September 26, 2025 01:01 PM UTC

Republican Candidate For Governor Would Secede All Over Again

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• by: Colorado Pols

Back in 2022, GOP Sen. Barb Kirkmeyer was running for Congress in Colorado’s then brand-new and closely divided CO-08 with no apologies about one of the wackier points in her long record in elected office representing deep red Weld County, helping organize in 2013 a proposal for Weld and several other lightly-populated rural Colorado counties to secede from the state government in Denver, and form their own much redder and smaller state of North Colorado. Interviewed by 9NEWS’ Kyle Clark, Kirkmeyer proudly declared she would go through the secession motions again if given the chance, despite the effort having failed in most counties who ran the ballot question including Kirkmeyer’s own Weld County:

There was a lot that was going on. People were very upset. When we asked them, you know, went out and had the discussion with them, they asked the county board of commissioners to put on the ballot a discussion about whether or not, should we go through the process. That’s what was on there…

Would I go through that process again? Yes, I would because even Gov. Hickenlooper, who is now U.S. Senator Hickenlooper, said after this effort that it made the state stronger, that it made him listen more to rural Colorado, and that he would give us a better ear.

On the one hand, Kirkmeyer has to say something. Her participation in the 2013 crackpot secession effort is after all a matter of record, and she can’t just disown it without significant loss of face. But we’re confident asserting that Sen. John Hickenlooper, despite his tendency to be magnanimous in public, did not consider this failed secession effort to be a productive use of anyone’s time. Like so many other wastes of time proposed by Republicans who are aggrieved at not being able to simply win majorities in this state anymore, the 2013 secession movement was more about giving performative zealots something to occupy themselves with.

Now, you might think that between losing her race for Congress in 2022 and deciding to run for governor of the whole state of Colorado in 2026 that Barb Kirkmeyer had worked up a better answer on the secession question–one that made light of the laughable failure of the effort while not become a target of ridicule personally. But speaking with 630 KHOW AM’s Ryan Schuiling yesterday, Kirkmeyer says she’d still do secession again:

Schuiling: They’re going to say things, trying to paint you as some kind of extremist, lunatic, et cetera, that you were part of this Weld County effort to secede, maybe become part of the state of Wyoming. It’s one of the first Salvos. I predict it right now. And tell me when I’m right that they’re going to aim at you in that regard. How do you respond to that? And how are you going to handle the mainstream media component of this race when you know sitting down with them is going to be a battle.

Kirkmeyer: Sure. And, and I would say this about the 51st state idea. We, you know, I would do it again, quite frankly. [Pols emphasis] I went out and listened to my constituents and they said, there were some people who said, look, we think we should pursue this. And there were other people who said we shouldn’t. And, you know, we had people say, well, just survey. And I thought, well you know the best survey is let’s let people vote and decide, do you want us to proceed or not? Do you want it to look into this or not. And the folks said, no, no we don’t. I mean, the vote went the way where they just said, no, don’t do that. We don’t want to separate off and become the 51st state. And you know what? And I stopped…

Full stop. If the voters told Kirkmeyer to stop pushing secession, and she listens to the voters, why would she “do it again?” Only one of these answers can be correct. But moving on:

Kirkmeyer: I went out, met with folks around the county. We had like seven different forums around our county because rural counties, 4,000 square miles. Talk to them, listen to them and then put it to a vote and then listen to them again, which is a little bit different than what people are doing now that are in public office and not listening to the will of the voters. But I listened to the voters and they said, no, we don’t want you to do that. But, you know, here’s the thing. And I said this to Kyle Clark when he asked me about it, you know, for like, I think the third or fourth time. And I says, look, go back and look at the quotes, go back and see what governor, then governor Hickenlooper said. He said this was good for the state.

A few items to unpack here: for starters, it looks like Kirkmeyer is taking a swipe at the current Republican representative in CO-08, Rep. Gabe Evans, who has gained infamy in less than a year in office for his Cory Gardner-style dodging of constituents. But the biggest problem here, once again, is the preposterous notion that Kirkmeyer’s secession pipe dream was somehow “good for the state.” The rural/urban divide was not closed. Nothing came out of that process but embarrassment for everyone who participated. And is Kirkmeyer arguing that the only time she meets with constituents is to plot secession from the state she now wants to lead?

The real problem is that in today’s politics, nobody can simply own up to a mistake.