BERTHOUD, Colo. — The candidates vying to represent Colorado’s 8th Congressional District clashed on stage Wednesday night, with U.S. Rep. Gabe Evans calling his opponent the “most radical candidate” while former state lawmaker Manny Rutinel claimed Evans “seeks the approval of one man” — Donald Trump.

The debate, which drew around 200 people to Grace Place in Berthoud, was largely made up of attacks — with Rutinel, a Democrat, and Evans, a Republican, trading barbs and accusations during the hourlong affair.

The crowd jeered and guffawed throughout the event and a heckler who stood up to yell at the stage was led out of the hall halfway through.

“Gabe Evans is literally taking healthcare from families and seniors,” Rutinel said, referring to Medicaid cuts that were part of the Republican president’s giant tax and spending bill, legislation that was passed last year by congressional Republicans.

Rutinel, a state representative from Commerce City who stepped down from the legislature recently to focus on his congressional race, shared a story Wednesday night that he has told many times on the campaign trail. It’s the story of a family of four that has had to come up with $2,000 in monthly health premiums when they used to total $500.

“Imagine finding another $1,500 a month when you can barely make ends meet,” he said to applause.

Evans, in turn, attacked Rutinel, 31, for past disparaging statements he has made about the meat and the oil and gas industries, two economic sectors at the heart of the 8th District.

“They’re job-killing, economy-killing things that raise costs for everyone,” Evans said. “He doesn’t represent anything this district is about.”

Rutinel has walked back many of his comments about energy extraction and meat consumption. But Evans repeatedly tied Rutinel to the more extreme elements of the Democratic Party, at one point spurring Rutinel to insist that he wasn’t a democratic socialist.

Wednesday’s debate, conducted by the Berthoud Surveyor and sponsored by the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, is the only scheduled face-to-face debate between the candidates in what figures to be one of the nation’s most fiercely competitive and expensive congressional contests.

The election is Nov. 3 and ballots are now arriving in voters’ mailboxes.

Rutinel repeatedly tied Evans, 40, to President Trump, whose approval ratings have sunk nationwide and whose performance in three Colorado elections has left him at the losing end of the state’s election results each time.

Evans hit on a theme that while violent crime has dropped to historically low levels across the nation, and while overdose deaths have also declined, “in Colorado, it is the opposite.”

“Is Colorado better or worse than the nation?” the congressman asked.

Evans, a former police officer and U.S. Army Blackhawk helicopter pilot who also served in the state legislature before heading to Congress in 2025, also blamed state Democrats — including his opponent — for increasing regulations and fees on businesses.

“We are a business-unfriendly state and it’s because of his policies,” he said, pointing at Rutinel. “That level of red tape strangles the economy, it strangles jobs and it drives up the cost of living for everyone.”

After citing sky-high diesel and gas prices brought on by Trump’s war on Iran and the president’s “chaotic, corrupt tariff policies,” Rutinel looked straight at his opponent: “Are you sure you want to run on the economy right now? If you want to run on the economy — fine, but I don’t think that’s a good look for you.”

Both candidates said data centers should be placed under stricter scrutiny for their energy and water use. Several cities in the 8th District, like Commerce City and Thornton, have imposed moratoriums on new data center applications while they try to create rules for the burgeoning, artificial intelligence-fueled industry.

The 8th Congressional District, a seat that was first filled in the 2022 election following the decennial census’ determination that Colorado had grown enough in population to warrant an additional representative in Congress, covers parts of Weld, Adams and Larimer counties north of Denver.

It was purposely drawn by the state’s independent redistricting commission to be the most competitive in Colorado — and the most heavily Latino. The 8th has proven itself to be a white-knuckle affair in the two elections it has undergone.

Democrat Yadira Caraveo won the first by less than 2,000 votes. She lost to Evans two years later in a similarly tight contest, as Trump’s return to the White House handed back control of Congress to Republicans.

The tension is the same this fall, with the Cook Political Report putting the race in its thin toss-up category of 22 House races — out of 435 nationwide. But Democrats have an advantage as the party out of power and at a time when the Republican president is overseeing an unpopular war against Iran and struggling with a stubbornly inflationary economy.

At $5.3 million of June 30, Evans had raised a million dollars more than Rutinel by the same point. The incumbent had a substantially larger bankroll as of the end of June, according to federal elections data — with nearly $3.9 million waiting to be spent versus $600,000 for Rutinel, who had emerged from a hard-fought primary contest.

That money has been transformed into frequent online and television ads either stinging or lauding the two candidates. Millions more dollars have been poured into the race by independent expenditure committees and the major national party fundraising arms, ranking the race at or near the top of congressional districts for outside spending with the balance of power in Congress at stake.

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