A Denver judge rewrote the meaning of “shall” — a word as old as the Bible — to let the Colorado Democratic Party override its own statute and clear the field for a candidate who registered Democrat thirteen months ago. The ruling capped a week in which Democrats fought themselves on every front, from Colorado assembly floors to a secret US Senate revolt against their own minority leader.
The March 28 Democratic assemblies exposed the fractures. Diana DeGette has held Denver’s congressional seat for 13 terms. She barely cleared the 30 percent delegate threshold to advance. Her challenger, a 28-year-old democratic socialist named Melat Kiros, took 67 percent.
Attorney General candidate Jena Griswold edged David Seligman 42 to 41 while a former staffer blasted a hostile-workplace accusation to delegates during the vote. CD3 split 51-48 between Dwayne Romero and Alex Kelloff.
The sharpest blade fell in CD4. State Democratic Party chair Shad Murib moved the district assembly date one day — from March 26 to March 27 — to make Eileen Laubacher eligible. Colorado statute assigns that scheduling authority to the district chair using the word “shall.” Denver District Court Judge Mark Bailey ruled the word does not give the district chair sole authority — even though the statute named no one else.
Laubacher raised $6.5 million in mostly out-of-state ActBlue money and cleared the field. Trisha Calvarese dropped out April 1. John Padora dropped out March 22. The CD4 assembly on April 2 was a formality.
The fracture extends beyond Colorado. The Wall Street Journal reported March 21 that eight US senators — Murphy, Warren, Smith, Sanders, Van Hollen, Markey, Merkley, and Heinrich — formed a secret Signal chat called Fight Club to counter Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s midterm strategy. Senator Chris Murphy told progressive activists at a Georgetown dinner that informal vote counts had already been conducted to gauge support for removing Schumer.
Schumer’s Senate Majority PAC entered 2026 carrying $12.4 million in debt. The Republican equivalent had $100 million on hand and owed nothing. Fight Club members began endorsing against Schumer’s preferred candidates in Maine, Michigan, and Minnesota.
Senator Cory Booker told NBC’s Meet the Press on March 29 that his party “has failed this moment.” He said purity tests had created a coalition “too small to make big change” and called for “generational renewal.” He named no specific policy he would change.
In Maine, Governor Janet Mills and combat veteran Graham Platner are fighting in a Senate primary NPR called “a proxy battle between warring factions.” Schumer recruited Mills and Sanders endorsed Platner. Platner outraised Mills nearly three-to-one. Republican incumbent Susan Collins has spent $240,000 total while Democrats spend millions attacking each other.
Michigan split three ways. Congresswoman Haley Stevens, State Senator Mallory McMorrow, and physician Abdul El-Sayed are competing for Gary Peters’ open Senate seat in a state Trump won in 2024. Local media called it “a proxy war for the Democratic Party’s soul.” Republican Mike Rogers, who lost by three-tenths of a point in 2024, is consolidating without opposition.
HCA identified this pattern in November 2025 when “Do Democrats Face a Modern Night of the Long Knives” documented the progressive purge of the establishment class. A March 7 follow-up, “Democratic Civil War Spreads Beyond Colorado,” traced the fracture with TRACER and FEC filings. Democrats spent $10 million fighting each other in state primaries. Another $14 million went to internal federal wars.
A party whose senators plot against their own leader on encrypted apps, whose candidates sue each other in court over single calendar days, and whose coalition fractures along every fault line simultaneously is not having a healthy debate. It is a party drawing blood on itself while asking voters to trust it with power.
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