April 30, 2026 11:34 AM UTC

New Poll Shows Two-Candidate Race in CO-08 Primary

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• by: Colorado Pols

The Democratic Primary in CO-08 was always likely to be a close race. New poll results bear that out.

Three Democrats (Manny Rutinel, Shannon Bird, and Evan Munsing) are running for the right to take on  freshman Rep. Gabe Evans (R-Ft. Lupton). Evans is widely considered to be the most vulnerable Republican incumbent in the country and will have a tough time holding off whichever Democrat emerges from the June Primary — particularly given the 50/50 voter registration makeup of CO-08.

According to a poll memo released today by Bird’s campaign, the June 30th Primary is a two-candidate race between Bird and Rutinel.

Bird’s campaign is framing these results as though she is in the lead, but with a margin of error of 4.9% and 45% of surveyed voters still undecided, what this poll really means is that the race is a pure tossup. Munsing is not really in the picture as a contender, but his ultimate performance on June 30 could make a significant difference depending on whether he takes more votes from Bird or Rutinel.

The poll also shows that Bird and Rutinel have not been able to separate themselves in the eyes of voters over the last couple of months. This is not a huge surprise given that both leading candidates have similar name ID and paid advertising hasn’t yet taken over airwaves and internet tubes in the district.

In short, the Democratic Primary in CO-08 is pretty much exactly what we thought it was.