Former U.S. Rep. Yadira Caraveo hopes to reclaim her seat as District 8’s representative from Rep. Gabe Evans, announcing the start of her campaign on Tuesday.
Caraveo, a Democrat, lost to Evans, a Republican, during the 2024 election by a slim margin of 2,596 votes, in a reversal of her narrow victory in 2022. With the district seemingly split between Democrats and Republicans, Caraveo decided to try again, using the current issues surrounding Medicaid to bolster her campaign.
A former pediatrician, Caraveo used her position as a state legislator and congresswoman to lower costs surrounding medical care. Caraveo co-sponsored the first national insulin prescription cap and legislation to ensure children remain eligible for Medicare.
“The 8th District deserves a representative who’s looking out for them, but Gabe Evans has already shown that he will always put Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and his MAGA backers in Washington first. I can’t stand by while Gabe Evans tries to rip away health care from tens of thousands of Coloradans, including the very families I served as a pediatrician,” Caraveo said in her announcement. “Now more than ever, Coloradans need a leader who will stand up for them and do the right thing – I’m ready to continue doing just that.”
Caraveo is not the only contender against Evans. Democrat Manny Rutinel is already making a strong showing, having raised more than $1 million for his own campaign, which he announced in January. Federal Election Commission filings also show Democrat John Francis Szemler has filed to run for the seat.
Evans’ team has speculated that things could get messy among the Democrats, as Evans plans to seek reelection.
“We officially have a messy Democrat CO-08 primary on our hands,” Evans’ spokeswoman Delanie Bomar said in an email. “Democrats officially have a base problem and are in an all-out primary battle to the left. Meanwhile, Congressman Gabe Evans hit the ground running as he’s working to fix Colorado’s crime, immigration, and energy crises that Manny, Yadira, and their liberal friends created.”
Evans’ team attributed Caraveo’s 2024 loss to her position on key issues such as immigration, crime and the fentanyl crisis.
The district has the heaviest concentration of Latinos among Colorado’s eight congressional districts. On immigration — where Caraveo’s position evolved from being heavily critical of federal immigration agencies when she was a state lawmaker to, last summer, lambasting the Biden administration for mismanaging the border — she says the Trump administration’s approach to the issue is wrong.
During her 100 days out of office, Caraveo traveled to Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. She also grappled with how mental health challenges might play among voters in a new bid for Congress.
Those challenges led to several dark episodes last year in which Caraveo almost took her life with a near-overdose of sleeping pills and pain medication. She spoke publicly about her struggles last summer in an attempt to destigmatize the issue of mental health, but she has provided more details in recent interviews.
After a stint at Walter Reed Army Medical Center early last year to get treatment, Caraveo said she is feeling much better and on track to devote herself to public service again.
“Now that I’m getting that proper treatment and that I’m on the right medications — that I’ve really taken care of issues that I had been ignoring for a long time because I was putting other people ahead of myself — I’m in an even better position to represent this district,” she said.
The 8th District, which stretches from Denver’s northern suburbs to Berthoud and Greeley in the north, was drawn by the state’s redistricting commission after the 2020 census to be the most politically competitive in Colorado. In 2022, Caraveo barely edged out Republican state Sen. Barb Kirkmeyer by fewer than 2,000 votes out of more than 236,000 cast.
Fast-forward two years, and Evans took the contest against Caraveo by fewer than 2,500 votes out of more than 333,000 cast.
The Cook Political Report once again positions the 8th District race as a toss-up in 2026 — one of only 18 races nationwide with such a ranking — while the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia includes the race among 19 with toss-up status in its rankings.
— The Denver Post contributed to this report.
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