May 07, 2026 09:43 AM UTC

Gabe Evans Giving It All Up For Donald Trump

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• by: Colorado Pols

President Donald Trump’s decision to launch a war against Iran over two months ago has greatly compounded the troubles that Republicans were already facing going into the 2026 midterm elections, upending promises made to Americans to stay out of foreign entanglements and crushing the GOP’s hope of capitalizing on lower inflation in November by sending the price of gas skyrocketing. The administration’s vague and shifting goals in the conflict, combined with growing public unease over dishonesty about the cost and damage to American military assets in the region, has made this war extremely unpopular with the American public according to every poll–much less popular by comparison than Barack Obama’s war against Libya in 2011.

A new PBS News/NPR/Marist poll released yesterday shows that 60% of Americans disapprove of Trump’s war on Iran, with only 33% in favor. These are the worst numbers for Republicans since the height of the Iraq War in 2007, which led as students of history and older readers know to the historic Democratic wave election of 2008. With these historical precedents lining up with the current polls to indicate another historic rout for the GOP this year, vulnerable Republicans who want to keep their jobs should be rushing to put daylight between themselves and Trump–especially when not threatened by Trump’s primary vengeance.

But as John Daley reports for Colorado Public Radio, America’s Most Vulnerable Congressman™ Rep. Gabe Evans is once again choosing Trump over the best interests of Coloradans:

Congressman Gabe Evans said once the war in the Middle East is wrapped up, Coloradans can expect to see lower gas prices. The average cost to fill up your vehicle has shot up in recent weeks as Iran and the U.S. wage a battle to control the Strait of Hormuz, a main artery for the world’s oil supply.

The Republican represents the closely watched 8th district, one of the nation’s most hotly contested House seats in the run-up to November’s midterm elections.

Evans defended President Trump’s decision to attack Iran as necessary to prevent that country from developing a nuclear weapon.

“It had to happen now,” Evans said. [Pols emphasis] “It’s going to get wrapped up, gas prices are going to go down, because that’s what the Republican energy-dominant strategy has delivered before and it’s what it’s going to deliver again.”

The first problem is that no, this war did not have to “happen now.” The fiction that Iran was “two weeks away” from developing a nuclear weapon has been thoroughly debunked, and everyone knows now that Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu had repeatedly pitched this war without success to previous administrations. The second problem is that gas prices are not expected to drop anywhere near as fast as they rose, even if the conflict ends this week. The pain at the pump for voters is expected to continue all the way through the November elections and potentially years beyond.

With all of this in mind, we are left once again to ponder the question: what is Gabe Evans hoping to achieve by lashing himself to this historically unpopular President, betting his own future on defending Trump’s string of astonishing political backfires?

“We want fuel prices lower,” Evans said. [Pols emphasis] “That’s why you can see the president working night and day to make sure that we can get the Straits of Hormuz opened up, get that 20% of the world’s crude oil back online.”

Voters are smart enough to understand that the status quo ante is not a victory. This endless moving of the goalposts by Trump and his defenders like Evans is a huge implicit win for Iran. Evans’ empty lip service to “wanting” lower prices rings as hollow as Evans’ idle wishes that ICE would target “gangsters not grandmas” while Stephen Miller made a fool of him. Evans’ rhetoric doesn’t just fail to meet the moment. Evans has made himself the foremost defender of this unpopular administration in a state Trump has repeatedly denigrated and punished for personal reasons. Republicans in safer seats like Jeff Hurd and even Lauren Boebert have stood up to Trump far more than Evans.

The conclusion we keep coming back to is that Gabe Evans doesn’t intend to be re-elected. He may want to be re-elected, but he knows it’s probably not happening. In that event, Evans may well expect his canine loyalty to Trump to be rewarded in another way, perhaps following the example of his former colleagues like Dave Williams who have received their own patronage appointments.

At this point, it’s the only way anything Gabe Evans is doing makes sense.