2 weeks Ago By John Aguilar, Seth Klamann
Voters in the ultra-competitive 8th Congressional District will choose in Tuesday’s election whether to return U.S. Rep.
Yadira Caraveo to Congress or replace her with Republican challenger Gabe Evans. This story will be updated with initial results after polls close at 7 p.m.
ELECTION RESULTS: Live Colorado election results for the 2024 election The race to represent the district, which covers portions of Adams, Weld and Larimer counties, is one of the most closely watched congressional contests in the nation. Cook Political Report ranks it as a tossup , one of only a handful of congressional districts in the country with Democratic incumbents that fall in that category. Two recent polls placed the race in a virtual tie, with a late September survey from Emerson College Polling showing Caraveo and Evans locked at 44% apiece and another poll from Emerson conducted four weeks later giving the Democratic incumbent a less than 2-point advantage over Evans — well within the survey’s margin of error.
There is little room for error by either campaign given the even political makeup of the district, which stretches across suburban neighborhoods, oil and gas fields, and farms from Commerce City to Greeley. Outside spending on the race has nearly reached $30 million, according to campaign finance tracking site Open Secrets . It is the state’s most heavily Latino congressional district, a reality that likely helped push Caraveo, the daughter of immigrants from Mexico, to a razor-thin victory over her Republican opponent two years ago.
This time Caraveo’s opponent — whose grandfather immigrated to the United States from Mexico — shares her Latino heritage. Evans is a state representative from Fort Lupton. Caraveo, a pediatrician from Thornton, has had to navigate several issues salient to voters in this election cycle, namely an economy that many voters cite as a primary worry and a porous southern border that has seen a record numbers of migrants entering the U.
S. without authorization, or seeking asylum, over the last three years. As a state lawmaker, Caraveo staked out a progressive position on immigration, even urging President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris in 2021 to “divest” from agencies like U.
S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. She has since modified that position, getting blowback from her own party after she criticized Harris over the Biden administration’s border policy last summer.
Caraveo, 43, has also had to fight off accusations that her party’s lax border policies have exacerbated the smuggling of fentanyl into the country. Nearly 1,100 Coloradans died of fentanyl overdoses in 2023 , according to state data. Evans, 38, an Army veteran and former police officer, has had to do his own dodging and weaving on his positions during the campaign.
While he received former President Donald Trump’s endorsement ahead of the June 25 GOP primary, Evans has kept Trump at arm’s length, given his unpopularity in Colorado — a fact affirmed by three recent polls that showed Harris with a double-digit lead over her Republican rival. Evans concedes that Biden won the 2020 election — a position antithetical to Trump’s repeated false claims that the election four years ago was rigged. But he has criticized the suppression of stories by media outlets and social media platforms that could have been damaging to Biden in the weeks ahead of the election.
Evans has also had to repeatedly clarify his position on abortion during the campaign, batting down claims by political opponents that he favors a national ban on the procedure. Colorado is one of the most permissive states in the country when it comes to abortion access. In 2022, many politics watchers wondered if the Libertarian in the race, who garnered more than 9,000 votes, cost Republican state Sen.
Barb Kirkmeyer a victory in a contest decided by fewer than 2,000 votes. This time, the Libertarian candidate dropped out of the race in early September and threw his support to Evans. Stay up-to-date with Colorado Politics by signing up for our weekly newsletter, The Spot.
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