State Rep. Gabe Evans, a Republican who is running for Congress in Colorado’s 8th Congressional District, speaks during a rally for former President Donald Trump, the GOP candidate for president, Oct. 11, 2024, at the Gaylord Rockies Resort in Aurora. (Quentin Young/Colorado Newsline)
Republican state Rep. Gabe Evans of Fort Lupton appears to have flipped Colorado’s newest and most competitive congressional district from blue to red.
Evans declared victory Sunday afternoon in the 8th Congressional District race against Democratic U.S. Rep. Yadira Caraveo of Thornton, shortly after Caraveo conceded. Unofficial results showed Evans prevailing by a roughly 2,500-vote margin, winning just under 49% of the vote compared to Caraveo’s 48.2%. The Associated Press had yet to call the race.
“I am incredibly humbled to be chosen as the next Congressman for Colorado’s 8th,” Evans said in a written statement. “It is an honor to be entrusted with the job of representing you and your families, and I am ready to fight back for a better direction for all Coloradans.”
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Evans’ statement thanked Caraveo for her “service and gracious concession.” A pediatrician and former state lawmaker, Caravei was narrowly elected in 2022 to become the 8th District’s first representative, and the first Latina to represent Colorado in Congress.
“It’s been the honor of a lifetime to serve the people of Colorado’s 8th district,” Caraveo said in a statement. “I came to Congress to get things done, and have spent the last two years working to find common ground and bipartisan solutions to the most pressing issues facing our community.”
Ballot counting in the 8th District proceeded slowly in the days following Tuesday’s election, due in part to severe winter weather affecting the Front Range. The tally previously indicated Caraveo was ahead. Drawn by an independent redistricting commission in 2021, the 8th District encompasses Denver’s Democratic-leaning northern suburbs as well as more conservative rural areas in southern Weld County.
Colorado’s congressional delegation is now split, with four Republicans and four Democrats. Evans’ win in the 8th District could help establish a narrow Republican majority in the U.S. House of Representatives, though 19 congressional races remained too close to call as of late Sunday, according to the AP.
Both Evans and Carveo benefited from millions of dollars in outside spending by partisan super PACs. Evans was aided by the Congressional Leadership Fund, a super PAC with ties to Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson, along with the National Republican Congressional Committee and Americans For Prosperity, the group founded by right-wing billionaire Charles Koch.
Caraveo received support from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the Environmental Defense Fund, the League of Conservation Voters and Fairshake, a group funded by the cryptocurrency industry.
During her first term in Congress, Caraveo was frequently among a group of moderate Democrats crossing the aisle to back legislation advanced by the U.S. House’s Republican majority. Her voting record in the 118th Congress is by far the most conservative of Colorado’s five House Democrats, according to VoteView, a database of congressional roll call votes maintained by researchers at the University of California Los Angeles.
She said during an Oct. 8 debate that her votes in Congress reflected what she called a “responsibility to portray the opinions of my constituents” in a “very evenly divided” district.
But her moderate record did little to dissuade Evans and Republican campaign groups from routinely describing Caraveo as “extreme” and “one of the most leftist members of Congress.”
Evans, a first-term state lawmaker from Fort Lupton, coasted to victory in the 8th District’s Republican primary in June thanks in part to an endorsement from President-elect Donald Trump. Throughout the campaign, he echoed Trump’s hard-line positions on crime and immigration, and appeared onstage last month at a Trump campaign rally in Aurora, where the Republican nominee doubled down on false and exaggerated claims that the city had been “conquered” by Venezuelan gangs.
Evans, the grandson of Mexican immigrants, has expressed support for Trump’s plans to deport all of the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants residing in the U.S., using military force if necessary.
“Yeah, you go back and you wait in line, the way everybody else does,” Evans told moderators during a June primary debate.
“We need to go after the sanctuary city and state policies that are handcuffing our law enforcement at all levels,” Evans said. “After that, then you can look at what else is necessary to protect the territorial integrity of the United States, to include National Guard.”
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