There has been talk from ten counties, including Weld and Morgan, of creating a 51st state called "North Colorado," and that effort continues to grow, with some people Lincoln and Cheyenne counties wanting to join.
According to a local affiliate in Denver, there was a meeting recently in the town of Akron located in Weld County to "begin mapping the boundaries for the new state they say will represent the interests of rural Colorado."
The secessionist movement is the result of a growing urban-rural divide, which was exacerbated after this year’s legislation session where lawmakers raised renewable energy standards for rural electric co-ops, floated bills increasing regulations on oil and gas, and passed sweeping gun control.
The creation of a new state comes with risks. A new state would have to draw up new water agreements which are critical to agriculture and uses 85 percent of Colorado’s water. Supporters say it also comes with new opportunities.
“I say 80 percent of the oil and gas revenue in the state of Colorado is coming out of northeastern Colorado – Weld, Yuma County, and some of other counties,” Weld County Commissioner Sean Conway said. “Seventy percent of the K-12 funding is coming off the state lands in Weld County alone. I’m telling you we are economic drivers.”
The growth of this effort now includes three other Colorado counties and two in Kansas that are talking about joining the movement.
In mid-June, U.S. Rep. Cory Gardner, a Republican from Yuma stated "The people of rural Colorado are mad, and they have every right to be. The governor and his Democrat colleagues in the statehouse have assaulted our way of life, and I don't blame these people one bit for feeling attacked and unrepresented by the leaders of our state."
The anger fueling this effort comes from the recently passed draconian gun control laws the Democratically controlled state lawmakers passed.
Jeff G is part of the effort and states "we are willing to make our voices heard even while being labeled kooks and “fringe” elements — an attempt to tar pro-liberty, pro-business, pro-growth outlying parts of the state as simultaneously dangerous and worthy of blithe dismissal — precisely because the campaign to marginalize us is being carried out by all the right kinds of people, from poli sci professors to progressive activists who don’t seem to understand how economics works, or where local energy and produce comes from."
The video below explains how this movement started: