When Democratic Rep. Yadira Caraveo stopped in at a few businesses in Greeley to meet with the owners recently, the tour was billed as a campaign event, but you wouldn’t have known it.
Caraveo wasn’t asking the people she met with for their vote or urging them to turn in their ballots early or even mentioning that she’s up for reelection. Instead, she posed questions about the work they do.
She asked the owner of an insurance company about the biggest challenges she faces in serving the Latino community, some of whom are undocumented. She asked the owner of a local Mexican grocery store about the growth of his business and what he wanted to do next.
In all, it felt like a regular congressional district visit, the kind of constituent check-in that representatives often hold when they are back in the district.
Caraveo is also doing the typical campaign events, like getting volunteers fired up to door-knock and rallying supporters to talk to their friends. But in many ways, this business tour encapsulates her final pitch to voters: that she’s been doing the work.
Caraveo, a pediatrician, is running to be sent back for a second term to the U.S. House of Representatives. Her Republican challenger is Gabe Evans, a first-term state lawmaker and former police officer. This district is the state’s only toss-up race and polls show the race is tied.
“I have been working to lower (the) cost of living for people across the 8th District,” Caraveo explained. “When it comes to prescription drugs, to accessible healthcare, to affordable housing, water, childcare, so many different issues that I heard from them every single day in clinic, and now I'm translating into legislation.”
She’s also stressing her bipartisan credentials — the Lugar Center ranked her the 28th most bipartisan congress member — and her ability to get legislation passed, despite being in the minority.
“I've really made sure to represent a very purple district well over the last two years by sometimes pushing against my own party,” she said. Those pushes include supporting House Republicans’ version of the Farm Bill in committee and voting to “strongly condemn” Vice President Kamala Harris’ handling of the border.
Caraveo went into this race with some big factors in her favor: she’s an incumbent who has raised three times as much money as her challenger. But some Democrats worry she hasn’t done enough campaigning or attended enough events. She announced earlier this year that she has depression and that taking care of her mental health has impacted her schedule.
This seat has been a top target for Republicans ever since Caraveo eked out a victory two years ago by just over 1,600 votes. Looking ahead to this year’s contest, she said she’s always known it would be a close race, but she’s feeling good about where she is at.
“At the end of the day, what I want is to do what is best for the community,” she said.
For Caraveo’s opponent, state Rep. Evans, a big part of his work has just been introducing himself to the voters he hopes to win over.
“They call it a political campaign for a reason. I've been a part of a military campaign, and so you're tired and you know that you got to keep pushing to finish strong, and so that's what we're doing right now,” he said. “But we're feeling really, really good about just being able to carry the message to the voters about how we make things better.”
Evans’ message leans heavily on his background — as a former police officer, a former helicopter pilot in the Army and Colorado Army National Guard, and as the grandson of Hispanic immigrants.
When it comes to the issues, his pitch echoes arguments Republicans have been making in races around the country for months. “I stand for securing the border, keeping our communities safe, ending the flow of fentanyl into our communities and rewarding work. And unfortunately, my opponent's voting record is completely the opposite of that,” he said.
It’s a message that’s probably very familiar to many TV viewers on the Front Range; campaign ads for both sides have been blanketing northern Colorado for the past several weeks.
Evans and his allies have been hitting Caraveo on the border and drugs, in particular votes Caraveo took while a state representative. Meanwhile, Caraveo and her side have been attacking Evans for his stance on abortion.
Evans is personally anti-abortion but has also said that if he goes to Congress, he wouldn’t vote for a federal ban (he also wouldn’t support legalizing the procedure nationally).
“I think the Supreme Court was very clear on this. They returned this back to the States. So, one way or the other, I don’t think this is in Congress’ purview to act on,” said Evans.
Like Caraveo, Evans is also pushing his ability to work across the aisle, noting his record of passing bills while in the minority at the statehouse and saying he’d seek out membership in bipartisan veterans’ caucuses in Congress.
And he also has reason to be optimistic. He reached an agreement with the Libertarian Party that got their candidate to drop out of the race. In 2022, the Libertarian candidate garnered more than 9,000 votes, far more than Caraveo’s margin of victory. While there are other third-party candidates in the race, none are expected to siphon Republican votes like the Libertarian would have.
Win or lose, Evans said he wants Republicans to have more political say in Colorado.
“To me, this race is about ensuring that we continue to have the ability to have those conversations at the federal level, but also being able to drive the pendulum back towards center in Colorado and get back to the Colorado that folks like me, that were born and raised here, remember,” he said.
The final sprint
It might not be the candidates’ messages or their ability to sway a few more voters that this tied race hinges on, but voter turnout. And that reality has both campaigns rallying their supporters to make calls and knock on doors as the election winds up.
At Evans campaign headquarters on a recent evening, about 10 volunteers spread across the offices making calls. Maria Weese, who describes herself as the grandmother of the group, had just got off a call with one voter, after checking that he’d received his ballot and urging him to consider Evans.
She thinks it’s the economy that will lead many voters to support Evans.
“When you go to the grocery store, they don't ask you whether you are Republican (or) Democrat. You’re still paying $56 for three steaks, right? Or the $10 for the chicken or $11 for eggs.”
Fellow volunteer Keith Dameron, a former police officer, has been canvassing as well as making calls for Evans. He said his pitch to Republican and unaffiliated voters has been that Caraveo just doesn’t represent their priorities.
“Open borders is the main thing. The second thing is they're amazed that somebody that's a physician doesn't believe life begins when the heartbeat begins,” he said, taking a moment out from working his way down the list of phone numbers.
Democrats are also focused on getting out the vote.
On a sunny weekend day, Deb Suniga’s Greeley home was a hub of activity, with volunteers going in and out, getting materials and addresses for Democratic and unaffiliated voters they planned to contact.
Suniga, who is acting chair of CD-8 for the state Democratic Party, as well as a local volunteer coordinator for the Harris-Walz campaign, said the ground game is going to be key.
Caraveo “can't be everywhere. That is why it's important for us to have these launching areas like our house to be able to do that work for her,” she said. “It's going to take a village. It's going to take all of our boots on the ground.”
She added, “The excitement and the energy that everybody has, I think, is going to make the difference.”
Democrat Diane McVicker was one of the volunteers at Suniga’s house getting materials together to go cavass for her party’s candidates up and down the ballot. Her pitch for Caraveo focuses on her knowledge of the district and the work she’s already done.
“She has experience, she has compassion. She knows the issues that are important to a lot of people in this area. So yeah, she's the best woman for the time,” said McVickers.
It's a message the volunteer delivers in person when she can. But when people aren’t home, she'll leave campaign material at the door, sometimes setting it right next to an Evans flyer already sitting there.
