Next Presents: The Race for Congress

By Veronica Simmons On Oct 16, 2022

Candidates for Colorado’s new 8th Congressional District debated Thursday night in the first of a series of six debates hosted by 9NEWS.

State representative and pediatrician Yadira Caraveo (D) and state Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer (R), a former Weld County commissioner, are in a close race in the state’s newest congressional district.

CD8 was created after the 2020 U.S. Census. An independent redistricting commission drew the boundaries of the district to include parts of Adams, Larimer and Weld counties.

This is one of the most competitive congressional races, given the new district’s makeup, which is, as of Sept. 1:

Unaffiliated: 193,044 (46%)
Democrat: 113,683 (27%)
Republican: 100,763 (24%)
Being a swing district, both candidates have campaigned hard.

Caraveo is a pediatrician in Adams County and has been state representative for District 31 since 2019. She ran unopposed in the Democratic primary. She’s been accused, without evidence, of being an “abortionist” by Weld County Commissioner Lori Saine.

Caraveo was the primary sponsor of a 2019 bill that changed how oil and gas would be regulated in Colorado and focused on public safety, health and welfare.

She also voted for a 2021 bill, later signed into law, to add a gas fee of 2 cents per gallon, and for the 2022 bill, also signed into law, that delays the start of the gas fee until April 2023.

Kirkmeyer represents Colorado’s District 23 and serves on the Senate’s Education, Health and Human Services and Local Government committees.

She previously served as a Weld County commissioner. During her time on the board, she was involved in the county declaring it was a “Second Amendment sanctuary” that would not honor new state gun laws. She beat out three other Republican nominees in the primary.

Kirkmeyer was in the news in August for scrubbing her anti-abortion stance from her campaign website but told 9NEWS that she’s always been anti-abortion, with the only exception being the life of the mother. Previously, she had expressed an anti-abortion stance with no exceptions.

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