THORNTON, Colo. — One of the most closely watched races is Colorado’s 8th Congressional District.
The winner — either incumbent Democrat Yadira Caraveo or Republican Gabe Evans — could determine which party controls the U.S. House of Representatives in January.
Denver7 recently spoke with Evans about his priorities and his record.
By now, most Coloradans are probably most familiar with Evans from seeing his political ads on television. For the past two years, he has been a Republican state lawmaker, representing parts of Adam and Weld counties in the Democrat-controlled Colorado House of Representatives.
“I'm in a super minority, and I still got almost 60% of my bills passed. And that's because I'm able to reach out, build those coalitions,” said Evans.
He now hopes to go to Congress as a representative for Colorado’s 8th Congressional District.
Hear the full interview with Gabe Evans in the video player below:
Evans said securing the southern border is his top priority.
“Because until the border is secure, really, all the rest of this is a moot point,” he said.
Evans claims a bipartisan border security bill introduced earlier this year would not have helped.
“Really what that did was enshrine into law the fact that 5,000 asylees per day can be admitted into the United States. That's over 1.8 million per year,” said Evans.
Evans is not alone in making that claim. Many Republican candidates are also using those figures. Denver7 fact-checked that claim to be false, as have other news outlets and nonpartisan organizations.
The bill directs the Secretary of Homeland Security to close the border if agents encounter an average of 5,000 immigrants per day over seven consecutive days. The bill’s Republican sponsor, James Lankford of Oklahoma, said that’s not the same as letting 5,000 people into the country.
“It's not that the first 5,000 are released,” said Lankford. “That's ridiculous.”
Lankford said the proposal would have ended the Biden administration’s catch-and-release policy, which allows immigrants seeking asylum to go free into the community while awaiting their immigration hearing.
“The first 5,000 we detain, we screen and then we deport,” Lankford said on the floor of the U.S. Senate. “If we get above 5,000, we just detain and deport. And when the border is closed down, it's closed down for weeks, where we're not even screening for weeks until we get caught up.”
Denver7 shared Lankford’s comments with Evans.
“So, I read the bill. That was how I read the bill. That was my understanding of the bill,” Evans said. “When you go look at the nuts and the bolts of how the bill is actually implemented, there were a lot of concerns that it wasn't quite ready for prime time yet.”
When it comes to the economy, Evans said producing more American energy will lower costs.
“We need to produce more of it here in the United States. That's going to drive down the cost of all of the basic goods that we need for our modern way of life,” said Evans.
He supports former President Donald Trump’s plan to place more tariffs on China.
“For China, we absolutely need to make sure that there is a level playing field,” Evans said.
On healthcare, he said the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, is anything but affordable.
“We need to go back to the drawing board and figure out something that actually works,” said Evans.
Evans once compared same-sex marriage to incest and bestiality in a letter to the editor in 2004.
“I wrote that op-ed when I was 17 years old, had held a driver's license for about a year at the point, had never had a girlfriend,” Evans said.
Since then, he’s served in the military and as an Arvada police officer.
“I worked with gay and lesbian soldiers. I worked with gay and lesbian cops. I would have taken a bullet for them. They would have taken a bullet for me,” said Evans.
Evans said he believes the Biden administration is using the military for social experimentation and virtue signaling. When asked what he meant by that, Evans cited gender-neutral bathrooms being highlighted as part of the grand reopening of an armory building in his statehouse district.
“Just the emphasis on it,” Evans said. “Out of all of the different things that could have been selected at that armory. It was the emphasis on how they described these bathrooms and making sure that that was a major talking point.”
Regarding abortion, Evans wouldn’t provide a direct answer on whether he supported the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.
“I think the Supreme Court very clearly sent this back to the states for the states to be able to handle,” said Evans.
Evans said he's anti-abortion but supports exceptions for rape, incest and to save the life of the mother. He also said he would oppose a national abortion ban.
“My wife and I have had two live kids. We've had eight miscarriages, and so I've seen how absolutely complex these situations involving reproductive care can be,” Evans said.
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When it comes to whether the U.S. should provide more funding for Ukraine and Israel, Evans said there’s a clear difference.
“We have to make sure that if we decide to continue to fund Ukraine, that we do it in the most efficient and effective manner,” said Evans. “So that means making sure that any of that funding is subject to audits to make sure it goes where it belongs and isn't siphoned off through any sort of corruption or illegitimate either business deals or government deals or anything like that.”
Evans said no such conditions are needed for Israel.
“The stakes in Israel are a lot higher because of the size of the country, because of the geopolitical situation of the country, and because of the outright commitment by the Iranian regime to not acknowledge that Israel has a right to even exist,” said Evans.
The race for the 8th Congressional District is a toss-up, but Evans hopes voters are ready to elect a new member of Congress.
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