Colorado Democrat Yadira Caraveo launches bid for seat she narrowly lost

Former Rep. Yadira Caraveo (D-Colo.) announced Tuesday that she’s running for her old House seat in Colorado’s 8th Congressional District, which she narrowly lost last cycle to Rep. Gabe Evans (R-Colo.).

“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,” she said in a post on Facebook.

“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, and make life harder for working families,” she continued. “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 was first elected to the Colorado seat, which is situated between Fort Collins and Denver and includes Greeley, in 2022, after the state added another district following the decennial census.

But the pediatrician-turned-lawmaker lost her seat to Evans in November by roughly three-fourths of a percentage point.

Caraveo, however, isn’t the only Democrat who’s already announced a bid — state Rep. Manny Rutinel has thrown his hat into the ring as well as John Szemler, a process improvement consultant. Others could join the field, too.

Zach Bannon, a regional press secretary with the National Republican Congressional Committee, said Caraveo "is jumping in a competitive primary that is certain to be a fight to the far left to stay relevant." 

"Whoever emerges from the Democrats' radical rat race will be just another out-of-touch liberal ready to be rejected by Coloradans," he added in a post on social platform X.

The seat is rated by the nonpartisan election handicapper Cook Political Report as a “toss up.”