First elected to Colorado’s Senate in 2020 to serve District 35, Cleave Simpson was reassigned to District 6 after redistricting in January 2023.
Though a handful of communities he represents remain the same – including his hometown of Alamosa -- there’s a lot of new territory he now represents.
District 6, like 35, is one of the largest in Colorado. It spans 14 counties and covers much of the southwest corner of the state, an area that’s predominantly rural. Simpson is running for reelection in the Republican primary for the district on June 25.
Vivian Smotherman is running in the Democratic primary for District 6.
“It’s still largely agriculture and water-driven, and those are my passions,” said Simpson. “I feel uniquely qualified.”
As a fourth-generation farmer and rancher in the San Luis Valley, Simpson said he looks at policy through a lens of rural Colorado. To him, representing that population is paramount.
“If you look at the Colorado state Senate, there’s a handful of senators that represent rural areas,” said Christine Arbogast, a federal affairs liaison who’s worked with Simpson for nearly two decades on water-related issues. “The rural areas need strong leadership and a strong spokesperson.”
In addition to working as a state senator, Simpson works full time as the general manager of the Rio Grande Water Conservation District, a position he’s held since 2013.
“Being involved in water challenges across the state, you could see the writing on the wall,” said Simpson. “If demand routinely exceeds our supply, you run the risk of fundamentally changing what Colorado looks like.”
In 2022, Simpson, with the help of former Sen. Jerry Sonnenberg, secured $60 million to help restore the groundwater basins of the Rio Grande and the Republican River. That money goes to people – like farmers – who willingly retire their groundwater withdrawals so the aquifer can recover.
Simpson said he’s all for keeping water within its basin of origin and empowers communities to protect the resource; he opposes extractive proposals to drill into aquifers and pump water out of the basin.
“We’re already struggling,” he said. “We’re already paying producers to stop producing so we can keep water in the aquifer and build a healthier aquifer system.”
And what the Colorado River – now part of his district -- has been dealing with for the last several years, the Rio Grande Basin has been dealing with for a decade, Simpson said.
“From my perspective, I’m not sure we could have a better senator. Coming from the water world, he understands it,” said Steve Wolff, general manager of the Southwestern Water Conservation District.
Arbogast said that just last week, Simpson and three other senators introduced a memorial to support full funding of an existing federal law that’s supposed to fund states’ infrastructure improvement projects.
It hasn’t been fully funded at the promised $35 million for the seven years since it passed, she said.
The money would finance 16 projects around Colorado, namely the Pine River Indian Irrigation Project which serves the Southern Ute tribe and non-tribal farmers and ranchers in the region, she said.
“The pipes are broken and deteriorated, the canals and headgate are grown over,” said Arbogast. “It does not function at even 50%.”
Though Simpson is deeply involved in the water world, he makes an effort to focus on other areas, too, he said.
Sponsoring the 988-suicide hotline and ultimately bringing it to District 35 was, in his eyes, one of the most important victories of his career.
Lately, he’s been working with the food industry, trying to encourage local food inputs and consumption via income tax credits. He’s also working to improve access for out-of-state physicians’ assistants to practice in Colorado and to make it easier for them to practice without a doctor’s supervision.
In the future, he plans to sponsor a rural economic jump-start grant program.
“I’ve truly have tried hard not to focus singularly on areas that’re really important to me,” he said.
Arbogast said he primarily wants to get things done, and to make sure rural areas see results just as much as populated areas do.
“When all you do is listen to the noise in the media, you’d think there’s no one like that out there anymore, but there are,” said Arbogast. “And he’s certainly one of them.”
