Remembering Margaret Atencio

There are people whose presence is so steady and full of conviction that it’s hard to imagine a world without them in it. Margaret Atencio was one of those people.

Margaret has been a fixture in Denver’s civic life for as long as most of us can remember: organizing, advocating, and building power for the people who weren’t being heard. But more than that, she’s been a source of deep wisdom and moral clarity for so many of us coming up in Colorado politics. She earned a reputation as one of the first people one must have done early outreach to as a candidate for public office or in the Party, and she made you earn her respect; once you did, she’d walk through fire for you.

We don’t know how to imagine Colorado without her voice in it. But I do know this: Margaret didn’t just lead, she grew leaders. Margaret served in many leadership roles over the years, as Second Vice Chair of the Colorado Democratic Party, President of the Denver Jane Jeffersons, Chair of the Downtown Democratic Forum, a founder of the Colorado Latino Initiative and captain and precinct organizer for the Democratic Party of Denver, and she served a delegate to several national Democratic Party Conventions. She had a distinguished career at the Environmental Protection Agency and the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission. Governor Roy Romer appointed her to the Second Judicial Performance Committee Commission.

She taught us how to hold the line and center the right thing. How to stay rooted in the community. How to show up for people even when no one’s watching.

While she has left us, we hope she knows how many lives she has changed. We hope she knows how many of us are carrying her lessons forward. And we hope she feels the love of a community that’s better because she was in it.

Thank you, Margaret, for everything. We’ll keep the fight going.

Tributed submitted by Colorado Democrats and Denver Democrats. Posted July 17, 2025