Pulling the Plow for Colorado Corn

Posted September 25, 2026 · Updated as the work continues

Growers ask us who is actually fighting for them. These are the officials who have shown up for Colorado corn — who took the meetings, moved the bills and did the unglamorous committee work that decides whether a farm program reaches this state or stops at the Kansas line. We are glad to say so publicly, and we stand behind their work.

Colorado’s Delegation

Rep. Lauren Boebert, 4th District. The 4th carries the eastern plains and most of Colorado’s corn ground, and she has treated that as the assignment it is. She brought growers to the table at the agriculture round table at the Cow Palace in Lamar and listened to the case for a permanent disaster program written into the farm bill — aid that reaches producers who take a real loss without propping up producers who do not. That is a hard argument to make in Washington and she has carried it. Colorado corn is better represented for it.

Sen. Michael Bennet. Few members of the Senate know the farm bill file the way he does. He is a longstanding member of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry, chairs its Subcommittee on Conservation, Climate, Forestry and Natural Resources, helped negotiate two bipartisan farm bills, and has held more farm bill listening sessions across this state than anyone could reasonably ask of a senator. He has put in the work to understand what Colorado ground actually needs, and Colorado corn has been heard in rooms it would otherwise have missed.

We do not line up on every vote — he voted against the Agricultural Act of 2026 in committee this month, and this association wants a bill moved. We say that plainly because growers deserve the whole picture, and because a working relationship that survives disagreement is worth more than one that depends on never having any.

Rep. Gabe Evans, 8th District. He and his wife own and operate a family farm in southern Weld County, which means the 8th is represented by somebody who has had to make these decisions on his own ground.

The clearest thing he has delivered is the least glamorous. USDA is reestablishing a Farm Service Agency office in Greeley, which his office credits to report language he pushed into the FY2026 agriculture appropriations bill. Growers in Weld and the counties around it had been driving a long way to do business that ought to be done closer to home. That is not a headline win. It is a counter a producer can stand at, and those are harder to get than speeches.

He also voted for the Farm, Food, and National Security Act of 2026 when it passed the House in April, secured $8.6 million for the Gold Hill Pipeline at Greeley — which his office describes as protecting water supply for families, farmers and businesses — helped introduce the Hemp Planting Predictability Act, and pressed producers across the 8th to get their Farmer Bridge Assistance applications in. He sits on Energy and Commerce rather than Agriculture, which makes the farm work a choice rather than a committee assignment.

The Colorado General Assembly

Sen. Cleave Simpson. A fourth-generation San Luis Valley farmer and rancher who runs the Rio Grande Water Conservation District for a living — which means when he talks about water, he is describing his own working life, not a briefing memo. He sits on the Senate Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee, where Colorado’s pesticide and seed bills get decided, and he carried Colorado agriculture’s case to the United States Senate Agriculture Committee when it held its farm bill field hearing in this state. Producers here are fortunate to have somebody in that seat who has actually farmed.

Beyond Colorado

Corn policy is not written in Colorado. These are offices whose decisions land squarely on our ground, and whose doors our affiliation with SWCA helps open.

Sen. John Boozman of Arkansas, Chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee. He has spent this Congress trying to get a farm bill across a chamber that has not made it easy. He authored the Agricultural Act of 2026 and brought it out of committee on September 16 after an August attempt fell short — the kind of persistence that separates a bill that passes from a bill that gets talked about. Inside it is the piece that matters most to corn: permanent, year-round, nationwide E15, which turns ethanol demand into law instead of a favor granted one summer at a time. Corn growers in this state owe that effort real thanks.

Sen. John Hoeven of North Dakota. A consistent friend of the ethanol industry and of the growers who supply it. He cosponsored legislation to allow year-round E15 sales and end the annual waiver scramble that has made retailers skittish about carrying the blend at all. Demand certainty is worth more to a grower than most of what gets called help.

Rep. G.T. Thompson of Pennsylvania, Chairman of the House Agriculture Committee. He took on a fight most members leave alone. H.R. 9535, the Securing Agriculture’s Workforce Act of 2026, would be the first statutory reform of the H-2A program in forty years, and it removes the seasonal requirement that has locked year-round operations out of the program. That provision reaches Colorado dairies and feedyards directly — and feedyards are corn customers. Labor that keeps a feedyard staffed keeps a buyer for our crop.

Where the Board Has Pledged Support

Everything above is about work already done in office. This section is different, and we want members to see the difference plainly.

The CCGA board voted to pledge this association’s support to the candidates below. That is a decision the board made deliberately, and it is an endorsement — not a description of a record, and not neutral commentary. We are stating it openly rather than implying it.

Three are on Colorado ballots on November 3; one is on a Texas ballot. They are not all of one party, which is the point. This association backs the people who do the work for Colorado corn, and that has never sorted neatly by party.

Rep. Lauren Boebert, 4th Congressional District. The 4th carries the eastern plains and most of Colorado’s corn ground, and she has treated that as the assignment it is — bringing growers to the table at Lamar and carrying the case for a permanent disaster title into Washington, which is a hard argument to make there. Her record is above.

Rep. Gabe Evans, 8th Congressional District. He farms in southern Weld County himself, and the clearest thing he has delivered is the least glamorous: a Farm Service Agency office coming back to Greeley, so growers around Weld stop driving a long way to do business that belongs closer to home. His record is above.

Tom Sell, Republican nominee for Texas’ 19th Congressional District. Growers here know his work whether they know his name or not. He co-founded Combest, Sell & Associates, the firm that carries SWCA’s case in Washington — the same representation that took Colorado’s T-yield problem to RMA and made the excessive heat argument that expanded our disaster eligibility statewide. Before that he served as deputy chief of staff to the House Agriculture Committee and as director of intergovernmental affairs at USDA. He opened this year’s SWCA annual meeting. A fifth-generation West Texan who has spent his career on farm policy would arrive in Congress already knowing where the language gets written.

Victor Marx, Republican nominee for Governor of Colorado. The governor signs or vetoes what the legislature sends, appoints the Department of Agriculture and sets the tone for every rulemaking that follows. Growers spent this session fighting a bill that would have required third-party certification before treated seed could go in the ground, and are watching a pollinator executive order that reaches state lands today. Who holds that office matters to the eastern plains.

A note on Sen. Bennet, because members will ask. The board’s support for him is support for his work — he is not a candidate this cycle. He lost the Democratic primary for governor on June 30, and his Senate term runs to January 2029, so there is no Bennet race to back in November. What stands is the record above, which is substantial.

We would rather say what we know than pad this out. If you want specifics on any of these candidates’ agricultural commitments, ask the board — these are the association’s positions, arrived at by a vote of its directors, and the directors will stand behind them.

Tell Them It Matters

Officials hear from growers when something goes wrong and almost never when something goes right, which is a poor way to encourage more of the second thing. If one of these offices has done something that helped your operation, call and say so. Thank them, and then ask them to finish the job — a farm bill moved, E15 made permanent, a disaster title written in rather than bolted on after the fact.

That call takes four minutes and it is the cheapest advocacy any member of this association will ever do.

Tell Us Who We Have Missed

This page is maintained, not carved. If an official has gone to bat for Colorado corn — a vote, a bill, a letter, a hearing, a meeting that mattered — send it to office@cologrowers.com and we will add them. We would rather this page be too long than too short.

Where an achievement is reported by an official’s own office rather than by an independent source, the entry says so. A note on how to read this page. The sections above “Where the Board Has Pledged Support” describe officials’ work in office and are not endorsements; committee assignments, bill numbers and votes in them are from the public record. The support pledged to the candidates named in that section is an endorsement by vote of the CCGA board, and is identified as such. CCGA administers no USDA program.