07-02-25 *INTERVIEW* Strengthening the Democratic Party of Colorado with Chairman Shad Murib

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
All right, let's do something completely different. I am very
pleased to be joined in studio by Shad marieb who
is chairman of the Colorado Democratic Party. It is so
good to see you here, have you on the show
in person for the first time, So thanks for coming down, Ros.

Speaker 2 (00:14):
I'm so happy to be here, excited for your listeners
to get to know me a bit. And this has
been a long time coming, so glad to be here.

Speaker 1 (00:18):
Indeed, and I saw a press release from you as
the leader of the party, from the party and you
talking about something called a stronger Colorado, And what interested
me about it so much is that you guys run everything.

Speaker 3 (00:36):
There is not a statewide.

Speaker 1 (00:38):
Elected Republican in Colorado, right so, but for listeners, what
I mean.

Speaker 3 (00:42):
By that is.

Speaker 1 (00:44):
For any office for which every person in Colorado can
vote Senator, governor, attorney general, treasurer, Secretary of State at
large region for CU I don't know if I'm missed
any there is not a Republican in office. So what

(01:05):
I found really fascinating, and I actually think I'll just
stay up front. This strikes me as very good leadership
on your part, not just sitting back and saying well,
we're winning, so we must be doing everything right. So
why do you think, given that the Dems are so
dominant in Colorado, that you need to do more well.

Speaker 2 (01:24):
You're right that we've done really well, and I'm glad
for it. We in twenty twenty four got our electoral
votes delivered by double digits. We had thirty counties, including
Republican strongholds like Mesa, Douglas, and Elpaso, make meeting full
shifts to the Democrats. We counted for actually ten percent
of the entire nation's leftward shift in an election where
most of the country veered right. And so we did

(01:45):
really well, but we had a few narrow winds. We
had a few narrow losses, including in CDA. Probably the
highest profile loss that we took is the narrowest battleground margin.

Speaker 3 (01:55):
In the country.

Speaker 2 (01:56):
And when you take a look at this election, when
you take a look at how well we're representing everybody,
we feel pretty good.

Speaker 3 (02:02):
In Colorado.

Speaker 2 (02:02):
We were number two in voter turn out, number two
in voter performance. No other state cracks the top five
in both categories. This is all good news for the Democrats.
But while the Republican Party is in total crisis, and
focused on things that the average person couldn't care less about.
I think we have to agree that the Democratic parties
in crisis as well.

Speaker 3 (02:23):
We've seen the brand plummet.

Speaker 2 (02:24):
We've seen a lot of our leadership lose touch with
everyday people, and I think when you look at the
people who didn't vote for us the first time, we've
lost voters who make under fifty thousand dollars a year,
that's crazy for the Democratic Party. We saw young people
make meaningful shifts to the right, and that's the difference
between winning CD eight or winning a couple of these
state led races. We lost one by three votes in
Colorado Springs, and so to me, I take our success

(02:47):
as a challenge. I definitely am not sitting here doing
a victory lap. We're going to take a look at
our platform and try and make it more meaningful for
the people who are working day to day, paycheck to paycheck,
clear concise that way they can actually understand how we're
fling for them. And then we're also going to modernize
our organizing for the first time since two thousand and eight.
So we're trying to do those two things to rebuild,
redesign the party to make sure that we can get

(03:08):
our message out there in a way that people feel
confident in.

Speaker 1 (03:10):
All right, I have an infinite number of follow up questions,
but before I ask you those, tell us.

Speaker 3 (03:16):
A little about you.

Speaker 2 (03:18):
Yeah, I got elect a chair in twenty twenty three.
I started working in politics as the volunteer coordinator for
my high school for John Kerry, which I guarantee you
got me as many dates as you can imagine. It
certainly didn't help with a prom date. Love politics. My
parents moved here from Lebanon to escape the Civil War
and countert citizenship in the mid nineties, and so, you know,

(03:38):
politics and patriotism was always the dinner table conversation.

Speaker 3 (03:41):
Interesting, how are we going to give back? Are you?
Are your parents Muslim or Christian? Nonither me?

Speaker 2 (03:47):
My dad was Muslim, but you know, didn't pray every
single day. We didn't you know, celebrate the holidays to
really go to mosque. They really wanted us to be
Americanized and they made that a point. And so I
didn't really grow up with any And what was your
mom nomine only? You know, I think she would probably
say everything seems fine, Yeah, you know, taught by nuns
in a Catholic school in Lebanon, and her parents, you know,

(04:08):
didn't push her in any direction.

Speaker 1 (04:10):
So she I think a lot of the reason I ask,
I think a lot of folks don't know that there
was and for the Middle East kind of still is
a significant Christian presence. Yeah, in Lebanon, it's any more
than any other country there at this time.

Speaker 3 (04:23):
I sually, Yeah, it's incredibly diverse.

Speaker 2 (04:25):
I mean, if you look at me just and you know,
you judge a book by cover, you say, well, that
guy's probably got his Middle Eastern heritage. But I've got
cousins with blonde hair, blue eyes. It's a melting pot
in that country.

Speaker 3 (04:34):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (04:34):
And so grew up in Littleton, Colorado, worked in politics,
have been bouncing in and out of government. Worked for
Congressman Polis in DC, was a senior advisor on the
first governor's race as well as for Senator Hickenlooper's race.
Was a state director. And then me and my wife
live out in the Western Slope. We were on a
small cattle ranch out there, and do directed consumer beef
when we're not doing politics.

Speaker 1 (04:53):
Cool, I might need to buy a quarter beef for
me or something in here, and your wife's pretty into
politics as well.

Speaker 2 (05:01):
Yeah, she's a former state senator, ran briefly for Congress
before we got district dated back into CD two. She's
running against Bobert. It is going to be an exciting race.
But she left office a couple of years ago and
you know now works on local ballot initiative. She helps
me out quite a bit and does you know a
lot of the ranch work and animal husbandry with me
while I'm traveling around this.

Speaker 1 (05:20):
Okay, last question about you in terms of the political spectrum,
and I'm going to assume that you're not conservative. So
let's look at the spectrum from center to the new
mayoral nominee of New York. All right, so center to
really really far left. Where are you personally?

Speaker 3 (05:42):
You know, personally, I'm pretty progressive.

Speaker 2 (05:44):
I also recognize that if we're going to get big
things done, we have to build coalitions, and sometimes that
means getting seventy five eighty percent of what you want
and making sure that the other side feels comfortable with it,
whether it's Republicans or maybe a more progressive person or
maybe a more moderate person. I think the similarity there
with the approach that Mamdani has in New York is
just a laser focus on the actual issues that we

(06:04):
face every day. We get distracted by so many of
the social issues or so many of the things that
you know, the television or you know national Democrats or
national Republicans want to focus on to divide us. Most
of us aren't making enough money to live. Most of
us agree our rent or our mortgage is too high.
Most of us wish that the roads were a little
bit better so that our car wasn't at the shop
all the time. And when we talk about solutions to

(06:25):
those types of problems, we can actually bring more people
into our community, whether you're Democrat, Republican or unaffiliated.

Speaker 3 (06:31):
And that's where my persuasion really is.

Speaker 1 (06:33):
We're talking with Sead Marie, who is chairman of the
Colorado Democratic Party, and they just released a new campaign
called a Stronger Colorado. And again when I saw that,
I thought it would be a very interesting conversation to
have shot in the in the studio with me.

Speaker 3 (06:49):
Well he's in studio with me, but just have the.

Speaker 1 (06:52):
Conversation, because it's not always obvious that you would see
a leader of an organization that seems to be winning
everything say we need to do. We need to do better,
and as I said, I think that's really good leadership.
So let me follow up on some things. So Colorado has,
in the last election, but for at least fifteen twenty
years before, been on a fairly steady left word drift.

(07:16):
When I moved to Colorado in two thousand and four,
we had a Republican governor, we had a Republican state Senate.

Speaker 3 (07:22):
I don't think we had a Republican House.

Speaker 1 (07:23):
I don't remember, but it was a purple state and
now it's definitely not. And I wonder whether a simplistic answer,
which is certainly at least part, but I would like
to know how much of a factor you think it
is is the immigration into Colorado of particularly Californians, but
also Liberals and Democrats from other states who want to

(07:46):
live here because of all the things Colorado has, Is
that the main driver is the change in the population
or what else explains our move left.

Speaker 2 (07:53):
I think we'd be foolish if we didn't admit that
that's probably a big part of it. And I grew up,
you know, seeing essentially branches and Barnes on the sign
of County Line Road, and now there's a target on
every sort of exit on thirty six and on I
seventy and nine twenty five. I think the big difference
that we found, especially as a Democratic party here when
I'm looking around the country is and I think the

(08:14):
governor has done this really well. I think Senator Hickenlooper
has done this well. Is a pretty fierce love for
Colorado and trying to bring people together. We've got this liberalitarian,
independent streak in Colorado that just doesn't exist anywhere else.
And so when we were talking about progressive or democratic policies,
it's almost always rooted and how are we going to
save you money?

Speaker 3 (08:31):
And how are we going to get the government out
of your way.

Speaker 2 (08:33):
That's a really different way about going through democratic politics
in most states.

Speaker 1 (08:37):
But I don't think anyone started to interrupt you. I
don't think anyone believes that of the Democratic Party. I'm
an actual libertarian lowercase sale, not a member of the party.
I don't see anything libertarian about the Colorado or the
National Democratic Party. They want to regulate everything under the
sun except for abortion in marijuana.

Speaker 3 (08:56):
Well, and I think, well that's fair.

Speaker 2 (08:58):
I mean, we want to get the government out of
your life, and I want the government out of regulating
your personal life when we're talking about these policies. Though,
I have to disagree with you in that we have
a governor and a senator and a House majority and
a Senate majority in the state that really champion bipartisanship,
that try to bring Republicans into the fold, that have

(09:19):
a community that's bigger than politics. And I do think
that that's different about Colorado, and it's I think what
makes our state so special.

Speaker 1 (09:26):
How much of this state's very left leaning voting pattern
in recent years do you think is a specific reaction
to the presence of Donald Trump versus a broader left
word shift like you do? You think, and it is

(09:48):
part of the reason you're doing what you're doing, a
mindset that you know this electorate, Yeah, it's more left
than it was, but it might not be as much
left as it looks like right now once Donald Trump leaves.

Speaker 2 (10:00):
Yeah, I mean, maybe that's true. I mean, he's personally
repugnant to a lot of people. I think Colorado is
also full of a lot of smart voters, and whether
they've gone to college or not, whether they finish high
school or not, they're pretty tuned in to win, politicians
are actually telling them the truth. I think when you
look at this bill from the other day, two hundred
and twenty five thousand people might lose their Medicaid. We
have CEOs of rural hospitals saying our hospital is going

(10:21):
to shut down six of them when this bill signed
into law. If it's signed into law, if people are
losing food assistance, whether you're a Republican, whether you're a Democrat,
whether you're unaffiliated, there's something to hate about Donald Trump's
policies right now, and not a lot to love unless
you're making two hundred and fifty thousand dollars in more
and so most people here are pissed off about the policies.
They're not really pissed off about Donald Trump or the

(10:41):
Democrats or Republicans. They're mad that doesn't look like government's
actually working out for them.

Speaker 3 (10:45):
I half agree with you.

Speaker 1 (10:47):
I think there's a very big picture of view by
people of every political stripe that government is working for government,
and government is working for a few to borrow an
AOC term oligarchs and stuff like that. I don't agree
with you that most people think that Trump's policies aren't
working for them. I think a lot of the criticisms

(11:07):
of this so called big beautiful bill, which is more
big than beautiful. But still the criticisms aren't really aren't
really true, or at least should be spun if I
were a Republican in a different way. They're doing a
terrible job with messaging. But like most of the people
who are going to be come off Medicaid, our people
who are working, age able body, people without kids, and

(11:29):
I don't want them getting government health care well.

Speaker 2 (11:32):
And I mean the other side of the argument is
we know a hospice nurse in Adams County who is
talking to their patients and helping them navigate this fear
of them losing Medicaid in the skill passes instead of
spending the last moments of life with their loved one
actually taking care of them.

Speaker 3 (11:47):
Those people won't be this. Those are not the people
who are going to be I don't think. Just object
to this, talk to them.

Speaker 2 (11:52):
I mean, we're looking at two hundred and twenty five
thousand Colaraden's getting kicked off their Medicaid and that's from
independent analysis.

Speaker 1 (11:58):
Yeah, and this is probably the big difference between you
and me. I see these numbers about how many people
are getting kicked off Medicaid. And my answer is, all right,
that's a good start. Like you know, So that's where
you and I very very much different.

Speaker 2 (12:09):
And maybe where you and I agree is that we
need to create a system where people can actually work
a good job, work forty hours a week, and afford
healthcare that maybe isn't government healthcare, and can actually participate
in the system.

Speaker 3 (12:20):
And right now that's not happening. Well, that's true.

Speaker 1 (12:21):
That's because we have too much government involvement in healthcare,
which forces the price of everything. I think we need
a real free market in healthcare, which we haven't had
probably since FDR.

Speaker 3 (12:30):
Yeah, and you might right.

Speaker 2 (12:31):
I think Marke your regulations they're a good thing in
some cases to help lower costs.

Speaker 3 (12:35):
But I don't think that you're wrong.

Speaker 2 (12:36):
I mean, for example, when we run this ranch, we're
trying to expand it to be able to host events
because you know, no rancher listening to the show is
going to agree that you make money on beef.

Speaker 3 (12:45):
Right, and so we always try and find it.

Speaker 1 (12:47):
Now, even with beef prices where they are, and maybe
if you've.

Speaker 2 (12:49):
Got thirty thousand head, three thousand head you know, one
of these giant, giant ranches before a small rancher and farmer,
it's still you know, marginal. Yeah, And going through as
many regulations as we had to do to be able
to just host a few events a year to make
the ends meet, it was unbelievable. And that's a place
where I think Democrats should not be defending the government,
should not be defending the system we've built. In some ways,

(13:11):
we have to be able to acknowledge that we can
do things a little bit better and make life easier
for the people who are just kind of scraping by
and trying to start something special to bring their community around,
but the government maybe has gotten in the way, And
so there's all sorts of places where Democrats can make
this argument really effectively.

Speaker 1 (13:25):
I do think that you know, you look at stuff
like our ridiculous free lunch for everybody, preschool lunch for everybody,
and the assault on the Second Amendment and the thing
that ended up getting changed. But where like if you
didn't use the pronoun your kid wanted that they could
be held against you in a custody fight. And I

(13:46):
think a lot of folks and maybe you yourself, like
we mentioned Mom Donnie a little bit ago, who's going
to be like Donald Trump's poster child for the whole
Democratic Party soon? If there are crazies in your party
and there's using the other party too, how do you
navigate around that? Because in both political parties the bases

(14:08):
are pretty fringy right now, and we have so many
seats in the federal and state races that are not
competitive that the real election is the primary, and so
sometimes both sides benefit by going further out to their sides.

Speaker 2 (14:25):
How do you deal with that? Well, So take those
issues that you just talked about. Those are policies that
a lot of Democrats are going to agree with, whether
they're progressive or moderate, because the focus is on making
a life where people can simply be happy or get by. However,
what I think the problem has happened in both the
Republican and Democratic Party, and this is a big part
of a stronger Colorado is our political platform is a
Democratic party is fifty three pages of bullet points and

(14:47):
really small font. Nobody is actually going to read it.
It's a policy prescription list of sort of wish list items.
It doesn't actually talk about the values that you and
I care about. You and I might be a different politically,
but you and I both want to have roads you
can drive on that don't you know damage your car,
That you can have a house in a safe neighborhood
where you kis king outside and play you have to
worry about it. A good school that has enough money

(15:08):
so the teachers not buying supplies out of their own pocket.
You know, these are the things that bring us together.
And these are the things where Democrats actually have a
track record of success. And if I'm able to condense
those things into a clear and concise platform, that argument
to the public is going to be in star contrast
and stuff like in this bill where whether you're a
publican or Democrat. You know, again, six rural hospital CEOs
are saying, hey, look out, we're going to shut down

(15:29):
if this bill passes. Rural call Rodens should not be
excited about this bill for that, because it's already hard
enough to go to the hospital and drive. For the
fact Senate did just at the end they added fifty
billion dollars for rural hospitals. So hopefully they can take
care of that. That is a legit issue. That is
a legit issue. Hopefully they will, they will solve it.

Speaker 1 (15:46):
I think my trouble and again, this is just comes
down to a fundamental viewpoint. Is so many of the
things that you call solutions, like the free school lunch
for everybody, thing is just to me, it's just government
robbing me and then redistributing it in a way that
some politicians think they'd like it redistributed. And I just
think of government in that situation as a mugger.

Speaker 3 (16:09):
And anyway, well.

Speaker 1 (16:11):
That's a fundamental difference in philosophy.

Speaker 3 (16:13):
It's a difference.

Speaker 2 (16:13):
But what I will say you and I can definitely
agree on is a lot of these programs have been
created because the system right now is working against working people.
And if we can actually make sure people when they
work they're forty hours a week can walk home with
a paycheck that can not just afford the bills, but
maybe a pizza night or a movie night for the family,
we can cut the cost of health care. If we
can actually take a look at these fundamentals for everyday life,

(16:34):
we don't need programs like that. But right now, kids
who are going hungry needs to be well fed if
they're going to go.

Speaker 1 (16:39):
With those kids who were going hungry already got the
free lunch. This was now free lunch for middle class
and upper class kids because the poor kids already got
free lunch. But anyway, dude, we could talk for three hours.
I'm just gonna have to have you.

Speaker 3 (16:50):
Have you back.

Speaker 1 (16:51):
It's really really good to meet you in person, really
good to have you in studio. Sead marib is Chairman
of the Democratic Party of Colorado. And I probably shouldn't
say this because I got so many Republican friends, but
I'll just say it anyway. The Republican Party should hope
and we'll see how Britta Horn, how Britta Horn does
as the new chair The Republican Party should hope that
they've got leadership as good as the Democratic Party appears

(17:13):
to have right now.

Speaker 3 (17:14):
With Shad running the show.

Speaker 1 (17:16):
We don't agree on everything, but he's focused on the
right things to win, and I respect that even if
I don't agree with everything. Thanks so much for joining
me in studio. Privileged beer with you, Ross, Thank you
for having me