November 01, 2024 03:39 PM UTC

Evans’ Explanation for Skipping Gay Marriage Vote Puzzles His Colleagues

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• by: Jason Salzman

(Promoted by Colorado Pols)

Originally posted at the Colorado Times Recorder by Jason Salzman and Erik Maulbetsch

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Colorado congressional candidate Gabe Evans is saying that his strident opposition to gay marriage ended long ago.

If that’s true, 9News fact checker Marshall Zelinger asked Evans Oct. 16, then why was the Ft. Lupton lawmaker absent May 4 when the Colorado House voted to put a measure on the November ballot asking voters if they want to remove a ban on gay marriage from the Colorado Constitution.

Evans’ campaign manager told Zelinger that Evans missed the vote because “he and several legislators were trying to negotiate compromises on oil and gas, pesticide regulation and other issues.”

That’s almost certainly not true, say three of Evans’ House colleagues who would have been leading negotiations on legislation his campaign says took him away from the House floor. All of the bill sponsors agree that would have had no reason to include Evans, a first-term representative who holds no leadership position within his caucus, in substantive discussions on their bills.

Senate President Steve Fenberg, who sponsored SB24-230, one of the two oil and gas bills still moving forward on May 4, said he only ever saw Evans in one meeting — the day Democrats and industry representatives informed Republicans that a deal had been struck. Fenberg pointed out that the meeting didn’t conflict with the Freedom to Marry resolution’s third vote, however. “Both [Minority Leader Rose] Pugliese and Speaker Julie McCluskie were in that meeting and they made the vote.”

Rep. Jenny Willford (D-Northglenn) was one of two prime sponsors of the Ozone Mitigation Measures bill, half of the oil and gas bill package that was still being negotiated on May 4, the day Evans missed the vote.

“It just doesn’t make sense,” said Willford. “Rep. [Jennifer] Bacon (D-Denver) was the other prime sponsor and we spent a lot of time doing stakeholder conversations and negotiations on those bills. Evans was never in the room. We would have brought in the minority leader, but not someone whose vote was never in doubt. He’s never been a player in either of those bills. And that day, May 4, the bill was introduced in the House and we, Bacon and I presented it in Finance, and we both made the marriage vote.”

Likewise, Rep. Meg Froelich (D-Englewood) confirmed that Evans was never involved in any negotiations on her pesticide bill.

“I ran the local control of pesticides bill with Rep. Kipp,” says Froelich. “I don’t know who Evans was negotiating with on pesticides, but it wasn’t with any of us sponsors. And on the marriage vote — which both Kipp and I made — if he was going to vote for it, he might have been the only [Republican] to do so? [Editor’s note: Rep. Matt Soper (R-Delta) voted yes — the lone GOP vote in support.] We would have loved to have him (Evans) vote with us, but he wasn’t there.”

Evans was present for the morning roll call and voted on 13 bills, speaking in opposition to two of them. When he failed to vote on another bill just before noon, the speaker declared Evans excused, though she fined him $5, indicating that his absence had not been approved in advance. He missed five votes, including the marriage vote, before returning later in the afternoon.

Evans’ campaign manager has said Evans was at the Capitol on the day of the gay marriage vote and he would have supported it. And Evans himself has said he plans to vote for the amendment on his election ballot.

The Evans campaign did not respond to an email request for comment seeking clarification as to which specific bills he was working on and with whom he had been negotiating. This article will be updated with any response received.

But questions about Evans’ absence from the vote on the gay marriage measure at the Legislature — in addition to anti-gay threads that run through his life — paint a picture of Evans as hostile to LGBTQ rights generally and gay marriage in particular.

When Evans was 17, he penned a letter to the editor stating, “If gay marriages are allowed, the institution of marriage will have been redefined to include all of the perverted and immoral practices mentioned above.”

During a gap year before college, he worked as a legislative aide for Rep. Ted Harvey (R-Colorado Springs), one of the most strident anti-gay lawmakers in Colorado, and he then attended Patrick Henry College, one of the country’s most anti-gay colleges, which requires students to sign an anti-gay honor code. Evans said in 2022 that his college prepared him well for his political career.

In December, Evans accepted the endorsement of Michael Farris, one of the top anti-LGBTQ and anti-abortion lawyers in the U.S. His website lists an endorsement by U.S. Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN), who voted against codifying a right to same-sex and interracial marriage.

Most recently, Evans’ aunt Jennifer Chavez, who is a member of the LGBTQ community, penned an op-ed in which she wrote that while she loves her nephew, she doesn’t want him in Congress in large part because of his far right beliefs, which she says still include opposition to gay marriage.

Evans seeks to oust incumbent Democratic Rep. Yadira Caraveo to represent Colorado’s 8th Congressional District, which is located mostly north and east of Denver. It’s not only one of the most competitive districts in Colorado but also in the entire country. Caraveo won the seat, which was added after the 2020 U.S. Census, by just 1,632 votes in 2022.

RELATED: GOP Congressional Candidate Puts His Training at a Far-Right Christian College Into Action.