In Colorado’s battleground race, Rep. Gabe Evans and Manny Rutinel make their case to voters now that match is set
The final battle phase is now set in Colorado’s 8th Congressional District, where over the next 120 days, two men of the same generation will fight for a seat that could well determine control of Congress.
The state’s newest district — covering a Front Range area spanning from Greeley down to the northern suburbs of Denver — has seen only two elections. The first went to a Democrat, the second to a Republican. And both victories hinged on very thin margins.
The Republican victor in 2024 was Gabe Evans, of Fort Lupton, who is hoping to turn his freshman term in Congress into at least two more years in office. His challenger, fresh off a resounding victory in the Democratic primary last Tuesday, is state Rep. Manny Rutinel of Commerce City.
And in the middle of it all are the political prognosticators and party operatives, desperate to decipher what voters’ choices this November in Colorado’s most competitive congressional race might say about future trendlines in the electorate at large…