Two of Colorado’s newly seated Republican congressmen have been compelled to bob and weave throughout an more and more difficult political minefield amid a flurry of Trump administration government orders and coverage shifts that might complicate their midterm elections subsequent 12 months.
President Donald Trump’s actions to this point have spooked world monetary markets and sparked avenue protests. For U.S. Rep. Gabe Evans, who represents Colorado’s latest congressional district north of Denver, and Rep. Jeff Hurd, the congressman for a sprawling 27-county Western Slope-anchored district, the president’s aggressive tariff and immigration insurance policies have put strain on sectors of the financial system — agriculture, ranching and manufacturing — that play outsized roles of their districts.
In March, each legislators had been put “on discover” by Emily’s Record as “high targets for defeat within the 2026 midterm elections.” The political advocacy group helps Democratic girls candidates who favor abortion rights of their bids for workplace throughout the nation.
The hazards for Evans, a freshman consultant from Fort Lupton, are better than for Hurd as a result of his eighth Congressional District was created 4 years in the past to be Colorado’s most politically aggressive — a promise it’s lived as much as in two election cycles.
“Hurd has a bit extra wiggle room than Evans does,” mentioned Colorado State College political science professor Kyle Saunders, who has been carefully watching each districts.
Evans, who narrowly beat incumbent Rep. Yadira Caraveo within the November election, was the one Republican Home member in Colorado to make this month’s Democratic Congressional Marketing campaign Committee’s listing of “districts in play.” Which means his eventual Democratic opponent can be getting a focused splash of nationwide cash in subsequent 12 months’s election.
“There’s a lengthy approach to go but,” Saunders mentioned, “however Evans should be very cautious with how he performs his playing cards over the subsequent year-plus — each in how carefully he stands with Trump in addition to with any votes that can be utilized towards him within the 2026 marketing campaign.”
Whereas each congressmen have largely toed Trump’s line firstly of the Republican’s second administration, there are indicators they’re keen to push again — albeit cautiously.
In early March, they had been amongst 21 Republicans who signed a letter to Rep. Jason Smith, the GOP chair of the highly effective Home Methods and Means Committee. They urged their get together to maintain clear power tax credit from the Democrats’ Inflation Discount Act local weather legislation that fund growth of “conventional and renewable power sources alike.”
The attraction got here within the face of efforts by Trump to make it simpler for firms to provide oil and fuel and to empower public officers to halt already authorized clean-energy tasks.
In the meantime, Hurd this month took a public swipe on the president by introducing a bipartisan invoice that will require that unilateral tariffs proposed by the manager department bear congressional overview, and be restricted in length.
“I feel it’s fairly clear beneath Article I, Part 8 of the Structure that Congress has authority with respect to tariffs,” Hurd, a Grand Junction legal professional, advised JHB in an interview. “I believed it was an essential factor for me to be a part of the laws that will reassert Congress’ authority.”
Former Colorado Republican Celebration chair Dick Wadhams mentioned each Hurd and Evans “have accomplished very well” of their first 100 days pledging fealty to Trump’s agenda. They’ve accomplished so with out attaching themselves too carefully to a few of its more durable edges, he mentioned — like supporting false claims of a stolen 2020 election.
“Gabe is firstly a congressman for the eighth District,” Wadhams mentioned. “And I feel Jeff Hurd is within the custom of what third District voters are in search of. They’ve set themselves up as sturdy incumbents.”
“Tying them to Trump”
However the 2026 election remains to be greater than 18 months away. Quite a bit can occur between from time to time, Saunders mentioned.
Trump’s polling numbers have fallen since he took workplace on Jan. 20, in line with a CBS Information-YouGov survey taken per week in the past. His approval ranking has flipped from 53% in favor of his general efficiency in February to 53% disapproval now.
Comparable declines had been recorded within the ballot on Trump’s dealing with of the financial system.
“What we are able to say is that President Trump’s honeymoon could be very seemingly over,” Saunders mentioned. “Does that imply that his favorability will decline farther from right here? What we do know is that financial uncertainty, rising costs and different fundamentals don’t normally assist the sitting president — we noticed that as lately as President Biden’s struggles with inflation in 2023 and 2024.”
The hazard of an unpopular president is that unaffiliated voters could break in direction of Democrats subsequent 12 months, Saunders mentioned. In Evans’ case, his prospects are sophisticated by the truth that the eighth District, which covers parts of Weld, Adams and Larimer counties, has an 8,000-voter registration benefit for Democrats, he mentioned.
“In a district the place Evans solely received by roughly 2,400 votes, these components alone may simply flip the tide the opposite method,” Saunders mentioned.
Hal Bidlack, a retired Air Pressure lieutenant colonel who unsuccessfully ran in Colorado’s fifth Congressional District practically 20 years in the past, advises the Democrats operating within the third and eighth districts in 2026 to burden their opponents with Trump — and the duty of attempting to clarify Trump. He additionally taught political science on the Air Pressure Academy for practically 20 years.
“I might have the angle of tying them to Trump as tightly as I can,” the Democrat mentioned. “I might make them defend Trump and Trumpism fully.”
Hurd, who beat Democratic challenger Adam Frisch by 5 share factors final 12 months, hasn’t drawn a Democratic challenger but. However Evans has two of word already.
Caraveo, who on Tuesday introduced a bid to retake the seat she misplaced practically six months in the past, advised The Submit that Evans is “falling in line fully with Donald Trump and Elon Musk.”
“He’s probably not making an allowance for that it is a very middle-of-the-road district that doesn’t match into the fitting MAGA extremism that he’s voting for, and I haven’t seen him veer in any respect from the trail that Donald Trump needs him to be on,” she mentioned in an interview.
Her Democratic major opponent, state Rep. Manny Rutinel, voiced an identical criticism of Evans. He introduced his candidacy lower than a month after Evans took workplace Jan. 3.
“Though Congressman Evans was elected to characterize the individuals of CD-8, his solely focus has been representing the pursuits of the ultrawealthy and defending President Trump’s disastrous insurance policies towards working individuals,” Rutinel wrote in an e mail to The Submit.
Evans, a U.S. Military veteran and former Arvada cop, dismisses the criticism.
“I’ve accomplished over 40 in-person conferences, roundtables, city halls — issues of that nature,” he mentioned. “My employees has accomplished over 300 different conferences, and so we’re 100% dedicated to being out, lively and engaged within the district.”
Whereas Evans strongly backs the administration’s efforts to safe the border and deport criminals and gang members who’re within the nation illegally, he typically tells the story of his grandfather, who immigrated to america from Mexico “the fitting method.”
The eighth District is Colorado’s most closely Latino district.
“We’ve to acknowledge their key contributions,” he mentioned of immigrants, “and now we have to guarantee that we’re shifting the ball ahead to get some form of significant immigration reform — in order that the people who find themselves attempting to do it the fitting method and are bringing so many constructive contributions to our communities don’t get left behind.”
Tariffs and farming
Within the meantime, the political winds have already began blowing forward of 2026.
Earlier this week, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, a Democrat, met with about 30 northern Colorado producers in Loveland — proper on the doorstep of Evans’ district. The dialogue centered on the “devastating impacts of Trump’s tariff taxes on the trade and financial system,” in line with a information launch from the governor’s workplace.
However producers are hardly the one sector impacted by tariffs. Commerce duties are particularly difficult for farmers and ranchers in Colorado. They should stay aggressive on worth to promote their merchandise abroad and want the prices of imported tools and elements to stay cheap.
Chad Franke, the president of the Rocky Mountain Farmers Union, mentioned many farmers in Colorado want a extra degree taking part in subject in world commerce however would reasonably not incur monetary injury attempting to get there.
“The broad-ranging tariffs are going to be dangerous to household farmers and ranchers due to reciprocal tariffs, which can be levied (by overseas international locations) towards commodities,” he mentioned. “We’re hopeful they will put strain on Washington, D.C., to reduce the impression of broad tariffs on the ag financial system.”
Hurd’s invoice calling for congressional overview of tariffs may very well be an efficient verify on their impacts, Franke mentioned.
However any results from Trump’s commerce insurance policies on Colorado farmers, Franke mentioned, received’t come into sight till nearer to reap season — “If there may be going to be an issue, we’ll hear about it via the summer time and into the autumn” — when it’s that a lot nearer to the November 2026 election.
Evans acknowledges that tariffs aren’t common amongst producers in his district. However he says farmers and ranchers are additionally uninterested in being taken benefit of by different international locations.
“No person loves the chaos, however they’re truly fairly excited concerning the potential for the taking part in subject to be degree,” he mentioned.
Evans, who as a state lawmaker represented among the similar space north of Denver that’s now in his congressional district, mentioned farmers inform him they need nothing greater than to crack markets like Spain, Italy, Thailand and Vietnam.
“They’ve had keen patrons. We’ve had keen producers right here, however they couldn’t get via with the dearth of commerce offers within the final 5 years,” he mentioned. “And so I feel what we’re seeing with this administration is (that) via tariffs, they’re utilizing that as a mechanism to get these commerce offers accomplished.”
Hurd sees tariffs as a “software within the toolbox” to making a fairer world buying and selling system. However they should be administered judiciously, with an eye fixed towards limiting their “breadth and scope.”
“I do imagine that tariffs can have a strategic position in the case of approaching these points, however I simply suppose we should be considerate in how we method it,” Hurd mentioned. He added that “broad-based tariffs trigger me extra concern than tariffs which are focused in direction of a particular finish.
Regardless of his help for Trump’s targets of bringing manufacturing again to america, Hurd mentioned it may’t be accomplished on the expense of Congress’ energy. Thus, the invoice he launched earlier this month.
“We simply must guarantee that we do this the fitting method and that we comport with the necessities beneath the Structure,” he mentioned.
Trump’s checkered Colorado historical past
Bidlack, the retired lieutenant colonel and political scientist, lauded Hurd for signing on to the invoice regardless of its dim prospects for passage in a Republican-majority Congress with deep allegiances to Trump.
“It’s outstanding to me {that a} freshman Republican would thumb his nostril at Trump so dramatically in what’s a doomed effort,” Bidlack mentioned of Hurd, who has by no means publicly revealed whether or not he has voted for the president. “But it surely’s good to distance himself from Trump.”
That’s very true in Colorado, the place Trump was crushed by Hillary Clinton in 2016, Joe Biden 4 years in the past and Kamala Harris final 12 months, Wadhams mentioned.
Hurd has taken a principled stand guarding the separation of powers on the high of American authorities, Wadhams mentioned — a place that ought to assist him in a district that almost ousted Republican Lauren Boebert in 2022 over issues about her conduct and gravitas.
“He’s a really constitutional conservative,” Wadhams mentioned.
Regardless of the sturdy Republican lean of the third Congressional District, which hugs the borders of Wyoming, Utah and New Mexico and swoops from Rangely to Pueblo, it was lower than 20 years in the past that Democrat U.S. Rep. John Salazar held the seat. If public opinion goes right into a tailspin beneath the second Trump administration and Democrats discover the fitting contender subsequent 12 months, Wadhams mentioned, the district has an opportunity of going blue once more.
“A Trump presidency is a shock day-after-day,” he mentioned.
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