Former Colorado state Senate President John Andrews welcomed “fellow Americans, fellow patriots, fellow deplorables” to a glittering celebration of President Donald Trump’s inauguration on Friday night at the Marriott Denver Tech Center in Denver, promising a “rip-roaring celebration of making America great again.”

The sold-out black-tie gala event – one of only a handful held outside Washington, D.C., where official inaugural balls welcomed the new administration into the night – brought together 500 celebrants for dinner and dancing to swing music provided by the Mile High Big Band. Presented by the Lincoln Club of Denver, the party was sponsored by Colorado Treasurer Walker Stapleton and his wife, Jenna.

“While Democrats are having their pity party and their paranoid party, Republicans are having our patriotic party!” Andrews said from the stage as dinner was served. “We are the party that knows how to party!”

The ballroom was filled with Republican luminaries, including event hosts Attorney General Cynthia Coffman and Secretary of State Wayne Williams and his wife, Holly. (Coffman’s husband, U.S. Rep. Mike Coffman, was busy with inaugural events in the nation’s capitol, although she quipped that he might have already turned in early after a busy day.)

“Today is a day of renewal for our country,” said Stapleton from the stage. “And boy do we have a lot to renew – from our health care system, that has taken away choices from the individual and small business owner, to Dodd-Frank, which has put a stranglehold on business. We have to renew our international strengths as well, the strengths of our military.”

Then, saying he wished he had a glass to raise, Stapleton offered a toast: “With renewal comes opportunity for success, and may those opportunities extend to everyone in Colorado.”

Introduced by Andrews as “one half of Colorado’s conservative power couple,” Attorney General Cynthia Coffman told the crowd that she had noticed something different starting on the night of Nov. 8, when Trump defeated Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton to win the presidency.

“I realized I was taking deep breaths, in and out, for the first time in two years,” she said. “For me, in my two years as attorney general, I think I have been holding my breath, waiting for the next over-reach from Washington, D.C., the next horrible Supreme Court decision that does not understand or appreciate the 10th Amendment, and suddenly I could take a deep breath and not worry nearly so much about the state of our country or our beautiful Colorado.”

Raising her hand, Coffman added, “I want to toast the retirement of Ruth Bader Ginsberg and her three liberal colleagues on the United States Supreme Court. We have plenty of folks who can replace them.”

Williams called the party a chance to “celebrate an opportunity to make America great again.”

“And it’s already starting,” he continued, “because, as I was sitting here, I got to read a nice little article about executive orders already being issued, to roll back the Affordable Care Act, to stop the implementation of job-killing regulations that the Obama administration had rolled out. So, folks, it is time, it is a wonderful day to celebrate!”

As party-goers mingled and snapped photos, they also glanced at their mobile devices as reports posted from Washington, including Trump’s brief remarks at inaugural balls and news that he’d signed an order intended to “ease the economic burden” of the Affordable Care Act, former President Barack Obama’s signature health care reform legislation. Earlier in the day Trump had signed an order reversing an Obama initiative to discount fees for middle-class homebuyers using a federal mortgage program.

The event was organized by Bonnie Percefull and Lynne Cottrell, who was also an inaugural ball host along with her husband, Bo. Others who helped put the shindig together included Dan Caplis, Matt and Theresa Dunn, Lori Horn, Regina Serna, Michele Haedrich, Brett Moore and Carol Waller.

Andrews, a fixture in Colorado politics for decades, introduced himself as the man who “used to be John Andrews,” adding, “My new business card says ‘former’ everything – former state senator, former Centennial Institute (president), former Trump doubter, like some of you,” he said. Andrews went on to describe his “Trump conversion,” which he said took place on May 4, 2016, “the day it became evident Donald Trump was winning the Republican nomination, no thanks to certain grouches here in Colorado,” he said, referring to prominent leaders of a national movement meant to block Trump from winning the GOP nomination.

Andrews said he decided there was no question he preferred consuming “Donald Trump spinach” to “Hillary Clinton strychnine.”

Before leading the celebrants in several call-and-response routines that filled the ballroom with shouts of “45!” (“What was the last year the United States won a war decisively?”) in a nod to the newly installed 45th president, Andrews got in more jabs at the political opposition.

“If you thought you were attending the sore-loser safe space or the celebrity boycott rally, it isn’t here,” he said, drawing chuckles from the crowd. “The sore-loser safe space and celebrity boycott are being held across the highway at the McDonald’s. That is where you will see such icons as patriotic celebrity Brandon Marshall, feminist celebrity Diana DeGette, Obama cabinet celebrity Ken Salazar, and many, many others – actually, just a few others.”

– ernest@coloradostatesman.com