CLEAVE Simpson, the gentleman state legislator from Alamosa, says he’s not done with his work representing rural Colorado and has filed for re-election in Colorado State Senate District 6 for the 2024 general election.
Simpson said the rural-urban divide in Colorado and the need to make sure the standards of living in the small towns of Colorado match those in the state’s more populated ZIP codes is important and motivates him to seek a full four-year term representing State Senate District 6.
“I didn’t get into this looking for the next opportunity,” Simpson said. “At the end of the day it’s how you gauge success and did I improve the standard of living of the folks in specifically Senate District 6, but across the state?”
In the Colorado Legislature he’s become a workhorse for both political parties and for both chambers – the representatives and senators. In his re-election announcement he listed 13 pieces of legislation for which he has been a prime sponsor and has seen through into law.
He expresses particular pride in his work on passage of the Groundwater Compliance Fund and how it sailed through the legislature with no opposition and delivered $60 million in critical funding to the Rio Grande Basin and Republican River Basin on the eastern plains.
He was a prime sponsor of Colorado’s creation of a 988 crisis hotline for suicide prevention during his first legislative session in 2021, and then in 2022 delivered legislation that created the Behavioral Health Administration within the Colorado Department of Human Services and funding to establish a behavioral health-care provider workforce plan with a state investment totaling $72 million.
“The support of my family has been really important,” he said of his legislative work. “The sacrifices my family has endured over the last three years to support me means a lot.”
He credited his wife, Cathy, and the entire Simpson family for the support and encouragement to continue to work on behalf of the citizens in Senate District 6.
Simpson is the general manager of the Rio Grande Water Conservation District and operates Simpson farming and ranching operations with his father, Alan, and son, Jared.
