Democratic women convened in predominately Republican Mesa County over the weekend for what Emerge Colorado called a “boot camp,” its first foray in amping up party power on the West Slope.

“Rural Colorado is feeling left behind,” Michal Rosenoer, executive director of Emerge Colorado, said in a statement. “We need more resources and support for Democratic women across rural Colorado so they can run, win, and be champions for working families. Colorado is lucky to have a majority-women in the state house, but as soon as you leave the Capitol, women are vastly underrepresented at every level of government. We want to ensure Democratic women across Colorado know that they’re more than qualified to run for office, and have the skills they need to win.

“When women lead, we all reap the benefits.”

The three-day training program was aimed at training the 26 attendees to run for office, in this case, in rural parts of the state. A quarter of the class was comprised of women of color, and three quarters of them have designs on running this year or next “for seats including city council, county commissioner, school board, district attorney, and state legislative seats in both the House and Senate,” Emerge said Sunday afternoon. 

Emerge Colorado has trained 90 women this year. Normally, its fellowships last six months; the weekend boot camp was a condensed version that address public speaking, working in the field, fundraising and media.

Emerge Colorado says that since in launched in 2013, its alumni have won 88% of the time, putting 50 alumnae in elected office across the state.