Democrat Manny Rutinel will unseat Republican Congressman Gabe Evans in Colorado's 8th Congressional District, flipping one of the most competitive House seats in the country.
The projected victory by the Associated Press sends 31-year-old Rutinel, a former Democratic state representative, to Congress. Created after the 2020 Census due to population growth, his district has quickly become one of the nation's premier political battlegrounds.
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Evans, a former police lieutenant, Army veteran and state lawmaker, won the seat in 2024 by defeating Democratic incumbent Yadira Caraveo by less than one percentage point.
Colorado's 8th Congressional District includes fast-growing suburbs north of Denver, blue-collar communities along the U.S. 85 corridor, agricultural communities and a significant Latino voting population. According to the Colorado Independent Redistricting Commissions, Hispanic or Latino voters make up 38.5% of the district.
Political strategists often point to Adams County as a potential deciding factor in the race because it contains many of the district's swing voters and some of its fastest-growing communities.
Evans' strongest support has historically come from Weld County, where issues such as oil and gas production, agriculture and public safety often dominate political discussions.
Throughout the campaign, Evans focused heavily on border security, public safety and affordability. The congressman frequently highlighted his background as the grandson of Mexican immigrants while arguing for stronger border enforcement and stricter immigration policies.
"We've got to secure the border. We've got to get the bad guys — the drug dealers, the cartels, the car thieves — we've got to get those people out of our communities, but we also have to have a pathway for those folks that are trying to do things the right way," Evans said in a June interview with the Scripps News Group in Denver.
We also asked Evans about his vote to advance the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (H.R. 1) and how that will impact Medicaid recipients. H.R. 1 takes Medicaid coverage away from people who do not comply with new work requirements by reporting that they worked, volunteered, or attended school at least 80 hours in a month or earned at least $580 from paid work, or a combination of both, according to the Colorado Department of Health Care Policy and Financing. State data shows one in four people in the 8th Congressional District are covered by Medicaid.
“All the Republicans said is, 'We want that money to get to the people that actually need it'... If you are an able-bodied working-aged adult with no young kids, you have to work, volunteer, or go to school part time, 20 hours a week, 80 hours a month, in order to qualify for Medicaid," Evans said. “We are working to put more money into it, to take care of the truly vulnerable folks, but to make sure the money gets where it belongs instead of disappearing into, again, one of the worst administered programs in the nation."
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Evans has campaigned on reducing government spending, including on programs related to the Green New Deal and diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, arguing that doing so could help lower costs for Coloradans. On housing, he has advocated for reducing regulations and barriers to homeownership, citing construction defect liability requirements and building codes as factors that increase building costs.
Rutinel, the son of a single mother who immigrated from the Dominican Republic, earned a master's degree in applied economics from Johns Hopkins University and a law degree from Yale. He worked as an economist for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and as an attorney for Earthjustice, an environmental law nonprofit.
He campaigned on lowering costs for families. He pledged to reverse cuts to Medicaid, the Affordable Care Act and food assistance in the 2025 Republican tax and spending law that Evans supported.
The race drew more than $17 million in outside spending, according to Federal Election Commission filings cited by Colorado Politics in October. House Speaker Mike Johnson campaigned with Evans in the district in late October.
This story was originally published by Maggie Bryan and Veronica Acosta with the Scripps News Group in Denver.
