June 26, 2024 10:43 AM UTC

Gabe Evans Screws Up Big Within Hours of Winning Primary Election

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• by: Colorado Pols

State Rep. Gabe-ish Evans cruised to an easy 78-22 victory on Tuesday against Janak Joshi in the Republican Primary in CO-08. Evans was having a nice time during his election-night party on Tuesday evening, and then he talked to the media…

A little more than two hours after polls closed in the June 25th Primary Election, Evans spoke to 9News and gave a statement that might have sounded good in his head but smelled awful as soon as it seeped into the air:

EVANS: “With Donald Trump and Americans for Prosperity, really kind of the two wings of the Republican Party, both aligning behind me…it’s because I’m a big-tent Republican.”

Oof.

We can understand what Evans thought he was getting at with this quote: He was trying to make the point that he is embraced by different factions within the Republican Party. This would be fine if Evans had just won a Republican Primary in a district like CO-04, where the Republican nominee (in this case, Lauren Boebert) is expected to cruise to victory in November. But Evans is running for Congress in CO-08, against a strong incumbent Democrat in Rep. Yadira Caraveo, and General Election voters are absolutely not going to be excited to find out that Evans is backed by both Donald Trump and Americans for Prosperity.

Let’s first discuss Trump, who in 2020 lost to Democrat Joe Biden in Colorado by about 14 points. Trump is not going to be competitive in Colorado in 2024, making his support a net negative in November. We’ve seen in 2020 and in 2022 that Republican candidates who embrace Trump don’t fare well with average voters in Colorado.

To the extent that Trump’s endorsement helps Evans with Republicans, the support of Americans for Prosperity (AFP) also negates much of that enthusiasm; AFP spent a lot of money trying to unsuccessfully prevent the Big Orange Guy from become the Republican nominee for President in 2024, and Trump isn’t going to let Republicans forget about it. More problematic for Evans, however, is that AFP wants its endorsed candidates to support massive cuts to both Social Security and Medicare.

As American Journal News reported last November:

In October 2023, Americans for Prosperity signed a letter urging Congress to repeal the Medicare price negotiation program included in the Inflation Reduction Act. The program is responsible for capping out-of-pocket costs for insulin for Medicare recipients at $35 a month. It was signed into law by President Joe Biden.

In 2022, Americans for Prosperity called for major changes to Social Security, including raising the retirement age, cutting benefits, and means-testing recipients. The group has received large donations from the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, the trade group for Big Pharma.

We probably don’t need to tell you that campaigning on massive cuts to Social Security and Medicare is not the formula for winning a competitive race for Congress in November — in Colorado or in any other state, for that matter. Evans will certainly try to avoid those issues, but his public embrace of AFP will make that effort problematic and gives Caraveo plenty of runway to bring it up during the General Election phase of the campaign.

If there is a “big Republican tent” in Colorado, results from the last decade of elections in this state have demonstrated that average voters aren’t interested in gaining access to said tent.

There are plenty of things Evans could have discussed with the media on Election Night. His support from both Trump and AFP should not have been on the list.