Evans brought in more than $1.2 million during the first three months of 2026, according to federal campaign finance reports due Wednesday. He ended March with more than $3.4 million in the bank. That’s an eye-watering sum, easily surpassing the roughly $2 million that Evans’ Democratic predecessor, then-U.S. Rep. Yadira Caraveo, had gathered at the same point in early 2024.

Evans has no primary challenger, meaning he won’t need to start seriously spending his cash until after his Democratic opponent emerges from the June 30 primary.

In other federal races, U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper significantly outraised a state senator challenging him in the Democratic primary, while another incumbent — Republican U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert — was outraised by an even greater factor by her only remaining Democratic challenger in the state’s most conservative-leaning district.

The race for Evans’ 8th Congressional District seat, which sits in a rural-suburban area north of Denver, will be among the most closely watched contests in the country this fall. Two of the Democrats hoping to topple Evans have started marshalling their own financial resources.

State Rep. Manny Rutinel posted a strong quarter, hauling in more than $952,000 to bring his cash-on-hand total to more than $1.76 million. He raised more — and has banked more — than his former state House colleague, Shannon Bird, who joined the race a few months after Rutinel last year.

Bird raised nearly $567,000 in early 2026, and she ended the quarter with just over $1 million to play with as the primary season entered its final three-month stretch.

The third Democrat in the race, Marine veteran Evan Munsing, has outlasted several more established candidates — including Caraveo, who mounted a brief comeback campaign last year. But his fundraising has slipped farther behind Rutinel’s and Bird’s: Munsing raked in $115,000 last quarter, and he spent almost double that.

As a consequence, his cash pile has been halved, from the $213,000 at the end of 2025 to $108,000 at the end of March.

Between the three Democrats and Evans, the CD8 candidates raised more than $2.8 million over the last three months. Between them, the four candidates have nearly $6.4 million on hand.

More than half of that pile lies, waiting, in Evans’ coffers.

“I’m grateful for the outpouring of support from Coloradans who are ready to keep fighting for safer communities, a stronger economy and a more secure future,” Evans said in a statement Wednesday.

Here’s what else was revealed by the latest federal campaign finance reports, which came out just after the major parties’ primary ballots were finalized through assembly votes and petitioning.

Hickenlooper’s haul grows for primary challenge

In his Senate reelection race, Hickenlooper raised nearly $1.4 million last quarter, the first full reporting period since his primary challenger, state Sen. Julie Gonzales, entered the race. That’s more than he raised in the prior quarter.

Though he spent more than $1.2 million in the early part of 2026, the incumbent Democrat will still enter primary season with a hefty $4 million in the bank.

Gonzales, meanwhile, has reported more anemic fundraising. She raised more than $264,000 this past quarter, compared with the nearly $180,000 she posted in her first month in late 2025, showing a slowing pace. Her most recent total in the bank sat at just over $114,000.

In a blog post Wednesday, Gonzales acknowledged that her campaign was “living paycheck to paycheck.” But she appeared undaunted and said she raised $130,000 in the first week of April, after the reporting period’s end.

DeGette’s balance grows as challenger picks up pace

A different primary challenge is brewing in Denver’s 1st Congressional District.

U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette, a Democrat who’s been in Congress for nearly 30 years, is facing two Democratic opponents: University of Colorado Regent Wanda James and Melat Kiros, a lawyer and doctoral student who last month beat DeGette in an assembly nominating vote.

Whether that victory translates to an incumbent-toppling result in June remains to be seen. DeGette raised more than $263,000 last quarter, a bit more than she’d raised at the end of 2025. Her cash-on-hand total ticked up, too, and now sits at $636,000.

Kiros also saw a boost, bringing in more than $174,000, double her prior quarter’s total. With $118,000 in the bank, she trailed DeGette’s total entering primary season.

James’ fundraising went the opposite way. The regent raised more than $72,000 last quarter, below her fourth-quarter total last year. Her spending also ticked up, bringing her cash on hand down to just more than $54,000.

Boebert challenger keeps raking in cash. Will it matter?

Among Colorado’s incumbents in Congress, Boebert has long been a fundraising lightning rod. That remains true, even as she settles into the comfortably conservative 4th Congressional District, which covers Colorado’s Eastern Plains as well as Douglas County, after a district switch in the last election.

Eileen Laubacher, a retired rear admiral in the U.S. Navy, raised more than $2 million for the second consecutive quarter. After a big spend of $1.5 million, she still ended the quarter with more than $3 million in her campaign’s pocket. Another Democratic candidate, Trisha Calvarese, also had raised big money in her second run against Boebert before she dropped out two weeks ago.

Boebert, in contrast, raised just under $90,000 in the last three months, and she reported $160,000 on hand in late March.

It’s important to remember that Boebert now represents a district where, in a 2021 analysis, by more than 26 percentage points. In 2024, Boebert’s win wasn’t even half that — and .

Hurd amasses cash to defend Western Slope seat

In Boebert’s old 3rd Congressional District, her erstwhile Republican opponent, U.S. Rep. Jeff Hurd, is looking to defend a seat that’s reliably, if not comfortably, red. Hurd raised more than $609,000 last quarter, bringing his war chest to just under $2 million.

He also picked up a primary opponent at the Colorado Republican Party assembly last week — former state Rep. Ron Hanks — but his fundraising advantage is hefty.

Two Democrats are jockeying to take on Hurd in November. Alex Kelloff, a Snowmass businessman, has been in the race longer. He raised $192,000 last quarter, adding a bit to his cash-on-hand total of $458,000.

Kelloff’s newcomer primary opponent, fellow businessman Dwayne Romero, raised more than $505,000 in his first month in the race, and, after expenses, had slighty more on hand than Kelloff.

Democrat brings in cash to flip Colorado Springs district

Colorado’s other Jeff among Republican congressmen — Hurd’s fellow freshman, U.S. Rep. Jeff Crank —  raised $345,000 last quarter as he looks to defend the conservative 5th Congressional District. Crank’s war chest now tops $1.1 million.

His likely opponent, Democrat Jessica Killin, brought in nearly $670,000, bringing her on-hand total to more than $1.5 million. Army veteran Joe Reagan, who is challenging Killin for the Democratic nomination, raised $86,000 and ended the first quarter with $33,000 in the bank.

Democrats have been targeting the district, which — after Boebert’s current seat — is the most conservative in the state.

Incumbents’ cash hauls

While DeGette looks to ward off her primary opponents, Colorado’s three other Democratic members of Congress are without well-known Republican challengers. But they’re still slowly building up their campaign bank accounts.

U.S. Rep. Joe Neguse, of the Boulder-based 2nd Congressional District, brought his cash on hand to just under $3 million last quarter. U.S. Rep. Jason Crow, of Aurora’s 6th Congressional District, raked in nearly $940,000 to start 2026 (which, his campaign said, was his largest single-quarter haul), and he had more than $2.5 million under his campaign mattress.

U.S. Rep. Brittany Pettersen, whose 7th Congressional District covers the center of the state up through parts of metro Denver, had more than $915,000 on hand.

Those sums will allow the Democrats to support not only their own campaigns but others’ races and causes, too. Crow’s latest campaign finance report listed a nearly $60,000 contribution to the Rocky Mountain Immigrant Advocacy Network, for instance, while Neguse gave $35,000 to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

Gas prices are once again on the rise a month after the United States and Israel began bombing Iran, resulting in a severe crimp in the flow of oil through the Strait of Hormuz. And fingers are once again pointing at the party occupying the White House, now led by President Donald Trump.

But this time, the blame game has taken on a distinctly more digital and targeted approach as November’s midterm elections come into view.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee last week an ad campaign targeting Republican incumbents it believes are vulnerable in 44 congressional districts, including U.S. Reps. Jeff Crank in the Colorado Springs-based 5th District and Gabe Evans in the 8th District north of Denver.

The ultrashort six-second video ad with the words “D.C. Republicans Did That!” It’s being “geo-targeted” to people’s Facebook and Instagram feeds when they come within close range of select gas stations in either district.

“Now, when voters fill up at the pump, they’ll have yet another reminder that D.C. Republicans are squarely to blame for the price of gas, and everything else, being too damn high,” DCCC spokeswoman Courtney Rice said.

It’s no surprise that Democrats are taking advantage of elevated prices at the pump to gain political advantage, said Jon Krosnick, a political science professor at Stanford University. He co-authored a 2016 study titled which found that a 10-cent increase led to a 0.6-percentage-point drop in support.

The price for regular unleaded fuel in Colorado sat at an average a day before the war started in late February, according to AAA. On Friday, it averaged  — an increase of just over $1 from a month ago.

While November’s election is not a presidential one, Krosnick said there will very likely be crossover in terms of dissatisfaction toward the party in charge of Congress.

“Every Republican running for office should be worried about gas prices going up,” he said.

Gas prices play an outsized role in how people gauge the severity of inflation at any given moment, Krosnick said. On nearly every corner of major thoroughfares throughout the country, giant lighted signs display the price of petrol.

“There’s no other consumer good that is as advertised to consumers like gasoline,” Krosnick said. “Not everybody in the family may be filling up the car, but everyone is driving past gas stations every day.”

Though gas prices were appreciably higher under the Biden administration following Russia’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine — reaching a peak of $4.87 per gallon of regular-grade gasoline in Colorado in June of that year, according to — Krosnick said voters care about what’s going on now.

“It’s a present-focused decision,” he said.

A ‘mitigating factor’ in the 8th District?

That was the case for Michael Kondur, a handyman who was filling up his truck last week at a Valero station at West 88th Avenue and Pecos Street in Thornton, in Evans’ congressional district. The price there was a comparatively forgiving $3.69 per gallon for regular.

“It’s the first time I’ve had a full tank in three weeks — and it will be gone in three days,” he said, also using choice words to describe Trump and Republicans in general. “I run my own business with this truck and I don’t have food on my table. Any Republican has got to go.”

Across the street at a Maverik station, where the price for a gallon of gas was nearly 10 cents higher, Carolyn McDowell said she was able to part with only $30 to fill her Chevy Silverado’s tank halfway. Her husband, who works for the delivery service DoorDash, is taking a real hit.

“It’s impacting his ability to make money,” she said.

McDowell said she’s against war in Iran, a stance that is in line with 61% of Americans who also disapprove of the conflict, according to a conducted between March 16 and March 22. The poll also found that 45% of respondents felt the military action was not going well, while 25% felt it was going extremely or very well.

Former Colorado GOP Chair Dick Wadhams, who has run his share of political campaigns, said there is no doubt that gas prices pose a problem for Evans, who’s seeking reelection in Colorado’s most politically competitive district, and Crank, who won comfortably in 2024 but is being targeted by Democrats more aggressively this year.

“The price of gas as it relates to inflation and the cost of living was a big part of Trump beating Harris in 2024,” he said of Trump’s defeat of then-Vice President Kamala Harris. “Democrats will try to make (gas prices) an issue right through November — there’s no doubt about it. The Republicans are in a vulnerable position.”

But there is a “mitigating factor,” Wadhams said, that Evans should be able to use to fight back in the 8th District — which covers a large chunk of Weld County, home to Colorado’s most productive oil and gas field.

“Gabe has a good argument against Democrats that they want to kill the oil and gas industry,” he said.

Two years ago, Democrats in the state legislature floated a bill that aimed to halt the issuance of new oil and gas permits by the end of 2029, a proposal that raised hackles in the industry. Lawmakers eventually .

In December, Republican state lawmakers attacked the Public Utilities Commission’s approval of a “clean heat” plan requiring Colorado’s larger utilities that supply natural gas to homes and businesses to substantially lower emissions over the next decade. The plan, they asserted, amounts to a mandate that forces families to buy “costly heat pumps, retrofits and electric appliances” to switch from gas to electricity.

This month, the influential environmental group Conservation Colorado filed ballot measures with the state elections office that would slap stricter penalties on the energy industry for the pollution and contamination that result from its operations.

In a , the group said it filed the measures to filed by the conservative political action committee Advance Colorado that would enshrine in the state constitution the right of producers to sell natural gas in the state and the right of consumers to use the energy source in their homes and businesses.

A spokeswoman for Evans’ campaign who declined to give her name called the Democrats’ stance on gas prices “hypocritical” in a statement.

“For years, they have pushed radical climate policies and overregulation, banning natural gas for residential heating, eliminating jobs for hardworking families, and handcuffing the very oil and gas workers who ensure reliable and affordable resources for Coloradans,” her statement read. “Now they expect us to believe they care about gas prices?”

Potentially bleak forecast

Republicans don’t just have gas prices to worry about — diesel prices are even worse.

Where a gallon of diesel fuel came in at $3.52 a month ago, , on Friday it hit $4.94.

Twenty percent to 25% of the operating cost for a long-haul trucker is fuel, said Greg Fulton, the president of the Colorado Motor Carriers Association, which represents more than 500 trucking companies in the state.

“This has come at a very difficult time for the industry,” he said of the spike in energy prices. “This is a situation where profit margins are very thin already.”

During the last peak in oil prices in 2022, Fulton said, some of that sticker shock was offset by the fact that more freight was on the road because consumers were buying more goods to accommodate new stay-at-home lifestyles set in motion by the coronavirus pandemic.

“They were able to pass along the increases easier,” Fulton said of his industry.

Trump’s widespread tariffs have made things even more constrained for trucking companies when it comes to trying to keep operating expenses down these days, he said.

“Hopefully this is more of a short-term situation,” he said.

While Iran last week , oil transport through the vital waterway was still badly hobbled by the war. Al Salazar, the director of research at oil and gas analysis firm Enverus, said the longer the strait was choked, the longer gas prices would stay high.

If the Strait of Hormuz were to remain largely closed through the end of May, Enverus projected that Brent crude prices would stay around $95 a barrel through this year and edge up to $100 a barrel in 2027. That’s because it would take time to replenish all the tanks and oil-holding facilities that are being tapped now, Salazar said.

“By the time the flow is fixed, your stocks (of oil) have all drawn down and you’re left at alarmingly low levels,” he said.

Trump is reversing the many years of rising crime and chaos inflicted on families under Democrat rule. The American people asked for safer streets and secure borders, and today, GOP-led policies are delivering measurable results.

shows violent crime is plummeting across major U.S. cities between 2024 and 2025. Homicides fell 19%, robberies dropped 20% and aggravated assaults were down nearly 10% in 2025 across 67 of the nation’s biggest police departments. These improvements came after Americans rejected soft-on-crime and defund-the-police policies, which resulted in a spike in crime over the previous 4 years. .

In just one year, the Trump Administration has captured who collectively evaded accountability for their crimes and delaying justice for half a century – that����ap more than were captured the entire four years under Biden. In Washington, D.C., , one of the lowest monthly totals recorded.

These trends are not happening by accident.

Empowering federal law enforcement to do their jobs in soft-on-crime cities and states, supporting cops, and holding criminals accountable sets a precedent that Republicans are serious about their promises to Make America Safe Again.

GOP-led immigration policies are keeping American citizens safe from bad actors, including murderers, rapists, and traffickers who pose serious threats to our communities. In fact, a drug and immigration enforcement operation in Adams County resulted in the arrest of dozens of Tren de Aragua gang members running a makeshift nightclub where weapons, cash, and drugs, including cocaine and Tusi, were seized. For those criminals, there is zero tolerance — they should be immediately deported or imprisoned, and sanctuary jurisdictions that give them safe harbor must be held accountable.

Through the implementation of strong border policies, fentanyl trafficking across the southern border has been slashed in half, leading to fewer overdose deaths devastating American families. Every 15 days under the previous administration, more Americans died as a result of drugs than were killed on 9/11. As a combat veteran of the Global War on Terror, this fight is personal. Republicans and President Trump are putting a stop to the peddling of deadly drugs coming through our southern border and poisoning Americans.

While our public safety policies are delivering results, there is still more work to be done. Safer streets require sustained leadership and cooperation from state and local governments who are equally vested in the security of our nation, but our direction is clear. President Trump and Republicans in Congress are leading the country in a renewed effort to support law enforcement, protect or communities, and save American lives.

As the nation listens to President Trump’s State of the Union address, Americans will hear a record of measurable progress. From declining crime rates to strengthened border enforcement, the policies shaping today’s public landscape are making a tangible difference.

As your Congressman, I remain committed to advancing common-sense legislation to maintain border security, secure our streets, and ensure the United States remains a nation where communities can live, work, and raise a family without fear.

U.S. Rep. Gabe Evans represents Colorado’s 8th Congressional District in Adams, Weld and Larimer counties.

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Two years later, that margin landed at a still-slender 2,449 votes. Advantage: Republican.

Political watchers expect another close call in November, given the politically competitive makeup of the four-year-old district that stretches from Denver’s northern suburbs to Greeley and Larimer County. But who will end up victorious in the 8th District, which , is where people are laying their bets.

“It’s in the top 10 pickup opportunities for Democrats,” said Erin Covey, the U.S. House editor for the Cook Political Report. “Democrats only need to flip three seats to take control of the House. This is going to be on the front lines of the Republican defense.”

Three Democratic challengers have emerged from a field that just a few months ago was twice as large. They are state Rep. Manny Rutinel, attorney and former state Rep. Shannon Bird, and Evan Munsing, a former U.S. Marine and an investment firm adviser.

They must battle it out amongst themselves in the June 30 primary before one of them goes on to face freshman Rep. Gabe Evans in the Nov. 3 general election.

On paper, things look tough for Evans, a former state lawmaker himself.

Historically, midterm elections have gone poorly for the party that occupies the White House. Democratic victories in gubernatorial races in Virginia and New Jersey last November — and — may be a harbinger of things to come.

“It should be a good cycle for Democrats,” Covey said.

Add to that mix a polarizing president with , an uncertain economy and chaotic recent scenes from Minneapolis, where two protesters were fatally shot by federal agents last month during an immigration crackdown.

The main strategy for the Democratic field in the 8th District is clear: Make it about Trump.

“Gabe Evans has a track record of doing what Donald Trump wants, even if it hurts our district,” Bird said. “We have a current representative who is rolling over for this administration.”

Rutinel said Evans is “just interested in going along.”

“Trump says jump, and Gabe Evans says how high,” he said.

Evans said that’s not true. He points to a letter he and other GOP members of Congress sent to President Trump in October from Argentina. He has also advocated a different approach from the administration to dealing with migrants who are in the country illegally.

Democratic hopefuls in the race would be wise to restrain their most progressive impulses, said Robert Pruehs, a political science professor at Metropolitan State University of Denver. Elections in Colorado’s 8th District have very much turned on candidates successfully wooing independents, the district’s largest voting bloc.

“You need to have a broad coalition in this kind of district,” he said. “The unaffiliated voters in the general election are going to demand some moderation.”

Rutinel, who has lived in Commerce City for five years, says the race is “personal for me.” He was brought up by a single mother in a house that was foreclosed on during the Great Recession. At 31, he is the youngest candidate in the race. He sees a piece of himself in the district’s working-class voters.

Of the Democratic contenders, Bird, 56, has had by far the longest tenure — 25 years — in what became the 8th District, Colorado’s newest seat in Congress, when it was drawn following the 2020 census. A former Westminster city councilwoman and a state lawmaker since 2019 — she resigned last month to focus fully on her congressional campaign — Bird was also brought up by a single mom. Tips from her grandmother’s casino dealer job in Reno, Nevada, sustained the family, she said.

As the only Democratic candidate with military experience, Munsing said he would be the best choice to take on Evans, a former Army Blackhawk helicopter pilot who served in the Middle East. Munsing, 37, was deployed to Afghanistan in 2013.

“If we want to go toe-to-toe with him, we need a veteran and a businessman,” said Munsing, who has lived in the district for about a year.

Covey, with the Cook Political Report, said the frontrunner position in the Democratic race is as yet unfilled. Rutinel , but there’s still a long way to go until the end of June, she said.

“I would say this race is pretty wide open,” Covey said.

Immigration at the crux

Immigration policy will likely be one of the more salient issues in the 8th Congressional District race.

The district has the highest proportion of Latinos among Colorado’s eight congressional districts, with about 40% of the population identifying as such when it was created. Weld County is home to numerous large farms and food production businesses that hire immigrant workers — including the U.S. headquarters of JBS, part of the world’s largest meatpacking company.

“The real issue is, how is Gabe Evans going to respond to ICE activity over the next eight months?” Pruehs said. “The onus is on the Evans campaign to distance him from the Trump administration.”

Evans, 39, of Fort Lupton, believes the priority should be on the apprehension of those who are in the country illegally and have committed crimes. As Trump’s mass-deportation efforts ramped up in his first few months back in the White House, Evans joined five members of the Congressional Hispanic Conference in sending a letter to ICE leadership expressing concern “that your limited resources may be stretched to pursue individuals that do not constitute an immediate threat to public safety.”

In an interview with The Denver Post last week, Evans said he has been “very consistent on immigration.”

“Secure the border, go after the bad guys and have some sort of pathway forward for the people who aren’t causing problems and are integrated into our economy,” he said.

But that’s not what’s happening, said Rutinel, who has called for impeaching Kristi Noem, Trump’s Homeland Security secretary. Her department oversees ICE.

“People voted for order, security and safety — instead they’re getting chaos and danger,” he said. “What’s happening under the Trump administration should terrify every American.”

Munsing says Evans hasn’t been nearly loud enough in highlighting the abuses committed by ICE agents and other officers involved in immigration crackdowns, including the “deeply troubling” deaths of protesters Renée Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis last month. He said ICE agents are poorly trained and have .

“We need to get rid of warrantless arrests. Racial profiling and indiscriminate arrests based on how people look and their accent has been very troubling to people here,” Munsing said. “We should fire all these people who were hired since Trump got into office and bring the (ICE) budget back to where it was in 2024.”

Evans, a former police officer, said he opposes ICE agents entering homes without a search warrant.

“I was a cop for 10 years — you got to have a search warrant to go into a house,” he said. “So I disagree with the ICE memo that says they don’t need a search warrant to go into houses.”

On the first anniversary of the start of Trump’s second term on Jan. 20, the Department of Homeland Security that 70% of those arrested by ICE were “convicted criminals or have criminal charges.” During Trump’s first year back, the agency said, ICE arrested more than 43,000 people who posed a potential national security risk and apprehended more than 1,400 known or suspected terrorists. It has made 7,000 gang arrests, according to the administration.

Earlier this month, CBS News it obtained revealed that less than 14% of nearly 400,000 immigrants arrested by ICE in Trump’s first year had charges or convictions for violent criminal offenses. Other watchdog groups and news organizations that have scrutinized ICE data have questioned the administration’s characterizations of those arrested, too.

But Evans’ said the CBS report was “100% muddying the waters,” given that offenses like distribution of child pornography, human smuggling, drug dealing, burglary and drunken driving fall into the nonviolent category.

Bird said the idea that ICE can’t adhere to the law when apprehending criminals who are in the country illegally is a “false choice.”

“ICE needs to be held to the exact same standards as every other law enforcement agency,” she said.

While immigration enforcement may be a difficult issue for Evans, the congressman might gain political traction by turning to the nation’s plummeting crime rate.

According to a January report from the , homicides were down 21% in 2025 compared to President Joe Biden’s final year in office, while there were 9% fewer aggravated assaults, 22% fewer gun assaults and 2% fewer domestic violence incidents.

Evans’ Democratic opponents say that improvement has little to do with Trump.

“Nice job for trying to take credit for something that happened at the state level,” Bird said, citing her support for bills in the state house that clamped down on auto and catalytic converter theft.

Evans scoffed at the former state lawmaker’s assertion.

“Gee, what happened across the country starting in 2025?” he said. “It’s not because under Joe Biden, blue cities forgot how to police — and then under Trump, blue cities all of a sudden started policing again. It’s because of federal law enforcement going after the known bad guys, the professional bad guys, the cartels, the drug dealers, the organized criminals.”

Prices, tariffs also in play

Perceptions of the economy’s health will undoubtedly take center stage this fall, Covey said, and Evans’ fate — and that of the party in power — will be tied to its performance.

The inflation rate has fallen sharply from its peak of 9% in 2022, and it more than some economists expected. But what matters is how voters feel about their financial situations come fall.

“The economy more broadly is going to be the driving issue,” she said. “A lot of people are dissatisfied with the way Trump is handling the economy as opposed to his first term.”

Affordability, Bird said, is the top concern she hears from voters while campaigning. That includes prices at the grocery store, but more notably a projected doubling of health insurance premiums for the 320,000 Coloradans who had been receiving now-expired enhanced pandemic-era subsidies on the individual marketplace.

Meanwhile, Trump’s tariff policies have been at the heart of the cost-of-living problem, she said.

“For our ranchers and farmers, there’s a fear of retaliatory tariffs and trade wars,” Bird said.

In a momentous decision Friday, the Supreme Court struck down the sweeping “reciprocal” tariffs the president had levied on nearly every other country last spring. The majority found that the Constitution “very clearly” gives Congress the power to impose taxes, which include tariffs.

Rutinel, who worked as an economist for the Army Corps of Engineers, said the residents of the 8th District have been paying the price for Trump’s import taxes.

“You don’t have to be a trained economist to see how tariffs are essentially a natural sales tax on all consumers and that they will bear the brunt of the costs,” Rutinel said. “What the folks in the district are telling me is they feel they’ve been lied to.”

This month, the nonpartisan Tax Foundation calculated that Trump’s tariffs of $1,000 per American household in 2025, an amount projected to increase to $1,300 this year.

While inflation has been tamed from the runaway prices under the previous administration, Munsing said the impacts of the White House’s tariffs are still working their way through the economy. Businesses, along with farmers and ranchers in the 8th District, are having trouble planning the year out because of the uncertainty, he said.

“They’re getting to the point where they have to pass these costs along,” Munsing said. “They survived COVID, they survived supply chain disruptions — and they are hearing from customers who are worried about prices going up.”

For Evans, Covey thinks he had a “potentially missed opportunity to separate himself from the president.” He chose not to join fellow Colorado Republican U.S. Rep. Jeff Hurd, who — along with five GOP House members — that Trump has used as the basis for imposing tariffs on Canada.

Evans said that while tariffs are challenging for the agriculture and ranching sectors, lopsided trade arrangements that hurt American producers are no better.

“So yeah, long term, big picture: I’m totally a free trade guy, but free trade has to be fair trade,” he said.

June 30 primary comes first

Before a Democrat can face off against Evans this November, they have to face off against each other in June.

Rutinel, who was first to jump into the race at the beginning of 2025, has raised the most money of the three — with $2.5 million taken in as of the end of 2025. Bird has raised $1.2 million and Munsing has collected nearly $500,000.

The race has gelled in recent months as other candidates have dropped out, including Colorado Treasurer Dave Young; Amie Baca-Oehlert, the former president of the state’s largest teachers union; and former U.S. Rep. Yadira Caraveo, the first person to hold the seat.

Evans has one challenge from his own party. But that candidate, Adam Derito, has raised less than $30,000 to Evans’ more than $3 million haul.

Among the Democrats, Munsing fired the first big campaign salvo this month.

He accused Bird of being too soft on ICE by voting against a 2025 bill in the state House. Senate Bill 276 attempted to further curtail federal immigration authorities’ access to public spaces in Colorado — from government buildings to libraries to public schools — and limited local governments’ ability to share information with those authorities.

“Shannon Bird continues to bury her head in the sand and hope that voters are not going to pay attention to the vote that even perplexed her colleagues in the state legislature,” his campaign wrote in a Feb. 12 news release.

Last week, Rutinel weighed in on SB-276 too, saying he co-sponsored the law “to protect our immigrant neighbors from ICE brutality.” He said he and his Democratic colleagues were “severely disappointed that Shannon Bird was the only House Democrat to vote against it.”

Bird said her “no” vote on SB-276 happened during a committee hearing on the bill. She thought the bill needed improvement before getting her support, she said. When the bill came up for a vote on the full floor of the House a few weeks later, she was absent due to a family medical emergency.

“It was one of the few votes I missed, and I regret that,” Bird said.

She said she would have voted yes on the final go-around.

With Rutinel having been elected to the state House only once and Munsing having no experience in public office, Bird said she is the most viable candidate to defeat Evans in November.

“I’m the only one in this race to win a contested election and to do it five times,” she said.

Pruehs, the political science professor, said the Democratic candidates can stake out positions on the left up until the primary election. Then, in a district so evenly divided along partisan lines, they will need to artfully and nimbly steer to the political middle as November draws closer.

“There is a need to make sure your message isn’t so far afield that you can’t attract more moderate voters,” he said.

The new map, proposed by Coloradans for a Level Playing Field, would give Democrats an advantage in seven of Colorado’s eight congressional seats — but not until 2028 at the earliest, unlike in several other states to benefit Republicans or Democrats in this year’s election. Colorado’s eight seats currently are evenly divided between Democrats and Republicans, with the GOP winning the only true swing district in 2024.

Curtis Hubbard, a spokesman for the group, said in a statement that the proposal seeks to push back against redistricting proposals in Republican states that have been championed by President Donald Trump.

“No one wanted to have to take this action — independent redistricting is the ideal,” Hubbard said. “But with Donald Trump and MAGA Republicans actively working to rig congressional elections, resulting in the potential gain of up to 27 seats in Congress, Colorado must join other states in countering this unprecedented power grab.”

Colorado voters approved a pair of bipartisan amendments to the state constitution in 2018 that tasked independent redistricting commissions with drawing its congressional and state legislative maps. The congressional map that took effect in 2022 has resulted in one extremely competitive seat, the 8th Congressional District; four with a Democratic advantage; and three that lean Republican.

The state is now represented by a 4-4 split of Democrats and Republicans in Congress, even as the state had trended distinctly blue in recent statewide elections.

The new proposals, which were filed for on Wednesday, would pause the independent redistricting map for the 2028 and 2030 elections. The independent commission would draw a new map following the 2030 census to be used for the 2032 election.

The move was criticized by the campaign of U.S. Rep. Gabe Evans, the Republican who won the 8th District race in 2024, unseating a Democratic incumbent.

“For years, Colorado Democrats lectured everyone about the sanctity of the independent redistricting commission and claimed it was the gold standard for fairness,” spokeswoman Alexandria Cullen said. “Now that Coloradans have elected four Republicans to Congress, they want to change the rules. This isn’t about fairness — it����ap a partisan power grab to protect their failing extreme agenda from the will of Colorado voters.”

Coloradans for a Level Playing Field filed several proposed ballot measures, a common tactic by advocacy groups to ensure the title board approves one or more.

The proposed map would have seven of Colorado’s eight congressional districts reach into Denver, Boulder or their suburbs and outlying areas — all places with strong Democratic leans. It would leave Colorado’s 4th Congressional District, currently represented by U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert, covering the state’s Eastern Plains but ceding some of Douglas County.

Hubbard said his group hopes for an initial hearing by the state’s title board in March and for final approval in April. Backers would then have until Aug. 3 to gather to land the measure on the November ballot.

The independent redistricting commission was created via a voter-approved constitutional amendment. Hubbard’s group filed initiatives for both statutory and constitutional changes in case officials allow for the first option, which is easier to petition onto the ballot.

It would need about 125,000 signatures for a statutory change. For a constitutional change it would need that same number of signatures but with a geographic representation requirement, including support from at least 2% of all voters from each of Colorado’s 35 state Senate districts.

A statutory change would need majority support from voters in November to become law, while a constitutional change would require at least 55% support.

Hubbard declined to name the group’s financial supporters ahead of a May filing deadline with the Colorado Secretary of State’s Office.

“We believe we have the support and resources to get this passed in November,” Hubbard said in an interview.

‘We will challenge these,’ conservative group says

Michael Fields, the president of the conservative advocacy group Advance Colorado, promised to fight the measures.

The independent redistricting measures from 2018 had each declared that “political gerrymandering … must end,” and each was approved by more than 70% of voters, he said.

“After reviewing these hyper-partisan ballot measure proposals, we believe that they clearly violate the single-subject provision of our state constitution,” Fields said in a statement. “We will challenge these at Title Board — and up to the Colorado Supreme Court, if necessary.”

Nationally, Republicans kicked off the redistricting war last year in response to the potential of losing seats in the 2026 midterm election, and Democrats responded with their own plans.

Redistricting plans in Texas, Missouri, North Carolina and Ohio, with another proposal proposed in Florida. Texas lawmakers have already approved a new map that could net Republicans five additional seats in November. Republican officials in Missouri and North Carolina have also approved new maps to benefit the GOP in upcoming elections.

In Democratic states, voters in California last fall approved a new map that could net Democrats five more seats. Voters in Virginia will decide in April on letting its lawmakers redraw maps to benefit Democrats ahead of the November midterms.

Court rulings or legislative efforts also could affect congressional districts in New York, Maryland and Utah.

In all, those proposals and efforts may largely counteract each other when it comes to the congressional balance of power, according to The New York Times. by the news organization found that, taken together, the new maps could give Democrats a net advantage of two seats or Republicans a three-seat advantage, depending on how specific scenarios play out.

Hubbard also noted from the U.S. Supreme Court that could undo key provisions of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, which bans racial discrimination in voting. Such a ruling could open up further .

“We can sit back and do nothing, or we can take action to approve temporary maps that will help keep our elections on a level playing field,” Hubbard said of his group’s proposal.

Separately, Trump has also called for Republicans to “” voting as he continues to push disproven theories of widespread voter fraud.

Reaction to Colorado proposal

The new Colorado proposal has drawn reactions that fall along partisan lines, including from the state’s members of Congress and candidates in various races this year.

“We cannot sit idly by as a target of Trump’s retribution and depravity,” U.S. Rep. Brittany Pettersen, a Democrat who represents the 7th Congressional District, said in a statement that signaled support for the temporary map. “We must use every chance we have to stand up and fight back and ensure Colorado voters have a choice.”

Zach Kraft, a spokesperson for the Republican National Committee, called the proposal “gerrymandering at its worst and a blatant power grab by a sketchy, dark-money Democrat organization that refuses to disclose who its donors are.”

Besides Evans, the Republican lawmakers who would be most affected by the new map proposal — U.S. Reps. Jeff Hurd and Jeff Crank — did not return messages seeking comment Wednesday. The Colorado Democratic Party did not provide comment.

Sara Loflin from the left-leaning group ProgressNow Colorado praised the effort. Her group supported Amendment Y, which created the state’s independent congressional redistricting process, because “that was at a time when we all believed that the country was coming out of this Donald Trump, authoritarian” moment.

But she said the redistricting fight nationally, urged on by Trump, called for changes.

“We’re happy about it because Donald Trump forced our hand,” she said. She added that she thought the proposal in Colorado was more democratic than Texas’s redistricting plan, since Colorado voters would get a chance to accept it instead of the change coming through a legislative approach.

Gov. Jared Polis, a Democrat, avoided taking a position on the redistricting effort through a spokeswoman, who said he’d review any ballot measures closer to the election.

The gathering was small, and it seemed dwarfed by the large room where the bill’s supporters had assembled. They’d repeatedly delayed the proposal, and tweaked its scope, amid lingering concerns from Gov. Jared Polis — who months earlier welcomed immigration authorities’ presence in the state to help arrest “dangerous criminals.”

The delayed and low-key nature of that April news conference would make for a stark contrast with the unveiling of another round of immigration legislation just 10 months later.

At that rally last week, legislators gathered outside the state Capitol to launch a package of immigration bills drafted in response to President Donald Trump’s mass-deportation agenda. The group, with lawmakers flanked by dozens of supporters and advocates, filled most of the building’s west steps and spilled onto the concrete below.

The crowd chanted “Abolish ICE!” as legislators described plans to prevent anyone who’d worked for the agency from joining a Colorado police department, while tightening rules around detention centers and allowing Coloradans injured by federal authorities to sue them.

The events’ contrasts are emblematic of the shift on immigration — in rhetoric and, to some degree, in policy — among Colorado’s majority Democrats after a year of unprecedented enforcement. While Colorado has not been visited by the quasi-militarized surges of Minneapolis or Los Angeles, the state saw more than 3,500 immigration arrests over the course of Trump’s first nine months in the White House.

Graphic footage of federal agents’ killings of people in Minneapolis and high-profile operations in Denver, Aurora, Colorado Springs, Durango and affluent parts of the high country brought the Trump administration’s immigration agenda to the doorsteps of lawmakers and the Democratic base that elected them.

Some state legislators likened the current moment to the weeks after the 2020 police killing of George Floyd, which helped unify Democratic lawmakers and spurred the passage of a marquee police oversight bill in Colorado.

Identifying a problem and agreeing on a solution is rarely a straight line in politics, and whether Democratic lawmakers’ comfort with criticizing ICE translates into full agreement on policy changes remains to be seen. Democrats nationwide are just starting to probe the scale of growing anti-ICE sentiment, and Polis, in a statement to The Denver Post, was lukewarm and “skeptical” about additional immigration measures.

Though he said he was open to the discussions, “I think we have to be mindful of what we already have on the books.”

But lawmakers here, particularly those who have long worked on immigration legislation, are preparing far-reaching measures as a response to what they’ve seen in the past 12 months. While last year they waited on negotiations with the governor, they’ve moved more swiftly this time around.

Less than three weeks before the rally, on the first day of the 2026 legislative session, the lawmakers had already introduced , which would allow Coloradans injured by immigration authorities to file lawsuits against those agents. And they were publicly describing plans for two more, both tabbed for introduction later in February, that would, among other things, further tighten laws around ICE cooperation and remind local police that they can detain federal agents during an investigation.

“Because Trump is so unpredictable, (Democratic) leadership, in general, really were wanting to take a more reserved measure on immigration” last year, said Rep. Lorena Garcia, an Adams County Democrat who sponsored the 2025 bill and is involved in this year’s package. “But we were still able to get a pretty bold bill out of here. And yet still it’s not enough.

“I would say the legislature (this year) is actually saying we have to be more aggressive in protecting Coloradans. And the community’s been calling for it.”

‘They’re not scared,’ advocate says of lawmakers

After Trump won reelection in 2024 with a campaign focused on immigration and pledges to deport millions of people without proper legal status, Democrats across the country wondered whether the party needed to toughen its position on immigration.

Spring showed majority support for ICE raids, the use of military personnel at the U.S.-Mexico border and the banning of so-called “sanctuary” policies in cities that limit cooperation with federal immigration authorities.

In Colorado at the time, some state lawmakers had privately worried that passing a bill strengthening the state’s sanctuary-like laws would only draw the ire of Trump, said Alex Sánchez, the head of the high country-based Voces Unidas, an immigrant-rights group.

Those conversations are different this year, he and others said.

While Colorado Republicans have generally defended immigration enforcement — if not fully embracing how it’s being carried out — a different breeze is blowing among Democrats, from those who control the state Capitol to the candidates vying to unseat a Republican congressman in the suburbs north of Denver.

“The biggest change I’ve seen is they’re actually talking about (immigration), and they’re not scared,” Gladis Ibarra, the co-executive director of the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition, said of federal and state lawmakers. “It’s not across the board. But it’s been a clear shift.”

The intensive surge of immigration authorities into several blue states, and the killing of Renée Good and Alex Pretti by federal agents in Minneapolis last month, helped swing public opinion against Trump’s immigration agenda. In his statement to The Post, Polis said the “images from the last year, especially the last few weeks, are incredibly disturbing.”

Some Colorado lawmakers pointed to public polling that has shown increasing opposition to ICE’s practices. A new nationwide found that 34% of nearly 1,200 voters interviewed in late January and early February supported how ICE was enforcing immigration laws — a 6-percentage-point drop from two weeks prior. Sixty percent said Trump’s treatment of undocumented immigrants had been too harsh.

Latinos are the largest ethic minority group in Colorado, and 40% of those polled last year said they or their communities feared being arrested by ICE. All of the poll’s respondents were U.S. citizens.

Every month has seemed to bring news of a new and controversial arrest, from a father and two children in Durango or a prominent activist in Denver to a schoolteacher in Douglas County or drivers headed to work in the high country. Nearly two-thirds of the 3,500 immigrants arrested in the state last year had no prior criminal convictions, according to ICE records obtained by .

Local advocates said they had documented ICE arrests and then broadcast what they’d found, including to lawmakers, to move the immigration crackdown from rhetoric to reality.

“Coming out of 2024, a lot of Democrats were convinced that they were just on the losing side of immigration as an issue,” said Seth Masket, a political scientist at the University of Denver. “And it was definitely the top issue mentioned by the Trump campaign, it was the main thing they ran on and he won with it.

“I think what we’ve seen — particularly over the last month, but somewhat more broadly over the last year — is just some of the consequences of the Trump administration’s crackdown, which looks more brutal than a lot of people expected.”

Facing public demands for action

The proximity of those arrests — coupled with the violent intensity of immigration authorities’ efforts in Minneapolis and elsewhere — has galvanized Democratic lawmakers.

Protests have erupted, too, further pressing elected officials to respond. Days before last week’s rally on the Capitol steps, hundreds of protesters gathered near the same spot to protest ICE.

“There is now evidence in our midst of what the federal administration is doing,” said House Speaker Julie McCluskie, a Dillon Democrat.

After an ICE operation in nearby Frisco last year, local school attendance dropped by 35%.

“What we’ve seen in this state, and what we’re seeing on a national stage, has really caused our public to step up and demand that we take action,” she said.

The Colorado Democratic Party recently released a “Know Your Rights” toolkit on its social media accounts to provide immigrants with guidance on how to interact with ICE. Masket said he couldn’t have imagined the party doing that even six months ago.

U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette, Denver’s longtime congresswoman, has called for the “dismantling” of the agency. A newly progressive-leaning Aurora City Council passed a resolution opposing ICE’s “lawlessness and overreach,” less than two years after one of that council’s members helped ignite a national firestorm over a transnational Venezuelan gang.

In Denver, City Council members soon will consider a local measure that would attempt to ban ICE agents (and other officers) from wearing face coverings.

U.S. Sens. Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper — both of whom are facing contested primary elections in June, with Bennet seeking the governor’s office and Hickenlooper running for reelection — have increasingly criticized ICE. They’ve also supported Democrats’ decision to shut down the government over funding for the agency. Hickenlooper later voted for for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which includes ICE.

Still, it’s unclear to what extent broad anger will help produce a coherent policy response, in Colorado and across the country. Nationally, have fretted over the calls — like those echoing from the Colorado Capitol’s stairs — to abolish ICE outright.

Two of the three expected measures in the Colorado legislature have yet to be introduced. One of them would prohibit state law enforcement officers from wearing masks and prevent any former ICE agents from becoming certified to work for Colorado agencies, said Reps. Yara Zokaie and Meg Froelich, who are set to sponsor the proposal.

The other would further expand last year’s cooperation restrictions bill — including with provisions aimed at Polis, who sought to sidestep the law last year and comply with an ICE subpoena. The measure would require the state to report ICE subpoenas it receives and state officials to alert anyone whose data may be included in the request.

The governor, also a Democrat, has taken a more neutral tone against Trump since the president returned to office last year.

But Polis has become more critical of the president’s immigration enforcement efforts: A year after he welcomed ICE to the state, Polis spent part of his final annual address to the legislature last month noting how many immigrant detainees had no criminal records, as well as listing the names of people killed and arrested by immigration authorities.

His office has also encouraged clemency applications by people convicted of nonviolent or minor crimes and who “are experiencing or fear being seized by the federal government and torn away from their families.”

Polis’ office declined an interview request for this story. In response to an emailed list of questions, Polis said his position on immigration enforcement had not changed. He told The Post that “when anyone is being investigated for a crime, whether they are here legally or illegally, we will work with anyone to apprehend and prosecute them. But unfortunately the federal government has not been targeted or transparent in how they are pursuing their enforcement activities.”

As for legislators’ plans this session, Polis said he hadn’t seen language on all of the proposals.

But he said he “would be skeptical of legislation that raises constitutional concerns or departs from the agreements reached last year.”

“I have been clear (that) I am willing to work with legislators on any issue to deliver the best policy for the state,” Polis said. “However, Colorado has some of the strongest protections across the country and I want to ensure that recent laws are being followed and fully understood and (that) new laws do not create confusion.”

Immigration a top issue in CD8 race

The changing politics of immigration have also slipped into one of the state’s most high-profile races this year.

Republican U.S. Rep. Gabe Evans won the 8th Congressional District seat in November 2024 in part by running on immigration enforcement and for supporting past legislation limiting state cooperation with ICE. Then-U.S. Rep. Yadira Caraveo on an issue that was seen then as a vulnerability for Democrats.

Last April, as the state legislature considered the bill further limiting ICE cooperation, then-Rep. Shannon Bird, a Democrat, was preparing to run against Evans. Later that month, she voted against the bill in committee and was absent for its final vote on the House floor.

Her campaign said last week that she’d missed the vote because of an ill family member. She’d voted no in committee, the campaign said, over concerns with proposed penalties that would be assessed to state or local officials who worked with ICE. Her campaign said Bird would’ve voted for the final version of the bill.

The penalty provision remained in the legislation when it passed the House and was later signed into law. Garcia and Rep. Elizabeth Velasco, the lawmakers who sponsored the bill, said Bird had not raised concerns to them last year.

“I don’t want to make assumptions about why she dodged the vote,” Garcia said last week.

Bird’s no vote and absence may have spared her attack ads from Evans. But, in another sign of how the political realities around immigration have shifted in the past year, that vote drew a caustic statement from one of her Democratic primary opponents in the 8th District, Evan Munsing.

In a statement, Bird’s campaign manager, Eve Zhurbinskiy, wrote that Bird “believes ICE is murdering people in our streets. Having violent, untrained and masked agents terrorizing our communities is unacceptable and un-American. Unlike Gabe Evans, who has voted for the Trump agenda every step of the way and enabled these attacks on law-abiding citizens, Shannon will always represent the needs of our community first — not the president.”

Evans has had to navigate his own immigration position in the swing district, which takes in northern Denver suburbs and Greeley.

He has said he wants the Trump administration to focus on immigrants with criminal records, but he also supported a Republican bill directing tens of billions of dollars in additional funding to ICE, even as more .

, Evans said he was worried about ICE officials’ assertion that the agency’s personnel can search homes with just an administrative warrant, rather than obtaining one signed by a judge. He said he looked forward to questioning Homeland Security officials during an upcoming House hearing.

But he blamed Democrats for the Minneapolis standoff and the broader impression that ICE was out of control.

“One side wants to fan the flames and equivocate in this space because they want an issue to run on in November,” he said.

He noted that ICE had stepped lightly in his district, with narrowly tailored operations aimed at criminals rather than the local industries that rely on immigrant workers.

“We have big meatpacking plants, we have big dairies, we have places where, if ICE was trying to meet a quota, you would see ICE going to them,” Evans said.

‘A failed system for decades’

Other Republicans have offered similarly mixed views on the crackdown, primarily expressing reservations with how it����ap being carried out.

During a debate last week in the state Capitol over a resolution calling for support for the immigrant community, two Republican lawmakers addressed their constituents in Spanish and spoke of the value of immigrants. Rep. Ryan Gonzalez, of Greeley, said he supported a humane immigration system — but, echoing Evans, he said the resolution was divisive and polarizing, and he and every other Republican voted against it.

Rep. Matt Soper, a Delta Republican whose wife became a U.S. citizen last week, said in an interview that he was troubled that asylum-seekers and others without full legal status were being deported, in some instances, to countries other than those where they’re from.

But he wanted the federal government to enforce the country’s immigration laws, he said. He supported what Trump was doing, he said, even if he wished “he could be nicer about it.” He saw little chance that his caucus would support Democrats’ immigration proposals.

Senate Minority Leader Cleave Simpson said he was concerned by the October arrests of a father and two children in Durango, which was followed by an ICE agent throwing a protester to the ground. He said he’d reached out to Republican U.S. Rep. Jeff Hurd, whose district includes Durango.

“It’s just has caused me to think more deeply about federal immigration and the recognition that it����ap been largely a failed system for decades,” he said, adding that he didn’t think mass deportations were the answer to that failure.

Still, he said, he wanted Democrats to acknowledge that there are “bad actors” who’ve entered the country without legal status. In his view, the state should cooperate with ICE, which in turn would help the agency focus on arresting people with criminal histories while reducing the likelihood of violent encounters between federal officers and the public.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

Colorado features one of the closest congressional races in the nation — the 8th Congressional District, which covers a stretch of suburbs and farmland north of Denver. Meanwhile, U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper has attracted a few intraparty challengers to his reelection bid, though he handily outraised them in the final quarter of 2025.

In Colorado’s ruby red 4th Congressional District, incumbent Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert trailed badly in the fundraising game in the last quarter of last year, though the Democrats trying to send her packing have a tough road ahead given the district’s political makeup.

Here’s a closer look at where donors are lining up in Colorado’s most competitive congressional contests, along with a glance at the U.S. Senate race. The three districts represented by Democratic incumbent Congress members , and are largely without political intrigue so far in this election cycle.

The latest numbers from the Federal Election Commission cover the period from Oct. 1 to Dec. 31, 2025.

Evans’ reelection race

The 8th Congressional District is the race the political chattering classes often point to as one that could decide the balance of power in the U.S. House, given its ultra-competitive nature. Cook Political Report , with Republican U.S. Rep. Gabe Evans hoping to retain power for a second term.

He beat former Rep. Yadira Caraveo , a Democrat, in 2024 by fewer than 3,000 votes.

Evans managed to outraise the competition in the fourth quarter of 2025, but not significantly. The former state lawmaker and police officer pulled down nearly $487,000 and now has around $2.55 million of cash on hand. His closest competitor, Democratic state Rep. Manny Rutinel, raised nearly $419,000 and has around $1.2 million in the bank.

Rutinel has actually outraised Evans for the entire election cycle — $2.5 million to $1.85 million, according to FEC data. He also spent the most in the field last quarter — $230,000.

Former Democratic state Rep. Shannon Bird, who resigned from the Colorado General Assembly in December to put full focus on the 8th District race, collected $375,000 from donors in the fourth quarter, adding to the nearly $1 million she had raised before Oct. 1.

Marine combat veteran and finance professional Evan Munsing pulled in $225,000 during the quarter. The Democrat has more than $213,000 in his war chest.

Boebert outraised by Democrats

Republican firebrand Boebert, the incumbent in the sprawling 4th District on the Eastern Plains, had an anemic showing in the most recent filing with the FEC. Collecting less than $150,000 in the final quarter of 2025, she trailed Democratic challenger Eileen Laubacher by a massive margin.

Laubacher, a Navy veteran and rear admiral, had the biggest haul of the quarter of any candidate running for Congress in Colorado. She pulled down just over $2 million, bringing her contribution total in the election cycle to nearly $6.5 million. She sits on a pile of more than $2.5 million in cash compared to Boebert’s $219,000.

Laubacher also spent a hefty $1.5 million on her election effort last quarter.

Trisha Calvarese, the Democratic nominee who lost to Boebert in 2024, had an impressive haul — just over $1 million in the fourth quarter — but was only at about half of what Laubacher took in. Still, Calvarese has more than twice Boebert’s cash on hand, with $518,000 in the bank.

Democratic contenders John Padora, who has run for the 4th District before, and Jenna Preston each collected around $20,000 last quarter. Preston, a clinical psychologist, has nearly $53,000 in cash on hand to Padora’s less than $9,000.

Crank’s strong money challenge

Another firmly Republican district, Colorado’s 5th will give Democrat Jessica Killin a run for her money as she tries to oust Republican U.S. Rep. Jeff Crank. A former U.S. Army captain and chief of staff to former second gentleman Doug Emhoff, Killin jumped into the race last summer.

Her fundraising prowess has been impressive, and she collected around $611,000 in the fourth quarter. That brings her total for the cycle to more than $1.6 million. Crank pulled in just over $280,000 for the quarter. Killin holds a cash-on-hand advantage of $1.1 million to Crank’s more than $968,000.

But Crank won the seat, which encompasses Colorado Springs, by 14 percentage points over his Democratic opponent in 2024.

The race has attracted several other Democratic challengers, including unsuccessful 2024 contender Joseph Reagan, but none have come close to matching Killin’s haul.

Quieter money race in CD3 this time

Gone are the days of eye-popping money in Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District, when Boebert was being challenged by Democrat Adam Frisch before she switched districts to the 4th in the waning days of 2023.

Frisch, a former Aspen city councilman who raised more than $12 million in the 2024 election cycle, lost to Republican Jeff Hurd in the right-leaning district that primarily covers the western stretch of the state.

Hurd’s Democratic challenger this cycle, San Luis Valley native Alex Kelloff, raised $65,000 in the final quarter of 2025 — compared to Hurd’s $240,000 haul. Kelloff has $434,000 cash on hand while Hurd’s pile has grown to more than $1.57 million.

But Hurd, a Grand Junction attorney who is in his first term in Congress, must first fend off a candidate to his right in the June 30 primary — former Colorado Republican Vice Chairwoman Hope Scheppelman.

However, the difference in fundraising is stark. Scheppelman raised around $43,000 last quarter, according to FEC numbers, and has less than a tenth of Hurd’s war chest.

James, Kiros take on DeGette

Democrat Diana DeGette is Colorado’s longest-serving member of Congress — by a long shot. But she has several candidates in her party to fend off in June before standing for reelection in November in what will be an attempt at her 16th term in office in the 1st Congressional District.

Most notable is Wanda James, a University of Colorado regent and marijuana entrepreneur, who raised more than $78,000 in 2025’s final quarter. That total brings her cash on hand to $93,000. Attorney Melat Kiros, a native of Ethiopia, nearly matched James’ take at $77,500 but has less in the bank — with cash on hand of $64,000.

Meanwhile, DeGette pulled in nearly $249,000 last quarter and sits on a pile of $535,000 in cash on hand.

No Republicans have raised any money in the Denver-centered race so far.

U.S. Senate primary shapes up

In Colorado’s lone Senate race, Hickenlooper was the king of fundraising last quarter. He reported collecting more than $936,000 from donors. The former Denver mayor and Colorado governor, who is in his first term in the Senate, has a war chest of nearly $3.9 million.

He is being challenged on the left by state Sen. Julie Gonzales, who jumped into the race in December. In less than a month, the Democrat managed to pull in nearly $180,000 and has nearly $161,000 cash on hand.

University of Colorado political science professor Karen Breslin is also challenging Hickenlooper in the June primary. The Democrat raised just over $58,000 last quarter and has just $7,000 in the bank.

Several Republicans are also in the race. Janak Joshi, a former state lawmaker who unsuccessfully ran for the 8th Congressional District in 2024, collected the most in the fourth quarter, with just over $60,000, and had nearly $350,000 cash on hand.

George Markert, a U.S. Marine for more than 30 years, took in $55,000 last quarter and sits on nearly $73,000 in cash, according to FEC filings.

State Sen. Mark Baisley of Woodland Park switched in early January — after the end of the reporting period — to the U.S. Senate primary from the crowded GOP primary in the Colorado governor’s race.

Young, who is in his second term as state treasurer, cited a family member’s “serious health situation” for why he’s leaving the congressional race.

“My family must come first, and stepping back from this race to care for my family, as well as continuing to fulfill my duties as state treasurer, is the responsible choice,” Young said in a statement.

Young’s withdrawal leaves three Democrats seeking the nomination to take on Republican U.S. Rep. Gabe Evans. He had trailed all of them in fundraising.

State Rep. Manny Rutinel holds a distinct fundraising advantage over the remaining Democrats, having raised more than $2 million — double the total of the next-closest candidate. State Rep. Shannon Bird recently announced she would resign her seat in the legislature to fully commit to the race. Marine veteran Evan Munsing is also seeking the Democratic nomination.

The 8th Congressional District, which stretches from the northern Denver suburbs to Greeley, was drawn to be one of the most competitive districts in the country, and it’s potentially the key to which political party controls the House in 2027.

The district was created following the 2020 census. Evans, who unseated Democrat Yadira Caraveo in 2024, is trying to be the first person to be reelected to represent the district.

Bird, a Westminster Democrat, announced her decision to resign on Sunday. Her last day in the legislature will be Jan. 5, nine days before the 2026 legislative session begins. In a statement posted to social media, Bird thanked her constituents and said she needed to focus on flipping the Republican-held 8th Congressional District.

“Now, Colorado is facing rising headwinds from Washington, with (President Donald) Trump’s tariffs driving up the cost of everything, health care and food assistance being ripped away by (U.S. Rep.) Gabe Evans and his GOP colleagues, and our democratic values under assault,” Bird wrote.

Evans is the Republican who unseated then-Rep. Yadira Caraveo, a Democrat, to represent the 8th District.

Bird had already resigned from the legislature’s Joint Budget Committee. She remains to challenge Evans, a first-term congressman whose district extends from the northern Denver suburbs to Greeley.

Rep. Manny Rutinel, Bird’s state House colleague, is also vying for the Democratic nomination, as is state Treasurer Dave Young and Marine veteran Evan Munsing.

Rutinel, who entered the race months before Bird, has thus far raised more money than her. He had more than $1 million in the bank as of the end of September, compared to Bird’s $560,000. A lesser-known candidate, Munsing had more than $174,000 on hand by summer’s end. Young is farther behind, with more than $61,000 in the bank.

Bird, who was term-limited from running again in the state House, will be replaced through a Democratic vacancy committee. Her replacement will serve through the November election.

As Sienna grew older, Winter would tell her bedtime stories about feminists, “to show me to shoot for the moon,” she told a crowd of mourners on the steps of the state Capitol on Friday.

“Her love stretched far and wide,” Sienna, 14, said. “When I was a kid, she told me she loved me to the moon and back. Now it’s just a little further.”

Winter, a 45-year-old mother to Sienna and Tobin whose decade-long career in public service helped reshape her home state and encouraged countless women to follow in her flipflop-shaped footsteps, was killed in a three-vehicle crash on Interstate 25 near Centennial on Nov. 26, the evening before Thanksgiving. The cause of the crash, which happened in close proximity to another collision, is still under investigation and likely will not be determined for weeks, officials said earlier this week.

Hundreds of loved ones, friends, former colleagues and elected officials crowded seats and, when those filled, the concrete surrounding them for Winter’s memorial Friday. Friends, including women whom Winter had trained and helped run for office, described the lawmaker’s warmth, her love of bright colors and the outdoors, and the optimistic tenacity that helped her endure personal challenges and become one of the most impactful Colorado lawmakers of her generation.

She was a “nerd for women’s leadership,” said Dawn Huckelbridge, who was quoting remarks from another friend. An organizer by profession and passion, Winter was elected to the Westminster City Council before first winning a seat in the state House in 2014. She mentored and trained other women to seek higher office throughout her career, and U.S. Rep. Brittany Pettersen said Friday that when she met Winter in 2009, she was the first person to tell Pettersen to run for office. She still has Winter’s name saved in her phone as “mentor!”

Her mantra, Rep. Jenny Willford remembered, was “lift as you rise.”

“She didn’t wait for the right moment or the perfect woman,” Willford said Friday. “She saw potential in people before they saw it in themselves, and she insisted that they rise, too.”

In her 11 years at the Capitol, Winter was the primary sponsor on more than 220 bills that passed the legislature. Between the 2022 and 2023 sessions alone, she shepherded more than 80 bills into law, a pace that’s likely matched only by the workhorse legislators who draft the state budget. (Her tally could have been even larger: She also was among the legislators whose bills were most frequently vetoed, itself a badge of honor and a marker of her willingness to dig in.)

The layered legacy that emerges from Winter’s time in office will be felt, even if they don’t know it, by millions of Colorado workers, tenants, eating disorder patients, transit riders, lawmakers, legislative aides, lobbyists, affordable housing developers, new mothers, students who use menstrual products, women wondering about a career in politics, and incalculable employees, transgender people and children at risk of harassment.

The shadow cast by the diminutive legislator from Broomfield is long, and there are few classrooms, buses and workplaces that haven’t felt it. In interviews and remarks Friday, several friends called her Wonder Woman.

“As a public servant, she cared so deeply for the Colorado we love, so deeply for Colorado’s most vulnerable,” said Gov. Jared Polis, the first speaker at Friday’s service. “She was kind, and also tough in fighting for her people, her district and our state.”

Her legislative work was remarkably focused. She championed issues because she’d lived them, Hazel Gibson, who was one of the women Winter trained and encouraged to run for office, said in an interview Thursday.

Winter studied environmental science in school, Gibson said. She often relied on her bike to get around. She’d been a worker and a tenant. In college, she’d helped unhoused women.

She championed anti-harassment legislation, including after she and others publicly accused a fellow Democrat of sexual harassment. The lawmaker, Steve Lebsock, was later expelled from the legislature. The allegations prompted broader investigations within the Capitol, and Winter later sponsored legislation to improve how harassment complaints are filed and investigated.

Winter became a fan of Kesha, the pop star who’d accused her producer of abuse, and she kept a cape in her office, “for anyone who wants to feel powerful,” she said in 2023. (She also loved Taylor Swift.)

Winter’s work was all the more remarkable given the battery of personal challenges she faced.

She became a face of Colorado’s political #MeToo movement after coming forward with allegations against Lebsock. She was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease in 2022. The next year, she was hospitalized after crashing her bike to avoid a truck while riding to the Capitol.

In 2024, she was investigated by her colleagues and was found to have violated ethics rules after she appeared intoxicated at a community event. She entered treatment for substance use and returned to the Capitol, where she soon helped pass one of the in the state’s history.

“She wasn’t (perfect), but no one is, and she knew she wasn’t,” Sienna said of her mother. “That’s why, when I was little, she taught me an important lesson. I got into my first argument with my parents, and she sat me down and taught me how to apologize. She told me that apologies weren’t about me. They weren’t something that I should use to make me feel better. They were about the other person. You have to own up to your actions. Don’t make excuses. Show that you care, then you have to act. My mother was an action- and changemaker.”

Often, that change-making took years, a persistence that defined Winter’s career.

After repeated attempts to require businesses to provide paid family leave benefits failed in the Capitol, Winter took the issue to the ballot box, where voters passed it by more than 15 points in 2020. In its first 18 months, paid family leave has already been used by nearly 200,000 Coloradans who’ve received more than $1 billion in benefits, Pettersen said Friday.

“I know that was a little wonky,” she said. “But so is Faith Winter.”

Extending Title IX protections for women and girls to high school students took multiple swings. So, too, did legislation limiting harassment in the workplace. When that bill was finally passed, Winter donned the silver cape for the bill signing.

“That was her,” Gibson, who also spoke Friday, said. “She taught me: This is your goal. How are you going to get there? And to look at all the different ways you can get there. That����ap how I look at everything now, whether it����ap lobbying or planning her (funeral) service.

“She was never a person that backed down or (thought) the fights were too big. She might need to pause, take a breath. But she always came back.”

Her children were her joy, friends said. She “brought them along inside her world,” Pettersen said in an interview Thursday, and Winter declined calls to run for higher office because of the demands it would put on her time.

“She said, ‘These are the most important years for me to be there for my kids,’ ” Pettersen said.

A fifth-generation Coloradan, Winter was a hiker, a kayaker, a camper. Pettersen remembered Winter, Sienna and Tobin all sleeping in hammocks slung between tall trees. The family hiked together every Sunday, with Winter in flipflops. Her health later slowed her down, making the hikes more difficult and the kayaking trips less frequent.

But even still, “she never stopped seeking beauty,” Gibson said Friday. “She never stopped choosing color or flowers or dresses or joy. She never stopped finding reasons to laugh, especially at herself, especially when life was absurd. She lived big, yes, but more than that, she lived bright. And she made the people she loved brighter, too.”