This story by Chase Woodruff appeared on Colorado Newsline on October 16, 2024.
Races in three of Colorado’s eight congressional districts are attracting campaign contributions by the truckload in 2024, especially from Democrats. But outside spending figures suggest a significant mismatch between the headline-grabbing contests drawing donations from grassroots donors and the battlegrounds judged to be the most competitive by both parties’ deep-pocketed national super PACs.
Democrat Trisha Calvarese, a first-time candidate running against GOP Rep. Lauren Boebert in the deep-red 4th District, led all Colorado congressional candidates with nearly $2.7 million in contributions received in the third quarter, campaign finance disclosures filed with the Federal Election Commission showed. That’s more than five times the roughly $500,000 that Boebert raised during the same period.
The 4th District includes most of Colorado’s Eastern Plains, as well as Douglas County. Boebert is running in the more safely Republican district after only narrowly defeating former Aspen City Council member Adam Frisch in the 2022 race for her current 3rd District seat.
Like Frisch before her, Calvarese has used Boebert’s national profile as a controversial far-right figure to raise millions of dollars from small, grassroots donations from contributors around the country. Between July 1 and Sept. 30, nearly two-thirds of Calvarese’s itemized individual contributions came from donors outside of Colorado, according to FEC disclosures.
Though he’s no longer running against Boebert, Frisch, too, has continued to report strong fundraising totals in his second bid for the 3rd District seat. His campaign reported nearly $2.2 million in contributions in the third quarter, bringing his total fundraising for the 2024 election cycle to nearly $17 million.
Frisch’s campaign war chest has funded millions of dollars in TV ads highlighting his support for abortion rights and other issues as he looks to pull off an upset victory over Republican nominee Jeff Hurd in the GOP-leaning 3rd District, which includes most of the Western Slope along with Pueblo and the San Luis Valley. Hurd, a Grand Junction attorney, reported a little over $1 million in third-quarter campaign contributions.
Both Calvarese and Frisch collected more campaign cash in the latest reporting period than incumbent Democratic Rep. Yadira Caraveo of Thornton, who faces a bruising reelection battle in the 8th District, Colorado’s newest and most competitive congressional seat. Caraveo’s campaign reported a little over $2 million in contributions, while her challenger, GOP state Rep. Gabe Evans, reported just $708,657 in receipts.
But while the race for the 8th District, which includes parts of Adams and Weld counties north of Denver, has struggled to attract grassroots donations, it’s been flooded in recent weeks by outside spending from national campaign groups and super PACs.
Total super PAC spending in the 8th District in the 2024 election cycle has surpassed $15 million, with more likely on the way as polls show a toss-up race between Caraveo and Evans and both parties look to win a narrow House majority in November. Super PACs can raise unlimited sums of money from individuals and corporations and spend it to advocate for or against a candidate for office, but are barred from coordinating directly with candidates themselves.
To date, Caraveo has benefited from a total of nearly $9 million in super PAC spending from more than a dozen Democratic and left-leaning interest groups, including the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the Environmental Defense Fund and the League of Conservation Voters. But her top super PAC backer is Fairshake, a group funded by the cryptocurrency industry that “has quietly become the single biggest outside spender in congressional elections this cycle,” Politico reported. The group has reported over $2 million in advertising expenditures on Caraveo’s behalf.
Meanwhile, Evans has received about $6.6 million in support from a list of outside groups topped by the Congressional Leadership Fund, a super PAC with ties to Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson. Alongside $3.4 million from the CLF, Evans has benefited from about $1.5 million in spending by the National Republican Congressional Committee and $1.2 million from Americans For Prosperity, the group founded by right-wing billionaire Charles Koch.
Total super PAC expenditures reported through October 15 put the 8th District contest on track to exceed the $17.7 million spent to influence the race there in 2022, when Caraveo narrowly defeated GOP state Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer to become the new district’s first representative in Congress.
So far, the 3rd District is the only other Colorado congressional race to draw significant super PAC spending during the general election campaign. Americans For Prosperity has reported about $545,000 in expenditures on Hurd’s behalf since July 1.