Colorado Democrats picked Morgan Carroll to chair the state party for a third two-year term Saturday at a virtual meeting of the party’s state central committee.

The former state Senate president and attorney from Aurora was unopposed and won reelection by acclamation.

“Our Democratic victories across Colorado didn’t happen by accident or overnight,” Carroll said, noting that Republicans recently held virtually all of the levers of power in Colorado.

“It took years of hard work and organizing to lay the groundwork of registering voters and, together, working with grassroots activists and community leaders in every county and all four corners of Colorado, we worked to elect honorable and qualified leaders to every office possible who put in the work to build a better future for all Coloradans.”

Over three hours and dozens of speakers, the party’s online meeting veered from celebration of the Democrats’ historic domination in Colorado over the last two cycles – handing the party more power in the state than it’s held since the 1930s – and optimism that the end of the year-old COVID-19 pandemic could be in sight, to warnings that the fight is far from over against adversaries some of the officials characterized as authoritarian.

Carroll opened the meeting with a moment of silence for the victims of hate crimes perpetrated against members of the Asian American community, a cause thrust into the headlines this week by the deadly shooting rampage in metro Atlanta that left six Asian women dead among eight alleged victims of a white gunman.

U.S. Rep. Grace Meng, a Democrat from Queens, N.Y., thanked the Democrats for their solidarity and urged participation next Friday in a national day of action to support the? Asian community and speak out against racism.

“We have been able to go through some really tough times but also have been able to have some really tough conversations,” Meng said, referencing the Black Lives Matter protests and an epidemic of racist violence aimed at Asian American communities.

“I just really want to emphasize at this time how empowered and how special the Asian American community feels to have people who don’t look like us speak up and speak out against this racism. It means the world to us, we are stereotypically a community that does not speak up often. We are taught not to rock the boat and just to blend ?in. We have been taught that our whole life, if we blend in enough, we will be seen as American enough.”

Meng said she was struck this week that 164 Republican House members – including the three GOP members of Colorado’s delegation – voted against a non-binding resolution she’d introduced that denounced anti-Asian sentiment in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak.

“I do not hold grudges, but I have a long memory,” said Meng, who reintroduced similar legislation last month.

“We are going to make sure through 2022 that I share my memories with others.”

U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet, who is up for another term next year, painted a picture of the Democrats’ precarious control of the 50-50 Senate, where the net loss of a single Senate seat would be enough to hand the gavel back to the Republicans.

“The good news is that after years of playing defense against Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell, the past few months have been a incredibly productive time,” he said. “Under Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, we have already made tremendous progress for the American people especially those who need it most.”

Bennet cheered passage of a plan he’s been pushing for years that’s expected to cut the rate of poverty among children in half, an expanded child tax credit included in the $1.9 trillion pandemic relief bill signed by Biden earlier this month.

“It’s the largest reduction in childhood poverty in American history and the most ?progressive piece of legislation that Washington has passed in decades,” Bennet said. “That is what we get when Democrats are in charge. That is a replacement, an answer, to the Bush tax cuts and the Trump tax cuts. We are fighting for working people, we are fighting for poor people, and that’s what Democrats should do.”

He said he’s working with fellow lawmakers to make the tax credit permanent and added that Democrats are on track to deliver steps toward universal health care, action on climate change, immigration reform and criminal justice reform.

“Our Democracy suffered a near-death experience over the last four years,” added Bennet.

“Like Franklin Roosevelt did in 1934, when he was pursuing the New Deal, ?we have a historic and critical responsibility to win these midterm elections and overcome the authoritarianism in our electoral system. Colorado is key. It is essential.”

After her re-election was official, Carroll described the electoral landscape in similar terms.

“I really think we did nothing short of save our democracy in this last election,” she said. “We are not out of the woods yet.”

The results of the remaining 10 state party officer positions will be announced Monday following conclusion of a vote by the central committee, though they mostly lacked any suspense, since all but the race for secretary was uncontested. Incumbents are running for re-election for most of the other positions, except for two newly created offices that each feature a single candidate.

Heading back for another term are 1st Vice Chair Howard Chou, 2nd Vice Chair Sandy Baca-Sandoval, Treasurer Rosanna Reyes, vice chairs for outreach Jeremy VanHooser and Xochitl Gaytan, vice chair for rural outreach Sheila Canfield Jones and vice chair for communications Patricia Barela Rivera. The two incoming officers are Josh Trupin, running for the newly established assistant secretary position, and Lisa Neal Graves, running for an additional vice chair for outreach post. Incumbent Bob Seay and challenger Scott Sloan are running for secretary.

The Colorado Republicans’ state central committee meets March 27 to conduct officer elections.