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40%↑

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30%

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April 24, 2025 02:35 PM UTC

It's A Weekend Town Hall-Palooza Featuring Absent Gabe Evans

1 Comments
by: Colorado Pols

Ad for the third town hall in Rep. Gabe Evans’ district this weekend.

As the Easter congressional recess wraps up, constituents in Colorado’s most vulnerable Republican Rep. Gabe Evans’ district are holding not one, not two, but three of what we’ve taken to calling “Cardboard Cory Town Halls,” in honor of the years-long campaign that highlighted former Sen. Cory Gardner’s inaccessibility to voters leading up to his ouster from office in 2020. The Colorado Springs Gazette’s political blog previews tonight’s event sponsored by the Colorado Democratic Party in Greeley featuring as a substitute for Rep. Evans Texas Congressman Greg Casar:

U.S. Rep. Greg Casar, a Texas Democrat and the chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, is set to appear at a town hall on April 24 in Evans’ district at a location to be announced, the Colorado Democrats said Thursday. It’s one of five the DNC is organizing in vulnerable Republicans’ districts over the two-week congressional recess that began on Friday.

Evans, a former police officer and state lawmaker, won election to the closely divided seat in 2024 by defeating Democratic U.S. Rep. Yadira Caraveo by fewer than 2,500 votes, marking the second time the district’s congressional contest was decided by less than a 1% margin. Covering portions of Adams, Weld and Larimer counties, the district stretching north of the Denver metro area along Highway 85 to Greeley…

Gabe Evans is somewhat less than thrilled over being upstaged in his own district, and his staff welcomed Rep. Casar with a distinct note of shrillness:

“Greg Casar is a ‘defund the police’ activist who wants to see socialism and transgenderism take over America,” Evans aide Delanie Bomar said in a text message. “He is the total opposite of Congressman Gabe Evans’ commonsense and winning plan of improving public safety, the immigration system and the economy. Any day with Greg Casar in Colorado’s 8th District is a day that helps reelect Gabe Evans in 2026.”

Yikes! That’s so indiscriminately meanspirited it might as well have come from the White House Press Office. But that’s just the first of three town halls, the second being Friday evening with a coalition of health care and local progressive groups holding an event focused on protecting the tens of thousands of Medicaid patients in Evans’ district. From their press advisory this morning:

Patients, parents, health care providers, state service workers, union leaders, and community advocates fighting to protect Medicaid access have invited Congressional Representative Gabe Evans to attend a community town hall on Friday, April 25.

Speakers at the event will emphasize how cuts to Medicaid would impact the 176,000 people in Colorado’s 8th Congressional District, including people with disabilities, working families, and those who rely on safety net programs to survive. Organizations are demanding Evans to stand up for Colorado and stop any cuts to Medicaid.

Medicaid is the largest health insurance program in the country, providing healthcare to more than 80 million people nationwide, including nearly 1.2 million Coloradans. The popular program ensures seniors, children, working parents, veterans, people of color, rural Americans, and people with disabilities have access to healthcare. Medicaid funding also creates jobs for Colorado healthcare workers and public employees who ensure that those in need of care receive it.

Third and finally for this weekend is the second locally-organized “People’s Town Hall: Where Is Gabe?” event in Greeley, organized by the same grassroots activists who hosted a standing-room-only event last month in Northglenn. All three of these events have the same objective: calling out Evans’ lack of accessibility and collecting stories from residents of Evans’ district about the hardships they’re experiencing and expect in the future following Donald Trump returned to office. Speaking to the Denver Post’s John Aguilar last weekend, Evans was dismissive of the clamor for answers from his constituents:

Evans, a U.S. Army veteran and former Arvada cop, dismisses the criticism.

“I’ve done over 40 in-person meetings, roundtables, town halls — things of that nature,” he said. “My staff has done over 300 other meetings, and so we’re 100% committed to being out, active and engaged in the district.”

Everyone knows at this point that Republicans have been expressly discouraged from hosting the kind of unscripted town hall meeting with constituents that voters in Evans’ district are demanding, and everyone should know why: Republicans have no good answers for the hard questions about Trump’s chaotic actions since taking office, and cannot be honest about what is coming in the “Big Beautiful Bill” full of sweeping cuts that Gabe Evans is helping craft on the Energy and Commerce Committee. When cornered, Evans’ responses to these questions are pitifully inadequate.

A leader with conviction shouldn’t fear a tough crowd. Just like with Cory Gardner, eventually the hiding becomes the story.

One thought on “It’s A Weekend Town Hall-Palooza Featuring Absent Gabe Evans”

JohnInDenver says:

April 24, 2025 at 5:30 pm

I hope that someone will find a way to have Gabe Evans talk with health care providers in his district, the hospital, group living, and clinic administrators who operate using Medicare and Medicaid. The people who can ask about Republican plans to cut spending without harming “the deserving.” People who know the realities of Colorado’s healthcare could ask telling questions and provide “input” on any options Evans provides.

If his committee takes the instructions to cut $880 billion over 10 years and goes after only Medicaid, that will be a 10% cut of federal funds — and due to state matching, that could be magnified.

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It's A Weekend Town Hall-Palooza Featuring Absent Gabe Evans

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One thought on “It’s A Weekend Town Hall-Palooza Featuring Absent Gabe Evans”

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