a formidable political group aiming to replace Boebert in 2024. When Carroll was asked if she would join that group, she quipped, “It’s worthy.” 

Carroll is in her prime and a free agent now. She has many job opportunities. Expect her next job to involve public service, thereby feeding her intense desire to rescue America and repair the world. 

Carroll absorbed extraordinary life lessons from her Colorado trial attorney parents, John Carroll and Rebecca Bradley. Carroll told me her father, former Adams County Democratic state Rep. John Carroll, learned 13 languages.  He “had a big world-view, a voracious intellectual appetite, and was interested in everyone, everywhere. He was just an out-of-the-box person.” 

Morgan Carroll’s mother, Rebecca Bradley, possessed with her own fierce desire for justice,  became heavily involved in the extraordinarily impactful Boulder Action for Soviet Jewry. When Morgan was 11, she and her mother began regularly commuting to Soviet Russia to advocate for freedom. 

Carroll’s mom and dad, an agnostic and an atheist, supported her living at age 16 on an Israeli kibbutz. As a teen, Morgan became a Jew by Choice, a path Morgan’s mother later decided to follow, and she, too, became Jewish.

Carroll understands the urban-rural, religious, and North-South splits tearing apart America. Carroll’s grandparents and great-grandparents long lived on Colorado’s Western Slope. 

Make Carroll the leader of Florida Democrats and that state might swing back to competitive. Carroll knows all the state chairs and she’s seen how Florida selects new underfunded, overwhelmed leadership every year. Growing great state parties is a process, and one that Carroll has perfected.

Carroll will always protect female reproductive rights. When the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, Carroll explained her immediate, innermost thinking: “I am no longer a person. I am now property. I am back to chattel. I am second-class. I’m not a person anymore. Corporations are people. I’m not a person. Because if you have no agency, if you have no autonomy, it goes to the core question of free will.”

Carroll had her misgivings about MAGA-Republicans long ago, memorably one-upping Hillary Clinton’s “deplorables” by criticizing the MAGA-GOP for its fascism and nut-jobs. 

The problem in 2016 for rising star Carroll was her CD6 Marine opponent. Mike Coffman is an agile politician, who was smart and decent enough to declare his own distaste for Trump. That helped U.S. Rep. Coffman retain his job for two more years.

Rather than dwell on her only electoral defeat, Carroll assessed Trump’s takeover of the Republican Party and correctly perceived democracy under threat. She saw that a different and dangerous kind of GOP had emerged. In late 2016, Morgan Carroll decided that, “If I don’t reinvent the Democratic Party, and there’s no opposition party to this, we are right there in an authoritarian moment” 

Even though Carrol did great work as state party chair, the authoritarian threat has not passed. Colorado may have been saved politically, but other states are hurting. Carroll knows Democratic Party leadership throughout America, and she knows how Tennessee and North Carolina Democrats can improve, organize and overtake oppositional Republicans. 

For now, Carroll stays focused closer to home. Carroll answered directly when asked her choice in the Denver mayor’s race. No longer constrained as Dem party chair, Carroll prefers her former state Senate colleague, Mike Johnston, whom she regards as “awfully bright and very capable.” Carroll went on to tell me: “I’ve seen him (Johnston) negotiate, and problem solve, and I think he would do a great job.” 

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Unlike many political officials, Carroll really does love policy, and the concept of repairing the world with smart public policy choices. She is sufficiently wonky that she enjoys reading legislation, and claims to have read the Affordable Care Act twice. You must study hard, and work smart, to effect real change.

The craftsmanship and attention to detail that goes into building each Morgan vehicle has earned a devoted following among auto enthusiasts. Those in the know realize a superior make and model. Colorado Democrats have been running like a well-oiled Morgan machine these past six years. Replacing Morgan Carroll will not be easy. 

Pay attention to where Carroll takes her next big drive. Success will likely follow.

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