Colorado state Rep. Barbara Kirkmeyer beat out three Republican primary challengers Tuesday to secure the GOP nomination in a highly competitive general election that could determine which party wins a majority in the House of Representatives.
Colorado’s 8th Congressional District primary saw fierce faceoffs between Kirkmeyer, Weld County Commissioner Lori Saine, Thornton Mayor Jan Kulmann, and former Army Green Beret Tyler Allcorn.
Kirkmeyer will face off against Democratic challenger state Rep. Yadira Caraveo, who won her party’s nomination in April.
The Republican candidates all ran their primaries as staunch conservatives. They have vowed to stop the “far Left’s radical agenda,” blown up boxes labeled “gun control” in campaign ads, and said proudly they would not fly a gay pride flag. However, Kirkmeyer will now most assuredly have to pivot and appeal to more moderates in the general election.
Saine, the only candidate who qualified through the party assembly (the others submitted petitions), is also the most conservative of the bunch. If elected, her top priority would be to stop President Joe Biden’s agenda.
COLORADO PREGNANCY CENTER FIRE BEING PROBED AS ARSON
Saine’s campaign website describes her as “a champion for the people against progressive Marxists and ‘Republicans’ who act like Democrats” and claims she is running for Congress to “fight for freedom against the Biden-Harris-Schumer-Pelosi Gang and their Socialist-Communist Agenda.”
The 8th Congressional District — which runs north of Denver, where voters lean more liberal, and into the heart of Weld County, a conservative stronghold — has backed both Democrats and Republicans on statewide ballots in recent years. The race is rated a “toss-up” by the Cook Political Report, a nonpartisan election forecaster. The district was drawn last year through the state’s first independent redistricting process. Despite being the most diverse congressional district in the state, it also has the fewest registered voters.
Democrats have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars running ads in the 8th District’s GOP primaries, as well as in the Senate and gubernatorial races. The plan is to advance the most conservative and controversial candidates in those contests in order to secure a slam-dunk victory for Democrats in November’s general election. The move could backfire, and if far-right, ultraconservative candidates come out on top, Democrats will have helped place election-denying, anti-abortion candidates in the most influential positions in state and federal government.
The outcome of the November matchup could determine which political party will control Congress.
The Senate is currently deadlocked at 50-50, with Vice President Kamala Harris giving Democrats their razor-thin majority. In the House, Republicans only need to net five seats to win back the majority they lost in 2018. If Republicans flip both chambers, it could spell disaster for Biden’s first-term priorities.
In the open 8th District, conservatives are buoyed ahead of Election Day by anger over inflation and soaring energy costs, which have led to a Biden backlash that could benefit the Republican nominee.
However, the recent outcry over mass shootings, as well as the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, could be the catalyst needed to get more liberals to the polls.
Caraveo, the 8th District’s Democratic nominee, called Friday’s decision by the high court to end nearly five decades of federal abortion protections “a devastating day for America.”
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Unlike other states, Colorado lawmakers recently passed a law that preserves the right to abortion and birth control.
