Elisabeth Epps Bids to Expand Activism to the Colorado House

The Colorado Freedom Fund, an organization founded by Elisabeth Epps, describes its members as abolitionists who "work to end wealth-based detention" by way of efforts that "advance collective liberation."

That's not the sort of description typically applied to a mainstream political candidate. But Epps, who's announced a 2022 election bid to represent District 6 in the Colorado House of Representatives, isn't interested in deploying tired old formulas. Indeed, she views her run for office as a way of bringing her activism into the General Assembly.

"I can see the good in the state legislature, as well as the harm legislators can do when they don't act," she says. "So I would consider it to be a natural extension of my policy work."

A graduate of the University of Virginia's law school, Epps worked as a public defender prior to launching the Colorado Freedom Fund in 2018. That year, for an article about a CFF Juneteenth/Father's Day Bail-out event staged in conjunction with the Denver Justice Project, she told us: "We really want to see the end of money bail. It's unfair and doesn't really do what it's supposed to do."

At the time, Epps, the foundation's executive director, was in the midst of fighting her own incarceration for what she characterized as a wrongful arrest in Aurora three years earlier. During the incident, detailed by The Appeal, she confronted members of the Aurora Police Department on behalf of a man in the midst of a mental health crisis at a pool party. In the end, the man wasn't cited, but Epps was arrested and charged with trespassing, resisting arrest and obstructing a peace officer.

Epps didn't let this situation distract her from the sort of advocacy that prompted 5280 magazine to feature her in its January 2019 cover story "Disrupters: 15 People Who Are Changing Denver." While the issue was on newsstands, Epps was serving her brief jail sentence.

The label conveyed by the article has resulted in some misconceptions. "I'm okay with the term 'disrupter,'" Epps acknowledges, "because some systems badly need to be disrupted, need to be overturned. But at the same time, I'm very reasonable. I'm kind and polite and not rude, and some people have reacted because I'm different than they expected. At times, they've gotten close to some racist tropes, like, 'You aren't the way I thought you'd be like.'"

Epps stresses that she's worked with many legislators over recent years to pass progressive bills, including one that directly connected to the Colorado Freedom Foundation's mission: HB19-1225, which "ended cash bail for minor offenses," she says. "That passed unanimously."

And then there was that measure's numerical predecessor, HB19-1224, titled "Free Menstrual Hygiene Products In Custody." Epps calls it "very personal. I had been in jail in Arapahoe County, but I was not allowed to have menstrual products. Of course, I wasn't the only person who experienced that problem; I was just the one who had the access to legislators I knew" — among them bill co-sponsors Representative Leslie Herod and Senator Faith Winter. Epps also worked hard on behalf of other successful reform measures, such as SB19-191, "Prompt Pretrial Liberty and Fairness"; SB20-172, "Bail Hearing Within 48 Hours of Arrest"; and the sweeping SB20-217, "Enhance Law Enforcement Integrity."

Despite such legislative wins, Epps hadn't initially planned to seek electoral office herself. Why did she change her mind?

"The shortest answer is, people kept asking," she replies. "And at some point, I was willing to consider it. It wasn't something I sought out."

Redistricting in the wake of the 2020 census also played a role. Because of redrawn lines, District 6 Representative Steven Woodrow suddenly found himself in District 2, where he's expected to run next year. As a result, Epps says, "we understood that folks in the Capitol Hill area would be without an incumbent, and that was a consideration."

For some activists turned politicians, working from within the system can be frustrating. But given her experience, Epps thinks she's prepared.

"When I'm in the legislature, I will partner with my colleagues, and I'm never going to sell us short," she stresses. "Whether it's changing Columbus Day to Colorado Day or passing Martin Luther King Day after something like half a dozen tries or ending the death penalty, those big bills almost never pass the first time. But that doesn't mean we don't try. I have been a part of literally every stage of the legislative process, from briefing the idea to testifying to rallying the community to the vote counting you have to do when you care about a bill. So I'm clear-eyed about this — and I think we all have a lot of common ground."

Since the official announcement of Epps's candidacy on December 3, "the outpouring from the community and from people in the new District 6 — it almost seems cliché to say it's been overwhelming, but I can't keep up with the paperwork and the emails," she says. "I've been hearing from teachers and homemakers and engineers and so many different people. But there aren't a lot of folks who listed 'abolitionist,' which suggests to me that to whatever degree I'm disruptive, the community is down for it."