The survey of 500 voters found remarkable unanimity between voters leaning left or right on the question of AI regulations, with support for some types of oversight or regulation exceeding 80%. The findings come from a poll conducted in May and June by the School of Public Policy at the University of Maryland through its , which shared the data with The Denver Post.

“Voters are intrigued by AI, but they have a lot of anxieties as well,” Steven Kull, director of the Program for Public Consultation, told The Post. “They agree it’s not enough for the tech companies themselves to regulate AI — they want the government to have a role.”

The goal of the program’s surveying is to identify solutions supported by voters to major public policy issues. It has conducted polls this year both nationally and in more than two dozen competitive U.S. House districts, including Colorado’s 8th, which covers a stretch of the Front Range from Commerce City to Greeley.

Artificial intelligence has in the last few years as the powerful technology has seeped into numerous facets of life, spurring fears of jobs lost to computer automation and the potential for algorithms, instead of human beings, to adjudicate critical healthcare claims and loan application decisions.

And money from tech companies with an interest in AI development has begun to shape and fuel the 8th District race, which pits Republican incumbent U.S. Rep. Gabe Evans against the Democratic nominee, state Rep. Manny Rutinel, in November.

“Not only are Democrats and Republicans on the same side of this issue, but the majorities are large majorities,” Kull said of the public perception of AI borne out in the poll. “There’s substantial anxiety about it. Voters think this thing needs to be contained.”

Eighty percent of voters leaning Democrat and 84% of voters leaning Republican in the 8th District said they favored the creation of a new federal agency to oversee the burgeoning technology. Meanwhile, 80% of Republicans and 84% of Democrats in the district want new AI programs to pass a “government-designed test” before being implemented.

Most of the respondents in the 8th District poll were categorized as Democratic or Republican based on either their actual affiliation or, for unaffiliated voters, their lean toward one side or the other.

When it comes to “deepfakes” — video or images that are digitally altered or repurposed to deceive viewers — the poll showed little tolerance from 8th District voters. Eighty-nine percent of voters from both sides of the aisle said AI-generated content on TV or online should be required to carry a label identifying it as such.

The vast majority of voters — again, 89% among those leaning to either side — were even less tolerant of the use of deepfakes in the political arena, saying such content should be prohibited altogether in campaign ads.

“People have enough trouble figuring out what’s true as it is,” Kull said.

State lawmakers in 2024 passed a law requiring campaign ads that use AI to disclose that fact. When it comes to broader regulations on AI, the legislature has struggled to reach consensus. It passed a groundbreaking law two years ago that attempted to regulate the use of AI by companies and other organizations in ways that might discriminate against people, but the law was delayed as lawmakers, Gov. Jared Polis and outside interests debated changes.

In May, Polis signed a significant rewrite of the earlier law. At the national level, the Trump administration has threatened to challenge individual state regulations while calling for a national regulatory framework that hasn’t passed Congress.

The Program for Public Consultation poll also asked 8th District voters about the dystopian potential of machine-controlled weapons being deployed one day. That question prompted 80% of voters on the Democratic side and 84% on the Republican side to agree the United States should work with other countries on a treaty to “prohibit the development and use of AI-powered weapons that can fire on targets without a direct human command.”

A majority of district voters — 81% from each party’s leaners — also favored the U.S. signing an international treaty “to regulate large-scale AI programs.”

While the poll did not ask specifically about the recent explosion in data center development, Kull said the cloud computing facilities that have rattled communities with concerns about their environmental impacts — particularly water and electricity consumption — “have become somewhat of a symbol” of the larger AI issue.

Both Rutinel and Evans have weighed in on artificial intelligence and related issues.

Rutinel has sponsored bills in the state Capitol that would place guardrails around the technology, including that required a developer of a “high-risk artificial intelligence system” to use reasonable care to protect consumers from “algorithmic discrimination.” He also was among the sponsors of that rewrote those regulations.

Last month, Evans helped introduce a bill in Congress called the , which would ensure Americans “are not left footing the bill for the grid upgrades and increased energy generation required to develop new data centers.”

“I don’t see significant numbers of voters saying they don’t want anything to do with AI,” Kull said, “but they are looking for candidates who are responsive to public concerns about the downsides of AI.”

And four months out from the November election, Laubacher, a Democrat, held an eye-popping cash advantage over Colorado’s most well-known member of Congress: $3.6 million to $247,000. That’s according to new federal campaign finance reports filed by their campaigns Wednesday night.

But all that money, which accounts for contributions to and expenditures from each’s campaign coffers as of June 30, may add up to a whole lot of nothing in a district as red as the 4th.

Political observers advise against reading too much into Boebert’s fundraising numbers, which are anemic compared to the state’s other Republican incumbents and to her past races. Two years ago at this time, when Boebert, now 39, was running in the 4th District for the first time, she in the bank after fending off several GOP primary challengers.

In 2022, when she was running for a second term in the more competitive 3rd Congressional District on the Western Slope — before she switched to the 4th — Boebert had in cash on hand entering July, according to Federal Election Commission filings.

Kyle Saunders, a political science professor at Colorado State University, pointed to the nonpartisan , which gives Republicans a massive 9-percentage-point advantage in the 4th District, which covers the state’s Eastern Plains and butts up against the Front Range, taking in Douglas County. Cook rates it solidly Republican this year.

“History shows money alone rarely overcomes a 9-point partisan lean in a midterm or general (election) without a perfect storm, like a national wave, a major scandal or a candidate collapse,” he said. “I’d rate the odds of a flip as quite low — Boebert starts as a strong favorite, barring major shifts.”

Political analyst Floyd Ciruli also cautioned that cash alone may not be able to overcome the reality of the district’s political makeup. Republicans have 100,000-plus more registered voters than Democrats.

“I’m not sure that money is the actual issue in this district,” Ciruli said.

But that doesn’t mean a change at the top can’t happen in Colorado’s sprawling eastern district —�� because it has. Betsy Markey represented the district for a single term nearly 20 years ago — the only time a Democrat has won the seat in decades.

A ‘lack of enthusiasm’ for Boebert?

The that Laubacher, 57, has reeled in compared to Boebert’s this election cycle is a substantial spread.

Trying to divine why that fundraising discrepancy exists is tricky, Saunders said, though Laubacher’s haul has benefited from extensive online fundraising appeals asking for help taking on the conservative lightning rod. All that money will expand the opportunities to get her messages in front of voters, including through ads on TV and social media.

She ended up unopposed in the Democratic primary after Trisha Calvarese — who lost to Boebert by 11.6 percentage points in the 2024 race — dropped her repeat bid in late March. Boebert was unopposed in the June 30 primary.

“It may reflect some national GOP donor hesitation tied to her controversies, but in practice, it hasn’t hurt her electorally here,” Saunders said of Boebert, referring to unflattering headlines the congresswoman has generated over the years. “Lack of enthusiasm is possible among moderates, but the district’s partisan composition limits its impact.”

Boebert’s thinner campaign purse can also be explained in more innocuous ways, he said.

“Incumbents in safe seats often don’t need to max out (with each donor); they can rely on name recognition, partisan advantage in the electorate and party infrastructure,” Saunders said.

A spokesman for Boebert’s campaign didn’t respond Thursday to questions sent by The Denver Post.

In other federal races that could prove more competitive, this week’s FEC filings show differing relative money positions.

Fundraising in the El Paso County-based 5th Congressional District has favored Democrat Jessica Killin, who has collected nearly twice as much money as first-term Republican U.S. Rep. Jeff Crank in this cycle.��The former U.S. Army captain, who won the Democratic primary, had as of June 30 compared to Crank’s .��While the district has long been a Republican stronghold, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee added the 5th to its list of targeted seats in February.

In the 3rd District, Boebert’s successor, Republican U.S. Rep. Jeff Hurd, reported nearly $1.8 million in his account entering July compared to Democratic nominee Dwayne Romero’s $84,200 after Romero won a hard-fought primary.

In Colorado’s most competitive congressional district, U.S. Rep. Gabe Evans, a Republican, had more than six times the cash on hand as his Democratic opponent, Manny Rutinel, as of the end of June. Rutinel had to to spend through November in the race for the 8th Congressional District, which includes northern Denver suburbs and Greeley. But Rutinel had to fend off two Democratic opponents in a very expensive primary.

In Colorado’s U.S. Senate race, incumbent Democrat John Hickenlooper was crushing his Republican opponent, state Sen. Mark Baisley, in the fundraising game despite facing his own primary opponent. Colorado’s junior senator had in his bank account on June 30, compared to for Baisley, who was unopposed in the GOP primary.

In all, Hickenlooper has raised nearly $8.9 million in this election cycle to Baisley’s nearly $105,000. The Cook Political Report rates the Senate race as “solid Democrat.”

Laubacher’s strategy

In the 4th District, Taylor Gillespie, the campaign manager for Laubacher, said raising money was “only one part of building a winning campaign.”

Laubacher, she said, “has spent her entire career putting her life on the line for our country and is running to put a stop to the self-dealing in Washington by putting in place term limits and age limits, banning insider stock trading by politicians and putting a stop to reckless, out-of-control debt.”

Laubacher can pound themes on the campaign trail that are particularly salient to the largely agricultural district, Ciruli said, like high fuel and fertilizer prices in the midst of the U.S. war with Iran and added costs for farmers due to President Donald Trump’s tariffs.

“You have to convince the farmer in Sterling or in Fort Morgan that they’re not getting enough representation and they need to move to a Democrat,” he said.

Saunders said Laubacher would have to execute a “flawless ground game” and target unaffiliated and “soft GOP voters in suburban growth areas” (like Douglas County), “emphasizing her service, moderation and putting people over politics.”

Meanwhile, Trump’s unpopularity in the country on the November ballot. Boebert has created some distance between herself and the president in recent months, criticizing Trump for his veto of a water project that would benefit her district and calling on his administration to release files on sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

But Saunders said Boebert can stray only so far from the White House.

“In a safe district of any partisan flavor, loyalty signals often matter more than policy nuance,” he said. “So, her survival will likely rest on keeping the base fired up without alienating enough suburban and independent voters.”

That is roughly how much was spent on all of Colorado’s competitive primaries for statewide and federal office — and almost all of it went to influence Democrat-vs.-Democrat contests as voters picked who would represent the party in November’s election, according to an analysis by The Denver Post. Millions more went to down-ballot races, such as local legislative races.

The rain from the proverbial storm of cash poured down in the form of candidate mailers, door knockers, and TV and digital ads, and in less apparent campaign infrastructure and polls. The vast majority of the money went directly to campaigns and supported direct messaging, staffing and other expenses of running for office.

But more than a third — almost $25 million — flooded the races through super PACs and other outside groups that approach politics with different levels of opacity.

The money also didn’t do much to predict eventual winners. Four of the most-monied candidates seeking statewide or federal offices won their primaries. Four others lost.

Paul Teske, a political scientist at the University of Colorado Denver, said it can be tough to tease out how much of a difference money can make in a campaign, especially if spending between candidates is in the same ballpark. But the amount this time also seems striking, even if there isn’t an immediate apples-to-apples comparison to prior election years.

“People realize this is a way to influence policy that can be effective — if it’s the right place, at the right time, in the right way,” Teske said.

Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg appears to have been the single largest player in Colorado politics in the June 30 primaries. The billionaire pumped $5 million in cash into a state super PAC backing U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet����ap failed bid for governor against Attorney General Phil Weiser. Weiser ended up winning the race by more than 13 percentage points.

The race for the Democratic nomination for governor by far outstripped every other race in the primaries, with more than $24.5 million spent by either the super PACs backing the candidates or by the campaigns themselves.

That money was almost evenly split between the super PACs and the campaigns, though that number is skewed by the super PAC backing Bennet, Rocky Mountain Way. That political action committee spent nearly $11 million, almost twice as much as Bennet����ap official campaign spent.

The Republican side of the governor’s race��saw a relatively paltry $4.1 million spent through June 29, the cutoff for the most recent batch of campaign data. Nonprofit leader Victor Marx, who had more than $3.2 million of that money backing him either directly or through a state super PAC, narrowly secured the nomination Thursday over state Sen. Barb Kirkmeyer and third-place state Rep. Scott Bottoms.

On the federal side of the ledger, the money becomes even more opaque — though there was less of it. Campaigns’ federal reports cover fundraising and spending through June 10, though outside groups had to file more frequent spending reports in the lead-up to the election.

State Rep. Manny Rutinel benefited from the most outside money, $5.5 million, in his successful campaign for the Democratic nomination in the 8th Congressional District. By comparison, Shannon Bird, the former state representative who lost to Rutinel, saw $1.7 million spent to buoy her.

More than $3 million of outside help for Rutinel came from the Latino Victory Fund and the associated Latino Victory Project. Those groups have received money from Opportunity Forward Alliance, a dark-money group that describes itself as backing business-friendly policies, and 5000 Broadway Productions, the production company founded by Lin-Manuel Miranda.

He also benefited from almost $1 million spent by You Can Push Back, a super PAC supported by . And $1.2 million backing Rutinel’s campaign came from the SOMOS PAC, a super PAC that was backed by the nonprofit Advocacy Action Fund. That nonprofit has been linked and has a history of giving to self-styled progressive and abortion-rights advocacy groups.

That 8th District race — expected to be one of the most competitive in the nation, again — will almost certainly draw a gob-smacking amount of money and attention as the November general election nears. In 2024, the candidates and outside groups spent more than $40 million on the election that saw U.S. Rep. Gabe Evans, a Republican, win the seat. It was among in the country and is seen this time as key to whichever party will hold the House majority next year.

Now Evans is running for reelection in the 8th District, which stretches from the north Denver suburbs to Greeley.

U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette, who was on the wrong side of the primary night’s biggest upset in Colorado, was the second-largest beneficiary of outside money, largely as part of a last-minute surge to preserve her office. More than $2.3 million flew into that race to defend DeGette, whose 1st Congressional District mostly covers Denver.

Of that, more than $1.5 million came from the Pro-Choice Majority Action PAC, which in turn receives money from the EDW Action Fund, a pro-Democratic women’s group that is , or AIPAC.

By comparison, now-Democratic nominee Melat Kiros, a democratic socialist who beat DeGette by 13.4 percentage points, had just over $500,000 in outside spending support her campaign against the 30-year incumbent. Kiros’ campaign also spent less than $600,000 directly, or less than half of DeGette’s total campaign spending.

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.

“There’s no doubt this is a race that will attract national money,” said Erin Covey, who analyzes congressional races as U.S. House editor for the Cook Political Report.

Cook lists the 8th District among .

While the typical campaign issues will likely be prominent in the race — immigration, healthcare and economic well-being among them — there are additional complications for the candidates to navigate this fall.

For Evans, 39, it’s President Donald Trump, a Republican whose . The president is particularly disliked in Colorado.

Cost of living continues to be a pressing issue, despite the fact the president campaigned on bringing down prices that spiked under his predecessor. And both Trump’s foreign policy — especially the war in Iran — and his immigration enforcement tactics have alienated voters across the political spectrum.

The more Democrats can link Evans to the president, the better for his opponent, said David Boian, a Democratic political strategist.

“Gabe Evans has been right there with Donald Trump — arm in arm,” he said. “That’s a huge liability for him.”

Rutinel, 31, can expect attempts to place him within the surging left corner of the Democratic Party, exemplified by the stunning primary victory Tuesday of democratic socialist Melat Kiros over 15-term U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette in the congressional district that covers Denver.

There is no doubt, said former Colorado Republican Party Chair Dick Wadhams, that campaign ads will highlight comments Kiros has recently made about 9/11, Israel’s legitimacy as a nation, and the deadly firebombing attack on Jews and others demonstrating in Boulder last year — an act she refused to call antisemitic.

Those statements, which drew rebukes from ��and even some , could be used in an attempt to taint Rutinel’s campaign if he doesn’t sufficiently disavow Kiros. She’s one of a handful of far-left candidates who have toppled Democratic members of Congress in recent primaries.

“Her anti-semitism is palpable,” Wadhams said. “Everything she says will reflect on the Democrats statewide.”

Asked for Rutinel’s thoughts on Kiros, his campaign sent The Denver Post a statement from the candidate: “I believe that no terrorist attack is inevitable, whether that is 9/11 or the attack in Boulder,” Rutinel said. “Israel has a right to exist, and the Boulder attack was an antisemitic act of terrorism, and antisemitism has no place in this country.”

Challenges on the trail

Boian’s advice to Rutinel would be that he “keeps his distance from Kiros,” given that the political composition of the 8th Congressional District — which was drawn by an independent commission to be competitive — is a far cry from that of deep-blue Denver. The candidate, he said, needs to focus on the voters in the district who have grown tired of Trump and his administration’s policies.

“The key to winning this race is unaffiliated voters,” Boian said.

Unaffiliated voters in the 8th District outnumber both Republicans and Democrats combined — by a factor of more than 2-to-1, according to state election data.

Covey, with the Cook Political Report, thinks Trump might be a bigger problem for Evans than Kiros might be for Rutinel, namely because he is the president and has a far greater impact on voters’ lives.

“Trump is going to be a real anchor on Evans,” she said.

For his part, Evans has attempted to create some daylight between himself and the president. He has , which have an outsized impact on farmers and ranchers. He also joined GOP lawmakers last year in expressing concern to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement about whether it was still prioritizing the deportation of criminals.

Whether that will be enough to allay concerns among voters in the 8th — Colorado’s most heavily Latino district, with roughly 40% of voters identifying that way — is yet to be seen. But nothing will go either candidate’s way without a big megaphone and the money to keep it sounding.

While Evans has the advantage in fundraising — with $3.5 million cash on hand as of June 10, nearly four times as much as his opponent — Rutinel’s success in attracting cash is notable, Covey said. It helped him fend off primary challengers, one thing Evans lacked this time around.

But it’s the outside money that could well have the most impact on the race. It factored big in the Democratic primary — with more than $8 million poured into the race either on behalf of or against Rutinel and his opponent, former state Rep. Shannon Bird. Rutinel defeated Bird by about 30 percentage points.

Already, the pro-Republican super PAC Congressional Leadership Fund has to the Denver media market for advertising in this fall’s election cycle. On the other side, the House Majority PAC plans in Denver market ad buys on behalf of Democratic House candidates this fall.

Because Rutinel is the newer face on the national stage, his challenge will be solidifying his image before others do it for him. He’s off to a rough start, Wadhams said, after on several issues on which he used to stand farther left.

In an interview with a five years ago, Rutinel called animal agriculture a “horrific, exploitive industry.” He doesn’t say that anymore. Rutinel also once opposed fracking, a position he said in a May primary debate he no longer held.

Agriculture and ranching, along with oil and gas development, are major pillars of the 8th District’s economy outside its urban areas.

“To attack the very nature of the 8th District — it goes beyond just adjusting his position,” Wadhams said. “He’s gone from being a vegan to loving beef. He’s a chameleon.”

Boian, the Democratic strategist, said voters aren’t going to focus on candidate positions that may have evolved over the years.

“I think where the race is going is strictly to people’s pocketbooks,” he said. “Can they get to the store and get food for their kids?”

Evans has his own background story “to clean up,” Boian said, referencing an published last summer into multiple generations of Evans’ family, in which the publication alleged that Evans had misrepresented his family’s immigration story.

Compelling personal stories

Ultimately, Wadhams said, both candidates have “very compelling” personal stories to tell.

Rutinel is the son of a single mother who immigrated to the United States from the Dominican Republic. The candidate often talks about having to help her fill out applications for food assistance and Medicaid benefits when he was young.

Previously an economist for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Rutinel, who’s also an attorney, was appointed by a vacancy committee to the Colorado House in 2023 to represent a portion of Adams County and Commerce City. He was elected to his seat the following year.

Evans is the grandson of Mexican immigrants, and his grandfather became a U.S. citizen through his military service in World War II. He served a dozen years in the U.S. Army as a Black Hawk helicopter pilot, then nearly a decade as an Arvada police officer.

For Joe Petrocco, who helps run his family’s farm in Brighton and serves as president of the Colorado Fruit and Vegetable Growers Association, his vote will go to Evans in November.

Petrocco, 55, likes the Republican’s support for efforts to keep farmworkers’ wages in check. Past increases in federally mandated wages for H-2A workers, who are foreign nationals working in agriculture, have made it impossible for farms like his to compete with countries like Mexico, where he says workers are paid “not $20 an hour but $20 a day.”

“He’s helping make us profitable again,” Petrocco said.

He also credits Evans for helping introduce the bipartisan last year. The bill seeks to reform the country’s asylum system and provide a path for workers who are in the country unlawfully to obtain legal status.

“He’s a Latino man and he respects his heritage,” Petrocco said.

Abby Hicks, a physical education teacher who lives in Mead, said Rutinel is the “real deal.” His rags-to-riches story appeals to her, and she appreciates his focus on bringing costs down — something he addressed as recently as Tuesday night at his election watch party in Commerce City.

Hicks, 44, said many of her students at Mead High School don’t see themselves represented by the older generations that still dominate politics in Colorado.

“He’s different from all the other politicians you meet,” she said of Rutinel. “He’s so eager to listen and learn — in today’s politics, we’re missing that.”

While this election promises to be more amusing than usual, the results will be no laughing matter. We, the people, are better served when there are two viable parties in the statehouse and serious people representing the state.

If Barbara Kirkmeyer were facing off with Democrat Phil Weiser, the race would be a contest of ideas and Republican candidates for the General Assembly would be buoyed by her presence on the ballot. With more Republicans in the statehouse, lawmakers would be more likely to pass balanced legislation when they convene in 2027.

Over the past few years, single-party rule in state government has generated higher taxes (I mean fees), burdensome business regulation, and even extreme laws that have been overruled by the U.S. Supreme Court. With more people leaving Colorado than moving in, a move toward moderation will stop the bleeding.

However, with Marx as the Republican nominee, the state’s continued march to the left is guaranteed. Weiser need not campaign to win. He can focus on helping candidates in down-ticket races with the aim of attaining a Democratic supermajority in the General Assembly. Come November, we can officially rename the Colorado Republican Caucus, the Colorado Republican Carcass.

While Democrats did not choose an exorcist as their candidate for governor, some of their choices were also less than prudent. In the 1st Congressional District race, Denver voters picked Melat Kiros, a fiery 29-year-old self-proclaimed democratic socialist, over 15-term Rep. Diana DeGette. The upset compares to Lauren Boebert����ap 2020 primary win against incumbent Scott Tipton in the 3rd Congressional District.

Boebert, who recently made news by mocking her colleague’s hospitalization for severe depression, has been a gift to Democrats since she took office. Will Kiros, whose writings have already gotten her fired once, tone down her rhetoric once in office, or will she, like Boebert, prove to be an embarrassment to the state? Time will tell.

In the 8th Congressional District, voters picked the more left-leaning Manny Rutinel over former lawmaker Shannon Bird. Bird would have given U.S. Rep. Gabe Evans a reason to worry. The swing district, rated “toss-up” by the Cook Political Report, includes both suburban and rural areas. Rutinel, a former vegan, has described animal agriculture as a “horrific, exploitative industry.” Now that he’s a candidate, Rutinel is trying to sound more supportive of the district����ap economic driver. It is doubtful voters will believe the convenient change of heart.

There was one race where the establishment candidate was not the best choice, but voters nevertheless picked a candidate with slim credentials and a track record of errors. Jena Griswold will now face Republican District Attorney Michael J. Allen in the race for attorney general. Because of her past performance as Secretary of State, Allen has a chance. In other blue states like Massachusetts and Maryland, Republicans occasionally secure a statewide office. It could happen here.

As Tuesday’s results show, Colorado can always expect the unexpected in elections.

Krista Kafer is a Sunday Denver Post columnist.

To send a letter to the editor about this article, submit online or check out our guidelines for how to submit by email or mail.

Bird conceded to Rutinel before 7:45 p.m., about the same time that the Associated Press called the race for Rutinel. Rutinel was leading nearly 62% to 34% over Bird, who herself formerly served in the Colorado House, as of early Wednesday afternoon.

“Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much,” Rutinel, 31, said to an excited crowd of around 100 people gathered at Las Dos Americas Tortilleria in Commerce City. “Together we fought, and together we will flip this seat in November.”

He immediately targeted Evans, his opponent in November, in his speech to supporters, criticizing the Republican for backing Trump administration policies that resulted in cuts to social programs.

“In Congress, I will restore funding for Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act,” Rutinel said, before exchanging hugs with former U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar and former Denver Mayor Wellington Webb on a makeshift stage in the restaurant.

Evans sent out a press statement after Rutinel won, saying Democrats had chosen a “far-left, radical socialist, Mamdani-wanna-be extremist,” a reference to New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani.

Bird, 57, immediately threw her support to her Democratic opponent as she addressed supporters at the Legacy Ridge Grill in Westminster.

“This was never about any name on the ballot,” Bird told about 40 supporters Tuesday evening. “… We need more than anything to win this seat. Democrats must flip Congress.”

Evan Munsing, a Democratic candidate in the race who suspended his campaign in May, was garnering nearly 5% of the vote.

Colorado’s 8th District, a politically competitive swath of Weld, Adams and Larimer counties north of Denver, is listed by national election watchers, including the Cook Political Report, as among 18 congressional races in the country that .

Colorado election results for the 2026 primary

Rutinel had positioned himself to the left of Bird, a former colleague in the legislature, in an election cycle that has proven . It became an exceedingly expensive affair as outside groups poured in more than $5.3 million on behalf of Rutinel or against Bird, plus around $3 million to help Bird or hurt Rutinel, according to Federal Election Commission data posted as of Friday.

The campaigns themselves have pulled in a ton of cash. Rutinel had the lead in the money game, with $4.1 million raised as of June 10. Bird collected $2.2 million through then. Both continued reporting significant donations throughout the final month.

Evans, 39, who was unopposed in the GOP primary, has raised the most money in the field, with nearly $4.9 million collected in this election cycle as of June 10. The first-term congressman had nearly $3.5 million in cash on hand -- nearly three times what his two Democratic opponents had combined on that date -- giving him a warchest for the fall.

Taylor Martinez, a volunteer for the Rutinel campaign who lives in Adams County, said at the watch party Tuesday that he thought Rutinel would "blow (Evans) out of the water" in November.

At age 32, Martinez said it was time for someone of his generation to take a seat in Congress.

"We need fresh new faces in Congress," he said.

But a complicating factor may be that Evans, a freshman lawmaker, is still relatively new and youthful.

Rutinel had repeatedly accused Bird of having gone soft on President Trump's mass-deportation agenda when she was in the state House. Bird, meanwhile, had slammed Rutinel for voting for a state budget that included cuts to Medicaid when he was in the state House this spring.

The 8th Congressional District, when drawn by a redistricting commission at its inception a few years ago, is Colorado's most Latino district. Nearly 39% of its 722,000 or so residents identify that way, according to data from the 2021 Colorado redistricting effort. Both Evans and Rutinel are Latino.

So far, it's been a true swing district. Democrat Yadira Caraveo won it in a close race in 2022, and Evans defeated her in 2024 by just under 1 percentage point.

Three days later, on Monday — the eve of today’s primary election — Attorney General Phil Weiser, his Democratic rival for governor, looked at his similarly sized group of volunteers in north Denver and shared a similar urging: “Until we’re across the finish line, this race is in the balance.”

Today, at 7 p.m., marks that finish line.

Voters across Colorado are set to decide a slew of nominating contests up and down the Democratic and Republican primary ballots, bringing to a close weeks of TV ads, mailboxes overstuffed with campaign literature, and (especially if they’re one of the fabled undecided likely voters) door knocking and phone calls.

Tonight — or, in the event of a close race, when ballot processing wraps up in the coming days — either Weiser or Bennet will emerge from a yearlong political battle as the Democratic nominee for governor. On the Republican side, voters will give the nod to either state Rep. Scott Bottoms, state Sen. Barb Kirkmeyer or self-described high-risk humanitarian Victor Marx to represent the GOP at the top of the ticket.

Colorado voter guide: Stories and explainers for the 2026 primary election

Primary voters will set the stage for the first open race for Colorado’s top elected position since Gov. Jared Polis won it in 2018. And along the way, they'll also decide the fates of a slew of other candidates, particularly on the Democratic side.

Longtime Democratic figures U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper and U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette each face primary challenges from a new generation of Democrats. Upset bids by state Sen. Julie Gonzales, who is facing Hickenlooper, and congressional hopeful Melat Kiros, a democratic socialist who's the leading challenger to DeGette, the highest-profile primary races in the country.

Democrats Shannon Bird and Manny Rutinel, former colleagues in the state House of Representatives, are squaring off for the chance to challenge U.S. Rep. Gabe Evans in the 8th Congressional District — one of the most competitive districts in the country and one that could swing the balance of power in Congress this November.

In other races, Jefferson County Clerk Amanda Gonzalez and state Sen. Jessie Danielson are vying for the Democratic nomination for secretary of state. Former federal prosecutor Hetal Doshi, Boulder County District Attorney Michael Dougherty, Secretary of State Jena Griswold and public interest attorney David Seligman are doing the same for attorney general. Both offices are open because of term limits.

Voters in the Republican primary will decide if El Paso County District Attorney Michael Allen or attorney David Willson wins the GOP nomination for attorney general.

Dozens more primaries for state legislative seats, other congressional races and more will be decided across the state.

But none of the races have earned the sustained attention, or the money, of the Democratic primary for governor.

Democratic primary draws $23 million

Democrats have won every general election for governor for more than 50 years, excepting Gov. Bill Owens' wins in 1998 and 2002. The total spending in this year's primary contest between Bennet and Weiser, at nearly $23 million, dwarfs that in the GOP race.

Recent polling showed sizeable support for each man, though 1 in 5 likely Democratic voters still hadn’t made up their minds and neither candidate cracked the 50% he’d need to win the contest.

“I think any candidate who’s any good should treat every race like it����ap a tough race,” Bennet said.

Bennet����ap entrance into the race in April 2025 landed like a meteor, clearing out several rumored candidates. His impact was emphasized by a laundry list of endorsements from Democratic stalwarts.

He’s won three statewide elections as a U.S. senator, each by a wider margin than the last. He touts Washington, D.C., experience that includes wins on public lands and a poverty-busting, though temporary, expansion of the federal Child Tax Credit. And before that, he highlights his time as superintendent of Denver Public Schools and in business working on corporate mergers for Phil Anschutz.

“I really do think we can stitch ourselves together, as Coloradans, to address the fundamental challenges that we’re facing,” Bennet said in an interview, citing concerns about water and fire and the rising costs of insurance and health care.

But Bennet also struck an existential note, one bigger than just his election.

“I think that we can demonstrate that our democracy can still work,” he added.

Weiser, in his pre-election pep speech to volunteers Monday, acknowledged head-on that many pundits and political observers said Bennet had the race in the bag from the moment the three-term senator decided to head home.

Weiser countered that he’d spent eight years lawyering for the state in a political career that started with a 5,000-vote win in the 2018 Democratic primary for attorney general. He has argued that experience helped him understand the ins and outs of governing, from enforcement to working with legislators to setting up and executing programs.

Even before Bennet announced his campaign, when most political observers expected a three- or four-person race for the Democratic nomination, Weiser said he had settled on running a race on his terms.

But in the closing hours of the primary, he also embraced the insurgent nature of his campaign.

That footing would be unexpected of most two-term attorneys general looking for higher office, but not when pitted against one of the most well-known political figures in the state — and, as Weiser hammered, against a campaign backed by gobs of outside money and a network built over nearly 20 years in Washington. (If Bennet loses, he'll have more than two years remaining in his Senate term.)

“We’re gonna win,” Weiser said. “And what I believe it����ap gonna say is that the electorate is looking for people that they know are fighting for them, who they can trust as authentic leaders, and that establishment — I call it BS — cynical politics turns them off. That����ap an important lesson for people to take on board.”

Yet state Sen. Barb Kirkmeyer, a Weld County Republican who checks all of those boxes, is millions of dollars behind the leading primary competitor in fundraising. She’s fighting to make the case that her experience — not a biography of bravado or no-compromise, conspiratorial conservatism��— makes her the best person to lead the state.

In a state party frequently consumed by infighting and suspicion toward the establishment, along with anyone who works with Democrats, her resume and record of collaboration have threatened to drag down her candidacy in the June 30 primary against Victor Marx and state Rep. Scott Bottoms.

But according to Kirkmeyer’s supporters, she represents the best chance for the GOP to finally emerge from nearly a decade in Colorado’s political wilderness.

“This governor’s race is going to help answer the question, ‘Is this party serious or not?’ ” Republican analyst and Kirkmeyer supporter Dick Wadhams said.

Wadhams, a former state GOP chairman, served as the campaign manager for Gov. Bill Owens in his first victory in 1998 — when he became the only Republican to win the governor’s office in the last 56 years.��

In an interview, Kirkmeyer described her motivation for running for governor as similar to what drove her to run for the state Senate in 2020.

Fresh off her latest stint on the Weld County commission, Kirkmeyer then saw Gov. Jared Polis and the legislature, newly in full Democratic control, as singling out agriculture and the oil and gas industry — and not listening to rural parts of the state.

“I got ticked off, because enough’s enough,” said Kirkmeyer. Earlier, as a commissioner in 2013, she’d played a part in Weld and several other counties asking voters whether they should secede from Colorado — a short-lived movement rooted in the state’s urban-rural divide that she argues was successful in getting state leaders’ attention, at least for a while.

Now, in Kirkmeyer’s view, the problems have only been exacerbated. As Democrats have deepened their control of the legislature, lawmakers regularly need to find $1 billion cuts to the state budget, and opponents can find plenty of surveys that point to rankings and — even as some studies rank Colorado’s and favorably.

“I’ve had enough, again,” Kirkmeyer said. “We’ve had one-party control for the last eight years, and they’ve made a mess out of our state.”

Former gov: Kirkmeyer is ‘the total package’

In the traditional sense, Kirkmeyer is easily the most experienced candidate in the GOP race. She spent 20 years as a Weld County commissioner, served a stint as the acting director of the Department of Local Affairs under Owens, and is now in her fifth year as a state senator. In 2022, she also ran a failed — but close — campaign for Congress in the new, hypercompetitive 8th Congressional District.

Owens, who served two terms between 1999 and 2007, again sees Kirkmeyer as the right person for the job — “the total package,” as he put it.

In particular, that long track record would bring a deep set of contacts for her to tap as governor, he noted. A governor makes hundreds of appointments — not just for people to run individual departments but to serve on policy-making boards like the Public Utilities Commission and the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission.

“She will bring in not only folks with government experience, but a lot of additional expertise in the private sector,” Owens said. “I feel like that’s been lacking in recent years. The bureaucracy has been heavily bureaucratized.”

A quick look at the Colorado governor candidates running in this month’s Democratic, Republican primaries

Since late 2022, the senator has served as one of six members on the Joint Budget Committee, helping to steer state spending and digging as deep as anyone into the nitty-gritty of how state government works. The influence she wields on the explicitly collaborative committee, even as one of just two Republicans, has made her one of the most powerful elected Republicans in the state, or even the most powerful one.

Senate Minority Leader Cleave Simpson, an Alamosa Republican and head of the caucus, heaped praise on Kirkmeyer. As a member of the JBC, Kirkmeyer's been able both to hold the line and, despite being outnumbered by Democrats by a ratio of 2-to-1 on the committee, to claim victories in cutting and defending priority programs, Simpson said.

This past year, Simpson credited Kirkmeyer with putting a time limit on how long the state could lower its reserve requirements to cope with the latest budget crunch. She also worked to limit Cover All Coloradans, the Medicaid-like program for immigrants without permanent legal status that had seen its costs explode.

"She's getting beat up sometimes in the primary world because she's JBC and she is voting for the budget,” Simpson said. “But she's doing everything she can from the minority position. … I give her a ton of credit for that."

Asset or weakness?

That experience, however, has also become a potential vulnerability for Kirkmeyer.

Marx, the fundraising leader in the race -- and a self-described "high-risk humanitarian" who leads a nonprofit — offered a tongue-in-cheek apology at a recent debate.

“An outsider, who no one knows, wasn’t supposed to step into this race and ruin your next step of being a professional politician,” Marx, who has never held public office, said to Kirkmeyer at a 9News-hosted debate in early June.

, an anonymous blog that polices conservatives to weed out so-called “Republicans in name only,” the “Evil Queen of Weld County RINOS” for her work on the state budget and other perceived offenses.��

"What a weird paradigm to be in,” Simpson said. “I've heard commentary on radio that she's just part of the problem from a conservative's perspective. Would you rather not have anyone there making arguments about whether the pendulum has swung too far?”

Despite Democrats' near-supermajorities, Kirkmeyer points to a number of accomplishments under the Gold Dome: She was a sponsor on legislation that eliminated the so-called negative factor that long shortchanged funding for education. She was a lead sponsor of legislation that lowered the state’s property tax assessment rates. And she was a lead sponsor of legislation that helped rural hospitals weather the drop-off in patients covered by Medicaid since the end of the pandemic, among others. All of those bills were bipartisan.

“The only people who like to spin (my experience) as a negative are the people who don’t have a record like I do,” Kirkmeyer said.

She also goes to the mat when she sees her values threatened. As a lawmaker, she was at the forefront of the campaign against Proposition HH, the 2023 legislature-referred ballot measure about property taxes and education funding that went down in flames.

She often leads long floor debates when she feels the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, the constitutional amendment that limits state spending growth and requires voter approval for tax hikes, may be threatened.

"I'm willing to work with people, willing to listen to them -- but when push comes to shove, I'll veto them,” Kirkmeyer said, adding that “we don’t compromise on the constitution."

Keying in on state constitution

That fealty to the state constitution also leads to some positions possibly out of line with other conservatives.

In 2024, Colorado voters overwhelmingly adopted Amendment 79, enshrining the right to an abortion in the state constitution. Kirkmeyer, who describes herself as "pro-life," opposed that change. But she says she respects the vote -- while also noting that the amendment does the state to pay for abortion services. That was enacted through a separate law passed by lawmakers.

“I will follow the will of the voters, and I will protect the constitution. That's what my job is as an elected official,” Kirkmeyer said. “But it doesn't change where my heart is on abortion."��

Owens called Kirkemeyer "a conservative's conservative." And just as importantly, he sees her as having the best chance to win.

"It is a fact that sometimes the experienced candidate is someone who actually has a record that can be criticized. But I would take experience in this case, with a record to prove my point that she is a solid conservative," Owens said.

Wadhams, the former party chair and Owens campaign manager, sees a vote for Kirkmeyer as a vote for a serious policy debate this fall. She would still face an uphill general election against a well-known and well-funded Democrat in blue-trending Colorado, but the debate would at least be focused on things like road quality and the state budget deficit, he said.

He said that nominating Marx, who won't say how many people he's killed, or Bottoms, who's made baseless claims of a statewide pedophile ring, would risk a wipeout for Republicans by miring the general election debate in one about background and fitness for office.

"What I've always seen (in Kirkmeyer) is one tough conservative woman who was very effective," Wadhams said. "There are people in my party, unfortunately, who would rather go with this boisterous, loud temperament that repels voters."

“Where do you stand in regard to ICE?” the woman asked, referring to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Rutinel, who was pressing the flesh on a hot, sunny afternoon��in Thornton’s Carpenter Park, was more than ready with an answer. President Donald Trump’s immigration policies and crackdown on people living in the country illegally have provided reliable talking points for the 31-year-old state representative from Commerce City.

“They’re terrorizing Latino immigrants,” Rutinel, whose mother immigrated to the United States from the Dominican Republic, told the couple. “It’s personal for me.”

Nearly 24 hours earlier and about seven miles away, Shannon Bird — the other Democrat running in the 8th Congressional District — was going door to door in the Sherrelwood neighborhood in Adams County. The former state representative carried a stack of campaign flyers emblazoned with the words: “Fight Trump. Stop ICE.”

Bird, 57, and Rutinel are facing off in the Democratic primary on June 30. They’re each hoping to go to battle this November with Republican U.S. Rep. Gabe Evans to represent the 8th District, which largely covers suburbs and farm fields across parts of three counties north of Denver.

The race revolves around the familiar issues Democrats have been bringing up since Trump regained the White House last year: immigration, the cost of living and the environment. But Bird and Rutinel, separated in age by 26 years, say they bring their own skill sets and perspectives to a district that has landed in the national spotlight.

“This is where you find out where people are at — what they’re all about,” said Bird, as a campaign aide used a smartphone to shoot footage of her walking along Douglas Drive. “I know the community — I have an authentic connection to the people in this community. To win, people have to know you care about them.”

Several people who opened their doors on that hot Friday afternoon pledged their vote to Bird, including 80-year-old Patricia Hall, who has lived in her Albert Court house since 1972.

For Hall, it comes down to Bird’s longevity in the district — a quarter-century of volunteering for Adams 12 Five Star Schools and serving on the Westminster City Council and at the state Capitol for the better part of two terms.

Rutinel has lived in Commerce City for four years, though he spent several additional months in the city in 2020, according to his campaign. Bird has lived in Westminster for 25 years.

“She’s been out talking to the people,” said Hall, who worried about Colorado’s experience deficit in the nation’s capital should U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet be elected Colorado governor this fall. “We gotta get some of the experience back in Washington.”

While the candidates are putting their feet to the ground to talk to voters, the much bigger outreach effort is happening on television and online. Between fundraising by both campaigns and a gush of spending by outside groups, the 8th Congressional District primary has turned into an expensive affair.

Bird and Rutinel together have raised more than $5 million, and outside groups have reported independent spending totaling nearly $5.8 million in the primary.

“The 8th District is still the race to watch,” said Robert Preuhs, a political science professor at the Metropolitan State University of Denver.

The district, Colorado’s newest, covers Denver’s northern suburbs and the agricultural land and oil fields stretching to Greeley. It could play a crucial role in determining control of a closely divided Congress in 2027, given its — a dynamic that has sent representatives from both major parties to Washington in less than four years.

Until recently, the Democratic primary was a three-person contest. But in late May, former Marine Evan Munsing called it quits. He did not immediately endorse anyone in the race.

With an animated — and often angry — Democratic voting base in this election cycle, Preuhs said such angst could play in favor of a relative newcomer to the district, like Rutinel, who has tried to push a more left-leaning��message on the trail.

“Voters are really looking for something different,” the professor said. “They’re seeking that candidate that can push back on ICE. I think he has a natural tie and attraction to Latinos in the district.”

The Latino factor and big outside money

The 8th District is Colorado’s most heavily Latino, with , according to data from the 2021 Colorado redistricting effort.��The Hispanic vote was thought to be a critical part of former U.S. Rep. Yadira Caraveo’s victory in 2022 over state Sen. Barb Kirkmeyer, according to an exit poll conducted during the election.

In late April, the Latino Victory Project pledged a on behalf of Rutinel, who it said “will protect our communities from MAGA’s extremist policies,” referring to Trump’s coalition. The progressive advocacy group spends in support of Latino candidates.

Since then, the group — and its political action committee, the Latino Victory Fund — have ramped up their spending, reporting nearly $1.9 million in independent expenditures in support of Rutinel or opposing Bird, . Another Latino-supporting group, SOMOS PAC, has reported spending nearly $898,000 to help Rutinel.

Those amounts are part of nearly $4.1 million spent by outside groups on ads, mailers and other activities in support of Rutinel or opposing Bird as of Friday. That sum includes $949,000 spent by You Can Push Back, a super PAC that lauds Rutinel’s sponsorship of Colorado artificial intelligence regulations.

Less outside money — $1.7 million, according to FEC filings — has been spent to help Bird, either in support of her or opposing Rutinel. About $1.3 million of that has come from Women Vote, a super PAC associated with Emily’s List, which supports women running for office.

In direct contributions, Rutinel holds a distinct money advantage over Bird, having raised nearly twice as much as she has — Just over two weeks from the primary election, their ads — and those bought by outside groups — have become fixtures on metro Denver TV screens.

Yazmin Torres, who owns the Neveria La Unica food truck, says she connects with Rutinel, a fluent Spanish speaker raised by a single mother. The candidate paid her a visit at Thorntonfest last weekend and she thanked him for his work on a 2025 bill that .

As a single mom herself, Torres said she felt a kinship with Rutinel. She also wanted to follow in his footsteps and become a lawyer. Rutinel earned his law degree from Yale University.

“My dream is to go to law school, so he’s an inspiration to do that,” she said. “It’s nice to have someone to represent us.”

But securing the Latino vote in the district is no guarantee of victory. In 2024, the showed a strong preference among Latino voters for Caraveo over Evans — by more than 20% — but Evans, who is also Latino, prevailed in that contest.

Bird, an attorney before getting into politics, has her own story of growing up with a single mother. She often recounts that her family stayed afloat by relying on tips from her grandmother’s casino dealer job in Reno, Nevada. Those are the kinds of economic struggles she hears from potential constituents while knocking on doors.

“The high cost of living — and now with the Iran war — the cost of gas,” Bird said. “And those energy costs spread throughout the economy.”

Her opponent’s decision to support a state budget this year that included cuts to Medicaid has become one of Bird’s campaign attack lines. At a late May candidate forum in Greeley, she told Rutinel and the audience that she would “absolutely not have voted to cut Medicaid.”

“He should have fought to use the rainy day fund to hold off the worst of these cuts,” Bird said in an interview with The Denver Post. “Both Gabe Evans and Manny Rutinel believe that cutting Medicaid is a way to pass a budget.”

Rutinel dismisses Bird’s allegations, saying he tried to save Medicaid funds in the Colorado budget but was unable to marshal the support amongst his colleagues to do so.

“I did the work to bring amendments to dip into the reserves further,” he said.

Rutinel said he grew up on Medicaid, so he knows its importance firsthand.

“Saving Medicaid is personal for me,” he said.

In turn, Rutinel regularly critiques Bird’s vote against a 2025 bill in the state House that aimed to further curtail federal immigration authorities’ access to public spaces in Colorado, from government buildings to libraries to public schools. He said he is “severely disappointed that Shannon Bird was the only House Democrat to vote against it.”

“She’s trying to pull a fast one,” Rutinel told folks hiding from the sun at the covered Brighton Writers Group booth at Thorntonfest. “We need to be fighting for the people who are struggling.”

Voters in the 8th District, he said, may have wanted more oversight at the southern border than what former President Joe Biden provided, but they don’t want the chaotic — and sometimes violent — mass deportation agenda of this president.

“People tell me Donald Trump and Gabe Evans were going to go after the criminals — and they’re going after the grandmas,” he said. “People are telling me they feel lied to.”

Plenty of agreement

Bird calls Rutinel’s accusation on the ICE bill apocryphal. She said her “no” vote on Senate Bill 276 happened during a committee hearing on the bill, which she said needed improvement before going to a floor vote in the House.

Bird said she regrets being absent the day the bill came up for a floor vote in the House a few weeks later — a missed vote she blames on a family medical emergency.

“It was one of the few votes I missed, and I regret that,” Bird told The Post earlier this year.

Rutinel, she said, has been using that bill to mischaracterize her position on ICE and Trump’s immigration policy. She says she has the only , with requirements for body-worn cameras and officers who are better vetted and trained.

“I think Manny has a record he can’t defend,” she said.

Immigration will prove an important issue in the 8th Congressional District, said Preuhs, the political science professor. Though ICE’s footprint in Colorado has been lighter than in other American cities, the issue is never far from a district with so many Latinos.

“You have a Democratic voting constituency that is adamantly against Trump and they’re looking for a strong advocate for their position,” Preuhs said.

But if the forum in Greeley last month showed anything, it’s that the two Democrats running for the nomination agree on much — including opposition to a federal ban on hydraulic fracturing to extract oil, support for a ban on oil and gas leases on federal land, and support for a boost in the federal minimum wage.

In recent weeks, Rutinel has been on the defensive after ��that he had reversed or softened past positions in support of a fracking ban, cancellation of student debt and a single-payer healthcare system. His campaign pushed back on some of the outlet’s characterizations.

The 8th Congressional District partially lies in Weld County, which is Colorado’s most prolific producer of oil and gas.��Agriculture is also a big presence in the district, and both Bird and Rutinel have slammed Trump’s tariffs, many of which were overturned in February by the Supreme Court, as unfriendly to farmers.

“Congress needs to pass legislation to make it clear who has the power to tariff,” Bird told The Post.

Rutinel, who was an economist for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers before getting into politics, was equally tough on the body he is vying to join when it comes to preserving its power of the purse.

“If we had a willingness from Congress to pull back these corrupt and chaotic tariff policies, we could bring down prices,” he said. “It’s putting so many of the family farms and ranchers at risk.”

Manny Rutinel, a state representative from Commerce City, deployed an attack line that he has been using for months on the campaign trail — that his opponent, former state Rep. Shannon Bird, voted against a 2025 bill that would have further curtailed immigration authorities’ access to government buildings, libraries and public schools in Colorado.

“I can’t tell you how much that hurt me and my family,” said the 31-year-old Rutinel, whose mother immigrated to the United States. “We need leaders who will stand up to Donald Trump.”

Bird, 57, said her opponent repeatedly has mischaracterized her vote, saying it happened during a committee hearing on the bill, which she said needed improvement before advancing to the full House. She fired back at Rutinel for his vote this session to pass the state budget, which included cuts to Medicaid to address a gigantic shortfall.

“I would absolutely not have voted to cut Medicaid,” she said.

Thursday’s event was organized and conducted by the Colorado Sun.

The candidates will square off on June 30 in the Democratic primary, with the winner going on to face Evans in November. Control of Congress is at stake in the midterms, with Republicans now holding a , with one independent and five vacancies.

Conspicuously absent from the stage in Greeley on Thursday was Evan Munsing, a Marine veteran who quit the race the day before, citing the stark financial advantages his two opponents hold.

Rutinel had outraised Munsing by nearly a factor of six, while Bird has brought in nearly three times the $600,000 or so Munsing had raised as of the end of March, according to the most recent campaign finance numbers posted with the .

Evans outguns them all, having raised nearly $4.3 million to Rutinel’s nearly $3.5 million at the end of March.

Bird and Rutinel also traded barbs on Bird’s decision to step down from the legislature in January to run for the 8th District, with Rutinel saying “she quit the legislature when her constituents needed her most.” Bird said she stepped down to put “150%” into her congressional campaign.

“I did not want a tax-funded salary while I was running,” she said.

The two candidates agreed on a number of things, including opposition to a federal ban on hydraulic fracturing to extract oil, support for a ban on oil and gas leases on federal land and support for a boost in the federal minimum wage.

The 8th Congressional District is home to many oil and gas operations.

On the subject of data centers, a hot topic, Bird and Rutinel said more guardrails are needed on the tech facilities, especially when it comes to their use of water and electric power. Bird said companies that build data centers have to account for their water use “so they are never competing with our limited water supply.”

Rutinel said data centers “should be using renewable energy as much as possible.”

Both candidates were in favor of exploring the idea of raising taxes on people making $400,000 to $500,000 a year to help pay for social programs. Bird said money being spent on the war in Iran, which she opposes, could be redirected to social programs in this country.

“We can afford so many programs, and don’t let the billionaires tell you otherwise,” Rutinel said.

The 8th Congressional District covers Greeley and a small chunk of Larimer County and then heads south into Adams County, taking in several suburban communities north of Denver, including Commerce City, Thornton and Northglenn. The district was created after the 2020 census revealed that population growth in Colorado merited adding an additional representative from the state to the congressional delegation in Washington.

It was deliberately drawn to be Colorado’s most politically competitive district, and in its first four years, it has had both a Democrat and a Republican in the seat. The Cook Political Report rates the 8th District as one of in the country this year.