This story was produced as part of the Colorado Capitol News Alliance. It first appeared at coloradosun.com.
The two Democrats vying for the chance to unseat Republican U.S. Rep. Gabe Evans in Colorado’s 8th Congressional District tried to find ways to attack each other at their first major debate Thursday but ended up agreeing on many major issues.
Former state Rep. Shannon Bird of Westminster and state Rep. Manny Rutinel of Commerce City said they want to tax high-income earners and corporations to subsidize things like childcare and healthcare. The both said they want to keep the Suncor Energy oil refinery in Commerce City, the state’s major petroleum refinery, operating, though with stringent oversight.
Both candidates, at the forum hosted by The Colorado Sun and the Colorado Health Foundation, also repeatedly attacked Evans and President Donald Trump, often mentioning their names together. They also talked about their shared experience of being raised by single mothers.
When it came to questions about whether Congress should raise the eligibility age for Social Security, both said no, and the federal minimum wage, both said yes. Both said they’d support a proposed state ballot initiative in November to impose a graduated income tax. And both said they would not support a federal fracking ban.
The candidates attempted to differentiate each other mostly on personality and politics, not policy.
Rutinel pressed Bird on why Colorado’s most heavily Hispanic congressional district shouldn’t have a Latino representative in Congress. Bird didn’t directly respond but instead stressed that she had a deep understanding of what is now the 8th District after living in the area for nearly 25 years.
“We need a representative who knows the community,” said Bird, who also said she recognized how “crucial” the Latino community there was.
Bird and Rutinel also attacked each other over their time in the legislature. Rutinel accused Bird of abandoning her constituents to “pursue a personal ambition” when she resigned from the legislature earlier this year to focus on her congressional bid. Bird said she resigned to avoid earning a taxpayer-funded salary while campaigning for Congress, slamming Rutinel for remaining in the legislature.
Bird and a super PAC supporting her campaign are running TV ads attacking Rutinel for voting in favor of the state budget this year, alongside all but one Democrat in the legislature, because it cut Medicaid to address a roughly $1.5 billion deficit. But until Thursday, the former state budget writer never explained what she would have cut instead.
Bird said during the debate that she would have dug into the state’s rainy day fund to balance the budget, a move that would have left the legislature vulnerable to crisis in an economic downturn. (The legislature reduced its budget reserves to 13% from 15% as a balancing maneuver, drawing criticism from some lawmakers and dire warnings from nonpartisan legislative staff.)
“We could have tapped additional funds from that reserve to head off the very worst of these cuts,” she said, adding that it would have given voters an opportunity to vote for a potential November ballot measure increasing taxes on wealthy individuals and companies to raise billions in new tax revenue.
Rutinel blasted Bird for her committee vote against a 2025 bill he sponsored that set out to further limit local and state cooperation with ICE by expanding prohibitions on data sharing and requiring child care centers, schools, certain health care facilities and libraries to publish policies stating when federal immigration agents can enter private areas.
“There was only one Democrat that voted with Republicans to allow police to cooperate with ICE and allow ICE to raid our schools and hospitals,” he said.
Bird said she voted no on the bill in committee because she was concerned about a provision that would have allowed for state agency workers to be personally fined for sharing information with ICE.
“I didn’t think that was right,” she said.
And yet, when it comes to how the candidates would regulate ICE in Congress, the two largely agreed. Both said they would ban agents from wearing masks and using warrantless arrests and require them to use identification.
The few areas where the candidates differed
The candidates disagreed on whether the federal government should encourage or require zoning reform to make housing more affordable.
Rutinel said Congress should provide incentives for municipalities that agree to change zoning to allow for more affordable housing units to be built near transit stations.
“We can’t allow localities to put in red tape for these affordable housing units,” Rutinel said.
Bird said the federal government should not play a role in changing zoning.
“I don’t think it’s good to take away people’s voices when they talk about what they want their communities to look like,” she said.
The pair also had slightly different answers on whether Congress should pass a bill outlawing certain semiautomatic rifles, sometimes referred to as assault weapons.
Bird said she would back such a measure “if it’s enforceable and constitutional,” while Rutinel simply said yes, he would.
In 2024, Bird joined eight Democrats and all Republicans in the Colorado House to vote against a bill that would have banned the sale of so-called assault weapons in Colorado. The bill then stalled in the Senate because of a lack of Democratic support. Rutinel cosponsored and voted for the bill.
Both candidates said they wanted to serve on the Energy and Commerce Committee if elected to the U.S. House, while Bird said she would also like to serve on the Finance Committee and Rutinel said he wanted to also be on the Oversight Committee.
The backdrop of the debate
The forum came a day after Democrat Evan Munsing dropped out of the 8th District primary and thus didn’t participate in the debate Thursday as planned. The former U.S. Marine’s name will still appear on the primary ballot.
The congressional district, which spans Denver’s northeast suburbs along U.S. 85 to Greeley, is Colorado’s newest and its only true tossup congressional district and one of the most competitive U.S. House districts in the country.
The winner of the November election in the 8th District could determine which party controls the U.S. House of Representatives.
About 40% of the district’s population is Latino. It’s also home to some of the biggest meat and dairy producers in the country.
Evans, an Army veteran and former police officer from Fort Lupton, was elected to Congress in 2024, beating U.S. Rep. Yadira Caraveo by about 2,500 votes, or less than a percentage point. It was the biggest win for Republicans in the state since 2016.
As soon as Evans won, Democrats began working to try to defeat him in the next election. A number of Democrats entered the race, including Caraveo, a pediatrician and former state lawmaker, but later dropped out.
Colorado Sun staff writers Taylor Dolven and Jesse Paul contributed to this report.
