Julie Gonzales Targets Hickenlooper with Uinta Basin Railway and Water Ditch Focus

Can a Denver-based progressive actually care about the water ditch that broke in Costilla County, or is that just another talking point for the June 30 primary?

Julie Gonzales thinks you can. The 43-year-old state lawmaker and community organizer is running to unseat 74-year-old incumbent John Hickenlooper. She’s betting that her background as a landowner in the southern Rockies translates to political capital here on the Western Slope. She’s arguing that the Continental Divide isn’t a wall keeping her out, but a watershed line connecting her family’s land to your tap water.

Gonzales points to the Spring Creek Fire in 2018. That fire nearly burned land her family had held for generations in Costilla and Huerfano counties. A few years later, a mudslide in that same burn zone destroyed the ditch supplying water to that property. It’s a specific, localized failure of infrastructure and climate resilience. She uses it to argue that living in Denver hasn’t insulated her from the reality of rural Colorado.

Let’s look at the policy angle. Gonzales is targeting the Uinta Basin Railway project. This is the plan to increase oil trains moving heated waxy crude through the remote canyons of the upper Colorado River. For context, Eagle County is currently in an ongoing legal battle against this expansion. The concern isn’t just volume; it’s catastrophic oil spills into the headwaters of the endangered river. Gonzales frames this as corporations extracting the last bit of profit before the climate crisis hits. She wants to speed the transition to green energy. It’s a direct challenge to the fossil fuel legacy of her opponent.

Hickenlooper has a different track record. He’s a former oil and gas geologist who turned brewpub owner, then mayor, then governor, and now senator. He has long opposed the Uinta Basin Railway. He’s a strong proponent of renewable energy. The question is whether his opposition to the trains is enough to satisfy locals who are still waiting for the legal battles to resolve, or if Gonzales’s "green economy" incentives offer a faster, more aggressive pivot.

Gonzales also has a take on public lands. She argues they are not for sale. She’s targeting "extremist Republicans" who might sell off federal land, calling the MAGA movement morally empty for their willingness to sell out for a buck. It’s a blunt instrument for a primary fight. It’s not about nuanced land-use planning; it’s about branding the opposition as extractive.

The primary is June 30. The winner takes on Republican state Sen. Mark Baisley on Nov. 3. The gulf between Gonzales and Hickenlooper isn’t just policy; it’s geography and generation. Gonzales is 43. Hickenlooper is 74. One is a centrist-leaning progressive organizer. The other is a moderate establishment figure with deep ties to the oil industry that built parts of the state.

For locals, the impact is immediate. If Gonzales wins, the push for green energy incentives and a more aggressive stance on the Uinta Basin Railway could shift how the federal government interacts with Western Slope infrastructure projects. If Hickenlooper holds on, the approach remains steady, likely favoring incremental changes over the rapid transition Gonzales promises. The water ditch in Costilla County doesn’t care about the party line, but the budget for repairing it certainly does.