Marilee Sturgis
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When Emerson Sturgis sets his mind to something, nothing can stop him.
At 13, Emerson decided to no longer ride in personal cars. Inspired by a climate change documentary, the middle schooler abruptly switched to public transit and bikes to reduce his carbon footprint. He joined local chapters of the Citizens’ Climate Lobby and Sunrise Movement, even serving as a delegate at a national convention. To this day, he refuses to get into his mother’s car, she says.
Now 16 years old, Emerson has a new goal: to withdraw Colorado from the United States.
“It’s the best thing we can do to fight against what the Trump administration has been doing,” Emerson says. Listing his many objections to President Donald Trump, Emerson highlights Trump’s mass deportation campaign, deployment of the National Guard to American cities, and use of the U.S. Justice Department to go after political opponents.
“I’m afraid Trump is going to become a dictator,” he says. “Colorado wouldn’t be affected nearly as much by whatever he does if we’re an independent nation.”
Emerson is running 13 ballot initiative proposals for the November election. The measures collectively aim to implement Colorado’s secession from the U.S., led by Initiative 287, which would declare Colorado an independent nation.
The Boulder high schooler says he drafted the measures himself, having worked on the proposals since December 2024. His mom, Marilee Sturgis, is registered as a co-sponsor of the initiatives. However, she is not exactly on board with Colorado’s independence. Emerson jokes that his mom signed on “so that she could sabotage the campaign from within.”
“It kind of feels like a long shot, but I don’t want to stand in the way of him pursuing this thing he believes in,” Marilee says. “I’m proud of him. He’s a very unique kid. He has a lot of determination and he doesn’t give up. Not that he doesn’t give up easily, but he doesn’t give up, period.”
Could the measures actually result in Colorado becoming its own nation? Not likely. The U.S. Constitution includes no mechanism for states to secede. In 1869, after the Civil War, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that states don’t have the right to unilaterally withdraw from the Union.
But Emerson isn’t the first person to try, anyway. Advocates in Alaska, California, New Hampshire and Texas have attempted to run ballot measures and constitutional amendments that would establish or work toward establishing their states as independent nations. None made it to voters. Non-legislative secessionist movements have been reported in Louisiana and Vermont.
The concept is gaining public support amid growing political division nationwide. Roughly one in five Americans say they are in favor of their state seceding, according to a YouGov survey of 27,000 people released in February. Among Coloradans, support for secession was around 16%. The debate has even ventured into the halls of Congress: then-U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia called for a “peaceful national divorce” in September, suggesting that Democratic and Republican states split into separate nations following the killing of Charlie Kirk.
“I’m hopeful,” Emerson says. “Of course, there’s a lot that I have to do, but I’m hopeful that I can get them on the ballot. … I hope to make the world a better place.”
The 13 ballot measure proposals detail how the new nation of Colorado would run; from citizenship requirements and visa laws, to the seizure of federal property and the selection of ambassadors for foreign affairs.
The measures were approved for circulation, according to the Colorado Secretary of State’s Office. Each needs 124,238 signatures from registered voters by August 3 to qualify for the ballot. Since they are all constitutional amendments, the signatures must come from voters in each state senate district (they would also require approval from 55% of voters to pass).
And Emerson faces an additional challenge: He’s not old enough to collect the signatures, or even to sign the petitions, himself. He is currently working to gather adult volunteers to petition on his behalf.
“Any useful change that has ever happened, happened because someone had an idea that other people thought was crazy,” Marilee says of her son’s endeavor. She’s in the middle of her own long-shot political effort: Marilee is running for state treasurer as a candidate for the Approval Voting Party.
“He’s following in his parents’ footsteps,” she says. “Except I have lots of ideas, he has a lot of follow-through. … Maybe he’ll inspire other kids to feel like they can do something.”
But Emerson wants to be clear: his ballot initiatives are not about getting attention or sending a message.
“It’s really about getting them passed and making Colorado its own nation,” he says.
God help any constitution that tries to stand in his way.
