By Sara Loflin
In Tuesday’s biggest congressional race, Gabe Evans won the Republican nomination in Colorado’s 8th Congressional District, but only after a damaging primary that forced Evans to publicly demonstrate his firm allegiance to Donald Trump.
Gabe Evans spent his time in the primary working to define himself as as the candidate most tightly aligned with Donald. Evans went all in, on attacking Colorado’s Secretary of State for standing up to Trump, even going so far as to downplay the January 6th insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. Evans celebrated the repeal of Roe v. Wade and pointedly spoke out against the right to affordable birth control just before Colorado voters turn out in droves to defend abortion rights. This primary election proved that Gabe Evans’ loyalty is to Trump and not Colorado.
Dave Williams turned the Colorado Republican Party into a personal slush fund, while turning division in his party into a gorge. Millions of dollars were wasted to keep Dave Williams out of Congress, while Williams deepened divisions in the escalating Republican civil war.
Williams may have lost on Tuesday, but he remains in control of a party that has been completely hollowed out by vicious infighting instead of preparing for November. Only a fool would donate to Colorado Republicans after the train wreck Dave Williams has created.
In the vacuum left behind from Lauren Boebert’s district switch, unknown Grand Junction attorney Jeff Hurd outspent his even less known opponents to take the Republican nomination. The Colorado GOP-endorsed election conspiracy theorist Ron Hanks couldn’t match Hurd’s spending, even with some outside help, and now Hurd faces a massively well-funded campaign from Democrat Adam Frisch in the general election. Frisch came into this election ready for a showdown against Boebert, and now has the resources to take the fight to Hurd in November.
Lauren Boebert’s continued political survival against the odds is a moral indictment of Colorado Republicans and the MAGA movement writ large. Boebert’s record of mismanagement, neglect, and never-ending scandal drove Boebert from her old district into a crowded primary that Boebert was able to dominate with sheer name recognition. Meanwhile, Republicans who claimed to be tired of Boebert failed to coalesce around a single opponent who could challenge her. As a result, a minority of voters in Ken Buck’s former district gave Boebert another two years to damage the Republican brand from coast to coast.
This primary proved above all that there is no candidate who can claim to speak for the mainstream of Colorado while supporting the overturning of Roe v. Wade, defending Trump from criminal accountability, and promising huge tax giveaways to the super wealthy banking on his return to power.
Tuesday’s ‘winners’ only offer another shade of extremism, propped up by millions of dollars in special interest cash.
Sara Loflin is Executive Director of ProgressNow Colorado.