# CO-08 — 2026 U.S. House Race ## Snapshot **Settled June 30: [[Gabe Evans]] (R) vs. state Rep. [[Manny Rutinel]] (D).** Rutinel took the Democratic primary with **61%** over Shannon Bird (34%) and veteran Evan Munsing (5%); Bird conceded and endorsed him. Former Rep. [[Yadira Caraveo]], whose comeback bid headlined this page in June, does not appear in CPR's June 30 results. > [!warning] Caraveo's exit is not sourced here > The June 30 results from CPR and NBC list only Rutinel, Bird and Munsing; Caraveo is not among them. Whether she withdrew or failed to make the ballot has not been verified. Evans was unopposed on the Republican line (40,298 votes; Adam DeRito withdrawn/disqualified). Colorado's only toss-up: Harris 49.6–47.8 in 2024, Evans by under 2,500 votes over Caraveo, a Democrat by under 1,600 in 2022. Cook (Aug 25): **Republican Toss Up.** ## Incumbent **[[Gabe Evans]]** (R). Freshman; Army veteran, former Arvada police officer. [[Donald Trump]]-endorsed (April 2025); NRCC Patriot Program. $4.89M raised, $3.42M on hand as of June 10 — the Colorado House fundraising leader. Publicly defended the decision to launch the Iran war (CPR, May 2026). ## How the Democratic nomination was decided (June 30, 2026) | Candidate | % | |---|---| | **Manny Rutinel** | **61** | | Shannon Bird | 34 | | Evan Munsing | 5 | - **[[Manny Rutinel]]** — state representative; environmental attorney and microbiologist; the money leader (~$3.45M cumulative). RNC chair Joe Gruters attacked him as a "lifelong vegan and Green New Deal activist"; Rutinel says he is no longer a vegan. - **Shannon Bird** — CPR describes her both as a state representative and as a former state senator in the same piece; her office is unresolved here. ## General election Evans vs. Rutinel. No public poll since the primary. Cook, Sabato and Inside Elections all Toss Up. The "messy primary" frame the NRCC amplified in the spring did not materialize — Rutinel won by 27 and entered the general with the field consolidated behind him. ## Ratings history - Cook Toss Up (unchanged; Aug 25 edition) · Sabato Toss Up · Inside Elections Toss Up. ## Key dates - 2026-06-30 — primaries (held) - 2026-11-03 — general election ## Intel notes - **The primary that was supposed to bruise the nominee produced a 27-point winner with the most money in the field.** File against MI-07 (organizer beat the money) and MI-10 (prosecutor beat the money): CO-08 is the case where the best-funded Democrat also won cleanly. - **The Iran-war vote** is the general-election issue Evans chose; in a district that is heavily Latino and near-even, his defense of the war is the record Rutinel will run against. - **Colorado's only toss-up** means state-party and outside money has nowhere else to go in the House; expect this to be the most expensive House race per voter in the Mountain West. ## Outside-money log — FEC Form 24 notices ### Receipt date 2026-10-08 — [[House Majority PAC]] $927,099.62 **[[House Majority PAC]]** (FEC **C00495028**, filing as `HMP`) disclosed **$927,099.62** in this district on **5 Schedule E lines** in a single Form 24 notice — **file 2018607**, `F24N`, received **2026-10-08T23:07:55**, expenditure date **2026-10-06**, election code `G2026`. | Direction | Candidate | Amount | Lines | |---|---|---|---| | oppose | [[Gabe Evans]] | **$927,099.62** | 5 | The notice as a whole is **$21,914,974.25 across 146 lines covering 44 candidate positions in 19 states**, **98.59% of it negative**, with **[[Waterfront Strategies]]** placing **72.0%** of the money. The full document is recorded at [[House Majority PAC 21.9M House IE October 2026]]. **Note:** the filing codes the target as `Evans, Timothy`, candidate ID `H4CO08034`. This site titles the page [[Gabe Evans]]; the legal form is recorded here rather than given a second page. 🔴 **This notice was filed late on receipt date 2026-10-08.** It was filed 53 minutes before the receipt date closed. The document's aggregate column is not published here as a district total; the figure above is summed from the document's own lines. Source: `docquery.fec.gov/dcdev/posted/2018607.fec` ## Related KB entities - [[Gabe Evans]] · [[Manny Rutinel]] · [[Yadira Caraveo]] - [[2026 House Races Hub]] ## Content leads - **"The seat drawn to be a toss-up"**: CO-08 across 2022 / 2024 / 2026. ## Sources - [CPR News — CO-08 primary results (June 30, 2026)](https://www.cpr.org/2026/06/30/colorado-district-8-primary-election-2026-results/) - [NBC News — Colorado 8th District results](https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2026-primary-elections/colorado-us-house-district-8-results) - [Ballotpedia — CO-08 June 30 Republican primary](https://ballotpedia.org/Colorado's_8th_Congressional_District_election,_2026_(June_30_Republican_primary)) - [Cook Political Report — 2026 House race ratings (Aug 25, 2026)](https://www.cookpolitical.com/print/ratings/races/house)