State Senate Majority Leader Dominick Moreno is taking a job with the administration of new Denver Mayor Mike Johnston and intends to resign his Senate seat.

Moreno, D-Commerce City, will become deputy chief of staff for strategy. He told Colorado Politics he plans to step down from the Senate on or around Sept. 1.

A statement from the Johnston administration said Moreno will oversee the mayor’s legislative initiatives at the local, regional, state and federal levels. 

“The opportunity to serve in this capacity for Mayor Johnston was too valuable to pass up,” Moreno said. “The mayor is committed to delivering on our dream of Denver, and I’m looking forward to joining his team, bringing my expertise and passion for public service and improving outcomes, to make that dream a reality.”

Senate President Steve Fenberg, D-Boulder, in a statement praised Moreno, saying his career “has spent his entire career tirelessly fighting for the betterment of his community and his state.

“Dom’s leadership has helped move Colorado forward in innumerable ways, and his ability to cut through the noise, have tough conversations, forge compromise, and find solutions to our toughest challenges is unparalleled,” Fenberg said. “While I will miss his friendship and his partnership here in the Capitol, I am excited to see the great things he’ll accomplish next. I know he’ll make us all proud.”

Speaker of the House Julie McCluskie, D-Dillon, served with Moreno on the Joint Budget Committee for three years. She said, “Moreno leaves a legacy of leadership steeped in his steadfast dedication to public service. I will miss his quick wit and policy intellect, expansive knowledge of the state’s budget, and keen ability to broker compromise. While he will be deeply missed in the legislature, I know he will continue serving Denverites and the people of Colorado well in this new capacity.”

Moreno has represented Colorado Senate District 21 since 2017. He was re-elected in 2020 and would have been term-limited next year. 

Prior to his Senate service, he represented House District 32 for two terms.

Moreno simultaneously served a year on the Adams County District 14 school board in 2018 to fill out the term of a board member who resigned. 

He spent four years on the Joint Budget Committee, including two years as chair. In 2022, he stepped down from JBC to become Senate Majority Leader when Senate President Leroy Garcia, D-Pueblo resigned to take a job with the Department of Defense and then-Majority Leader Fenberg became president.

Some of Moreno’s most notable legislation includes the 2023 bill pushed by Gov. Jared Polis on affordable housing, which died on the last day of the session. He also sponsored laws to expand collective bargaining for county employees, allow farmworkers to unionize, ease the adoption process for couples who conceive through artificial insemination or use a surrogate, and a bi-partisan law to establish universal breakfast for kids in lower-income schools, his first bill in 2013.

Moreno has had ambitions for higher office; he was among the Democrats who filed to run for the Congressional District 7 seat when U. S. Rep. Ed Perlmutter. D-Arvada, indicated he might run for governor in 2018. 

Moreno, a native Coloradan, earned a bachelor’s degree in American government from Georgetown University and during college taught English in Palmitas off the western coast of Sinaloa, Mexico. After returning to Colorado, he served three years on the city council for Commerce City, the youngest person ever elected to the council. 

Johnston also announced Alex Renteria-Aguilar will lead Mayor Johnston’s communications team. Prior to her role at the mayor’s office, she served as the director of communications at Denver International Airport.

“I’ve had the opportunity to serve Denver throughout my career, and I’m honored to continue that work in Mayor Johnston’s office,” said Alex Renteria-Aguilar. “I look forward to working closely with Mayor Johnston and the community to build my hometown into a truly vibrant city.”