Manny Rutinel Targets Colorado's 8th on Affordability After Gabe Evans Won by 2,500 Votes
Updated
Updated · The Guardian · Aug 20
Manny Rutinel Targets Colorado's 8th on Affordability After Gabe Evans Won by 2,500 Votes
3 articles · Updated · The Guardian · Aug 20
Summary
Colorado state lawmaker Manny Rutinel is making affordability the centerpiece of his bid to flip the state's toss-up 8th District, which Republican Gabe Evans carried by roughly 2,500 votes in 2024.
Rutinel is pitching his own working-class story — from a former McDonald's fry cook who sold blood plasma in college to a Yale-trained lawyer — as proof he understands voters squeezed by rising costs.
In the legislature, he says he co-sponsored more than 400 bills, including tax credits that helped cut Colorado child poverty by nearly 40% and gave the state the nation's lowest childhood poverty rate.
He is tying Evans to Trump-era economic promises he says failed, citing a family of four whose health premiums rose to $2,000 a month from $500 in 2025 and warning Medicaid cuts could hit Colorado hospitals.
The race gives Democrats a test case for whether a lived-experience affordability message can reclaim a swing district as voters reassess Trump and Republican stewardship of household costs.