As a candidate for Congress, representing a district that’s equally divided between Democrats and Republicans, Gabe Evans says his approach to governing isn’t mandated by political parties.
“It's what it was when I was a police officer; when you called me as a cop, my question wasn't ‘Are you a Republican or a Democrat?’ Folks never asked me if I was a Republican or a Democrat,” said Evans, a former Arvada police officer and state representative, and now the Republican candidate for the 8th congressional district. “My question has always been, ‘What's the problem and how do we work together to actually solve this problem?’ It's what I did as a police officer, it's what I did at the state capitol, and it's what I'll continue to do in Congress.”
Evans spoke with Colorado Matters host Chandra Thomas Whitfield about what is expected to be a closely contested race with the Democratic incumbent, Yadira Caraveo.
Included among the topics of conversation were his endorsements from former President Donald Trump and Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, navigating the best interests of a district that spans both rural and urban swatches of the state, and why he says the great majority of its residents say immigration is their number one concern.
Editor’s note: This interview transcript has been edited for length and clarity.
Chandra Thomas Whitfield: Please name for us a specific problem in your community and explain why voters should send you to DC to address it.
State Rep. Gabe Evans: Yeah, so when I'm out knocking on doors and talking to folks, that's one of the things I ask them, “What's the top issue on your mind right now that you wish you could tell your elected representative?” And I would say probably 90 percent of folks tell me in one form or another, it has something to do with the border. It has to do with sanctuary, city and state policies. It has to do with the crime and the drain on public resources that come from tens of thousands of illegal immigrants coming to the area, and the crime that's oftentimes associated with the cartels and the transnational criminal organizations that are taking advantage of the southern border being open and sanctuary, city and state policies.
Thomas Whitfield: We'll get back to that a little bit later. The 8th district is somewhat unique in the state because it's a blend of urban and rural. And since its inception, there have been tensions between backers of those two interests. You've had your feet in both worlds as a police officer in Arvada, and currently as the owner and operator of a family farm in Weld County. As a member of Congress, what steps would you take to ensure the interests of both urban and rural areas are represented?
State Rep. Evans: Absolutely great question. And that's something that I've been doing currently in my state house seat because my state house seat, House District 48 really is a microcosm of the 8th congressional district. It's also in Weld and Adams counties. It also has a major urban center, but then it has a lot of the rural parts in Weld County in it. And I'm very proud that during my time in the state legislature, I've been able to get almost 60 percent of my bills passed. And again, I'm in a super minority. There's 19 Republicans on my side of the aisle to 46 Democrats on the other side. So being able to get almost 60 percent of my bills passed means that I'm able to sit down and I'm able to find that collaborative common ground to be able to bridge a lot of these concerns. It's why two-thirds of the sitting mayors in the district have come out and endorsed me over my opponent, because they know that I'm able to give them the representation that they deserve.
This is from the largest city in the district, Thornton. I've received the endorsement of Mayor Kulmann, to a lot of the smaller cities in town such as Gilcrest, which isn't even big enough to have its own police department. And so I'm already spanning that urban-rural divide. Because of my experience, I grew up out in rural eastern Colorado. I currently raise a few cows, but I worked for the seventh-largest municipality in Colorado for over a decade as a police officer. And so I'm able to leverage that experience to earn the endorsement of two-thirds of the mayors to get almost 60 percent of my bills passed to earn the endorsement of the Libertarian party candidate who has dropped out of the race and endorsed me because folks know that I'm a consensus builder and I'm able to pull folks together by focusing on what we have in common rather than what divides us.
Thomas Whitfield: Former President Trump has endorsed you, as has current Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson. Given the diverse makeup of your district, is there an issue like the budget, abortion, childcare, education, that you would be able to tell more moderate and even liberal voters in the 8th that you agree with them on, even if it means going against Trump and/or Johnson?
State Rep. Evans: Yeah, so when I got those endorsements, I focus on the policies that make life better for everyone. So if you look at the Trump endorsement, it talks about securing the border. It talks about making our communities safer. It talks about empowering our economy so that folks can have good-paying jobs. And so what I found during 10 years of being a police officer is that left, right, moderates, the vast majority of Americans agree on the vast majority of things. We want safe communities to raise our family. We want an economy where the essentials of life are affordable, and we want to be able to protect our individual and our personal freedoms so that we can live our own version of the American Dream. And so those are the things that I use to make my decisions, both as a current state representative and then also in Congress.
I've said it numerous times that I follow a three-pronged test. My faith guides me. I follow the Constitution based on 22 years of experience, having sworn to pay up to and including my life to uphold and defend that Constitution. And I listened to the folks in my district. That's why I've been able to get almost 60 percent of my bills passed in a super minority down at the state capitol. That's why I have two-thirds of the mayors supporting and endorsing me. That's why I have the support of the Libertarian Party candidate. And so my commitment is what it's always been.
It's what it was when I was a police officer. When you called me as a cop, my question wasn't, “Are you a Republican or a Democrat?” Folks never asked me if I was a Republican or a Democrat. My question has always been, “What's the problem and how do we work together to actually solve this problem?” It's what I did as a police officer, it's what I did at the state capitol, and it's what I'll continue to do in Congress.
Thomas Whitfield: You referenced this earlier during the recent presidential debate, former President Trump invoked Aurora, Colorado as indicative of the problem the nation is dealing with in regards to new immigrants, citing what many leaders have described as exaggerated reports about gangs from Venezuela terrorizing the city. Trump said that if reelected, he would begin mass deportations of undocumented new immigrants in Aurora. While it's not part of the 8th district, immigration has definitely been a hot-button issue across our entire state. Do you embrace this plan that the former president has spoken of? And given the rising Latino population in your district, would you consider such a plan, a win for your district?
State Rep. Evans: So I've been very, very clear on my border plan and it really consists of three points. Number one, we have to secure the border. We cannot have all of the crime, the drugs, the just massive amounts of human waves of individuals coming across our southern border. So we've got to get the border secure. We have to be able to build more wall. We have to be able to reinstitute policies like Remain in Mexico. But as the grandson of somebody who immigrated to the United States from Mexico, I also know that we have to have a more streamlined process for those individuals who want to follow the law, who want to do it the right way, and who want to come to the United States to be a contributing part of that American dream. Like my abuelito, who raised his right hand and was wounded twice in World War II in service and in defense of his adopted home.
So we have to secure the border. We have to work on our broken immigration system to make it easier and faster for those folks who want to do it the right way. And then we have to make sure that we're empowering our law enforcement officials at the federal, state, and local level to be able to aggressively prioritize those individuals who are illegally in their communities and committing crimes. And so by doing that, I think that we will have an excellent chance of getting our border under control and being able to ensure that safe, prosperous America and community and especially in the 8th congressional district, when I have this conversation with folks, particularly folks of Hispanic descent, they tell me basically what I just reiterated to you. They say, "We worked for 10, 15, 20 years to come here legally, and then I turn around and see the red carpet being rolled out for somebody whose first act was to enter the country illegally? What about us?" When do we consider the individuals who did it right?
Thomas Whitfield: So you do support Trump's plans for deportations in terms of solving this problem?
State Rep. Evans: So listen to what I said. I said we need to empower our law enforcement officials to be able to prioritize individuals who are legally in our community and committing crimes.
Thomas Whitfield: You spoke of this earlier. In sharing your personal story, you speak of being the grandson of Mexican immigrants, which you have said helps you "truly understand the beauty and responsibility of the American dream." In your view, who should and should not be allowed to participate in that process of achieving this dream that you and your family have experienced? Walk us through the process and factors you personally consider critical in deciding that.
State Rep. Evans: Do you want to come to the United States to be an American? Like I said, I've told the story of my abuelito a few times. He raised his right hand in 1943 to join the army and fight in the European Theater in World War II for his adopted country. And so like it says on the Statue of Liberty, “Bring me your tired, your poor huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” Folks that want to come to the United States and want to be a contributing part of the United States of America to pledge allegiance to our flag of the United States of America, those are the folks that should be able to come to the states.
And as I just mentioned, those are the folks for whom we need to be streamlining the immigration process, so that those individuals who want to do it the right way, who want to be a part of the American dream of the peace, the prosperity, the security, the safety, and who are also willing to carry the burden like my grandfather did, of protecting freedom and that individual responsibility for self-government, those are the folks that we need to be welcoming here, and those are the folks for whom we need to be able to streamline the immigration process so that their efforts to legally do that can be acknowledged with something other than a... I talked to an individual the other day, he'd been waiting 17 years to get his citizenship. He said it's going to take him another three years before he gets it.
Thomas Whitfield: How do you discern who does and does not want to contribute?
State Rep. Evans: I think that's part of the whole process by which one applies to become a citizen. But what I do know is when folks illegally come to the United States and when they cost hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer resources to the point where the police departments are having to get cut, where there's tens of millions of dollars of uncompensated care to our hospitals and to our healthcare networks, to the point where in Denver we saw earlier that the Department of Motor Vehicles couldn't even stay open 40 hours a week because the cuts were so deep to redirect those resources to illegal immigrants. I think that's the point where a lot of folks draw the line and say, "Look, I'm a taxpayer. Why aren't those taxpayer dollars coming back to critical government resources for me, the taxpayer? Why are they being directed to individuals whose first act was to come here across the border illegally?"
Thomas Whitfield: As has been the case here in Colorado in recent years, many of the bills that become state law have bipartisan sponsorship. You had a few such measures passed in the last legislative session. In this congressional race, your opponent, Representative Caraveo has made a point in her campaign of speaking of bipartisanship, even running ads touting that she's voted with Republicans during the current session. Is there room for you as a person who has received and accepted the endorsement of Donald Trump to win a partisan race in the 8th district? And if so, please explain how.
State Rep. Evans: Whenever we have conversations about bipartisanship, it's important to make sure that we're acknowledging that bipartisanship also has to be connected to the big issues that are facing the country and the state right now. And so, unfortunately, on all of those big issues, my opponent has been dead wrong. And so when we have the conversation about bipartisanship, we have to make sure that we're talking about issues that are important to everyday Americans. If you're bipartisan about the naming of a US post office, that's totally different than being able to find common sense collaborative and bipartisan common ground on issues like crime, on issues like securing the border on issues like empowering American energy. And unfortunately, on all of those issues, she has been completely wrong and she has voted with the extreme left wing of her party.
Thomas Whitfield: You also referenced this earlier, the Libertarian candidate for the 8th, Eric Joss dropped out of the race after you signed a modified version of the Libertarian Party's candidate. The changes you agreed to included saying that rather than completely ending aid to Ukraine, possible assistance would be contingent on it directly benefiting American interests. You also pledged to push for fundamental reform to the US Department of Education, instead of getting rid of it entirely. In a race that seemingly will be as close as the 2022 contest, why did you decide to do that?
State Rep. Evans: Well, like I've said all along, my faith guides me. I follow the Constitution based on 22 years as a police officer and a soldier and upholding and defending it, and I listen to my constituents. There's libertarians in the district who are my constituents, and so like I've promised to do with everyone, we sat down, we had a conversation, we talked about those things that we couldn't agree on, but rather than focus on our differences and what divides us, we instead focused on the common ground.
And it was the libertarian candidate himself, and again, I'm so grateful to them for being willing to have these conversations, but it was the libertarian candidate himself who said, "I think we agree on about 90 percent of stuff here." And so we chose to focus on those 90 percent of things that we agreed on. Individual liberty, small government, lower taxes, making sure that we have accountability in our federal government. And so we were able to craft effectively a version 2.0 of the pledge that enshrined a lot of those different things, and that was what we were able to move forward with and being able to mutually stand for those shared values that we have.
Thomas Whitfield: The pledge you signed also commits you to support the Second Amendment. This is coming on the heels of the most recent mass shooting at a US school, one in Georgia. A young volunteer in that state with “Every Town for Gun Safety” reacted by saying, "Guns are the number one killer of my generation, and condolences have never shielded us from bullets. Our schools shouldn't have to become graveyards for politicians to take initiative and pass gun safety laws." Is there any federal action on guns you support?
State Rep. Evans: So as a police officer, one of my duties for a few years was to be a part-time school resource officer. We didn't have enough full-time school resource officers to cover all of our schools. I was working the day shift that year, and so I volunteered, "Yeah, give me a couple of schools." I was still a patrol officer, but I had two different schools that were directly assigned to me and I was their part-time school resource officer. And so from that, I learned a couple of things. Bad guys are always going to get their hands on guns. Go look at the footage from some of the recent violence, or threatened violence, coming out of Aurora or the robbery that happened in Commerce City, the open garage door burglary robbery that was reported on a couple of weeks ago in Commerce City. If you look closely at those, those folks are using magazines that became illegal a decade ago in Colorado.
But guess what? They're bad guys. They don't follow the law. And so I know that continuing to pass gun control isn't going to actually make our schools safer. In Colorado, for instance, in the last decade, there's been double-digit numbers of gun control laws passed. And our homicide rate is higher. Our violent crime rate is higher. And so as a police officer who spent time in our schools, I know we got to do two things: short-term, we have to make sure that we're investing in actual security in our schools. We need to make sure that we have school resource officers in our schools because they are a first line of defense in being able to identify these problems before they even become problems. One of the things that I'll always remember from my law enforcement career is, in my first year, I made 41 arrests, but I responded to 1,800 calls.
The vast majority of time cops are that early warning system that are solving problems before they ever become a problem, and school resource officers do that. We need to invest in that physical security in our schools. Long-term, we need to make sure that we're supporting and building robust families because when you have strong families that are able to get the mental health access that they need for our kids, then that's how we're able to mitigate these things in the long term. Unfortunately, my opponent has voted to take $180 million out of healthcare and direct it to tax credits for electric vehicles.
And so my stance is secure our schools, invest in actual security for our schools support strong families, get the cost of living down so that folks don't have to work, parents don't have to work two or three jobs and spend all of that time away from their kids just trying to make ends meet and make sure that we're promoting mental health. I was proud to be the mental health legislator of the year here in Colorado in 2023 because of my strong stance in supporting greater mental health access.
Thomas Whitfield: You've said that one key to helping families navigate life in Colorado is by making homeownership affordable. While speaking about why that may not be the case now, you've mentioned the need to address the budget deficit. Financial experts have pointed out that the proposals being floated by the man at the top of the Republican ticket, of course, former President Donald Trump, would result in the deficit increasing by as much as $5.8 trillion should he enact that during his return to office. We should also note that those same experts also expect the deficit to grow if Vice President Harris is elected. As a member of Congress, what are your thoughts and how would you go about accomplishing what seems to be an almost impossible task?
State Rep. Evans: Yeah, so when I was flying helicopters over in the Middle East in a combat zone, we had a very simple rule of thumb: Does it work? If so, let's do it. If it doesn't work, it doesn't matter how glossy the presentation is, how great it looks on paper. If this is something that's not going to work, we need to go back to the drawing board and we need to find things that work. So when it comes to housing affordability here in Colorado, we know a couple of things. We know that inflation has taken a huge chunk out of the purchasing power of folks that are looking to get into home ownership, and we need to make sure that we're bringing the rate of inflation down by reducing deficit spending. We also know that one of the key drivers in the cost of living increasing in Colorado is the fact that our economy has been handcuffed by a bunch of punitive regulations.
And then another thing that I've always focused on when it comes to making sure that we have affordable and available housing is making sure that we have a sufficient inventory of that entry-level housing. A major, major piece that's missing in the entry-level housing market in Colorado right now is condominiums and a condominium is critical because they're going to be less expensive than a single-family home. But it's another option by which somebody can actually own property, which means they're building equity, which means that in three years or five years or however long, rather than just paying rent that they're never going to be able to recoup on, they're actually building equity in a condominium that then they can roll over to a down payment for a home. Unfortunately, because of punitive regulations in the housing sector, it's three times as expensive to ensure a new condominium project in Colorado than it is any other type of housing. So we need to roll back those regulations as well to make it affordable.
Thomas Whitfield: If you win in November, what committees would you want to serve on and why?
State Rep. Evans: The 8th congressional district is the backbone of the economy that makes Colorado. The northern part of the district is the fourth-highest energy-producing county in the nation. It's the 8th highest ag-producing county in the nation. The southern part of the district is the industrial and transportation heart of Colorado. Adams County is the only county out of all 64, that have every interstate system that runs through Colorado also runs through Adams County. For instance, we have well over 20 just concrete plants alone in the district. So if you need food, if you need fuel, if you need something built, if you need something transported, the 8th congressional district is the district that's going to do that for the rest of Colorado. And so some of the committees that would be most beneficial to advancing the needs of that district are the Energy Committee, the Commerce Committee, the Agriculture Committee.
