May 20, 2025 09:02 AM UTC

Gabe Evans Does Not Want To Run Against Shannon Bird

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• by: Colorado Pols

As Ernest Luning reports for the Colorado Springs Gazette’s political blog, America’s Most Vulnerable Republican™ Rep. Gabe Evans is getting a new Democratic challenger today who just might be the candidate who makes Evans a one-term congressman: longtime state Rep. Shannon Bird of Westminster, a member of powerful Joint Budget Committee, who says she has the right balance of competence and vision to meet the test of representing the state’s most competitive congressional district:

An attorney and former member of the Westminster City Council, the 56-year-old Bird is serving her fourth term in the legislature and is vice chair of the powerful Joint Budget Committee. She’s the third Democrat to declare a candidacy this year in the toss-up 8th CD, which covers parts of Adams, Weld and Larimer counties, stretching from suburbs north of the Denver metro area to Greeley…

“We are living in extraordinary times,” Bird said, noting that Evans recently voted for a federal budget provision that Democrats and some analysts say could throw more than 100,000 Coloradans off of the Medicaid rolls over the next decade.

“I couldn’t sit back,” Bird said. “Not only do we need to defend the people of our state — for so many reasons, our economy and our freedoms and our future are under attack — but Donald Trump, again with the full support of the current 8th District representative, keeps making it harder for families like the one I grew up in just to get a fair shot.”

We expect Bird to compete strongly in the CO-08 primary, and of the candidates who have so far announced their intention to run for Evans’ seat in 2026, Bird is probably the one Evans is most afraid to run against in the general election. This is not to say that other qualified contenders can’t beat Evans. But as a veteran state representative who has been cautious in her votes on some of the more fraught ideological battles under the dome, Bird arguably gives Evans less to work with in terms of painting her as “too far left.” At the same time, Rep. Bird has a full suite of devastating messages at her disposal to drive home against Evans, whose so-far total loyalty to Donald Trump and the MAGA agenda is completely out of step with the swing district Evans represents.

Gabe Evans never flinches when he’s shilling for his party’s agenda. But when he heard Shannon Bird was getting into the race against him, we’d bet money it gave Gabe Evans a moment of concern.

If it did not, Evans is even more deluded than we thought.