Incumbent Yadira Caraveo and challenger Gabe Evans explain why they want to be Colorado's CD8 representative

In less than five weeks, voters in the Centennial State will decide who they want to represent them in Congress, and one of the most contested Congressional races in the country is in District 8.

 Colorado's 8th Congressional District stretches from Greeley through Fort Lupton south into Thornton and areas just north of Denver. Democratic incumbent Rep. Yadira Caraveo faces a challenge from Republican Gabe Evans.

Caraveo is Colorado's first Latina member of Congress and the first representative for Colorado's newest congressional district. Evans is a state representative and former police officer. The race is historic in that it's the first time in Colorado that two competing major-party candidates running for Congress are both Latino.

CBS Colorado Political Reporter Shaun Boyd recently interviewed both candidates.

Border security top of mind for Gabe Evans

"I've raised my hand three times, payable up to and including my life. U.S. Army, Colorado Army National Guard, Arvada Police Department. This is just the continuation of that mission," Evans said.

Evans says he's running for Congress for the same reason he served as a Blackhawk helicopter pilot, police lieutenant and state lawmaker.

"I'm trying to take care of my country, trying to take care of my state, trying to take care of my community and make sure that folks can live the American Dream."

He says that starts with securing the border.

The son of Mexican immigrants, Evans says he's not impervious to the suffering of migrants. But he says the border crisis has taken a toll on schools, hospitals and public safety. If elected, he says he would work to finish the wall along the southern border, restore the Remain in Mexico policy, limit asylum claims and hire more border patrol and immigration judges.

"Do you believe in mass deportation?" Boyd asked Evans.

"So until the border is secured we can't have this conversation. We see it in all the headlines. This individual is deported five times, 10 times, 15 times, came back to the country, committed a crime," he replied.

He does not support military intervention as Project 2025 -- conservatives' blueprint for a second Trump presidency -- contemplates or its call for dismantling federal agencies like Homeland Security, the EPA and FBI.

Where does Gabe Evans stand on other domestic and foreign policy issues?

Evans supports scaling back the size, scope and spending of departments like Education. He also supports a constitutional balanced budget amendment.

"I'm a fan of cutting these taxes, but that's one side of the coin. We also have to look at how do we reverse government spending? How do we make sure that the government spending that we are doing is getting where belongs," he said.

He wants more oversight of spending at home and abroad. He supports aid for Israel and Ukraine.

"But we also know that there's a lot of concerns around inefficiency, corruption in all of the money that's going to Ukraine and is it actually accomplishing what need to accomplish or are we getting dragged into another forever war?"

In addition to spending, Evans says he'll cut regulations, including climate policies that he says drive manufacturing out of the country and drive up oil and gas imports. He also plans to cut red tape for farmers. Evans and his wife have a family farm in Weld County where they homeschool their two kids who have both had serious medical challenges. He says he would not repeal the Affordable Care Act but would cut bureaucracy that he says decreases quality and increases cost. He also would oppose a federal ban on abortion but support more funding for reproductive health care. His wife, he says, has had eight miscarriages.

"Making sure that we have the research, the funding, the actual reproductive health care available for those folks who want to carry a pregnancy to term, who want that pregnancy affirming care to me is something that's very, very important," he said.

Gabe Evans says he'll be an effective legislator

He not only knows what's important, he says, but how to make it happen, pointing to a study finding veterans in Congress are 35% more effective at passing legislation.

"You have that ability to be able to work with each other and to work better with each other and to be able to use that as the starting point to build a coalition to actually continue that mission, make things better for the country, for the state, for the community," he said.

Yadira Caraveo says she's just getting started

Caraveo is a trailblazer as the first representative for CD8, first Latina and first pediatrician from Colorado in Congress, as well as first freshman in the U.S. House to pass a bill into law last year.

She says she's just getting started. Her top priority in a second term is to lower the cost of living.

"I'm about to introduce a bill on affordable housing. We released a package of bills that looks also at the cost of groceries, of water, of car insurance. ... And then I'm going to continue my work around prescription drugs and health care," she said.

Health care, abortion are issues Yadira Caraveo has particular interest in

Caraveo believes health care is a right, but says Medicare for all isn't the answer.

"Given the intricacies of of the health care system that I saw every single day as a doctor and that as a legislator, you see when you when you change one part of the health care system, sometimes it breaks another part," she said.

Caraveo also believes abortion is a right and belongs to a caucus that supports taxpayer funding of abortion. Caraveo has sponsored bills to increase access to reproductive and behavioral health care, and recently revealed she has struggled with depression and has undergone treatment at Walter Reed Medical Center.

"We need to make sure that people do not think that it is a stigma, because about one in 10 people in their lifetime deal with depression, and Colorado actually has one of the higher rates."

Colorado also has a higher rate of deadly drug overdoses than the rest of the nation. Caraveo's first bill to become law targets emerging drugs like tranq.

Where Yadira Caraveo stands on immigration issues

Caraveo says she's also working on bills that would help stem the flow of drugs across the border.

"Not necessarily a wall, because that doesn't always work, but by making sure that we're using the technology that we have in drones and AI and so many other things to make sure that we're monitoring the border where it needs to be."

While she advocated for the defunding of border patrol as a state lawmaker in Congress, Caraveo was among six Democrats to vote for a resolution condemning the president and vice president for their failure to secure the border.

"I think that the Biden administration could have made some of the changes around asylum and other things that helped reduce the number of entries per day much earlier in the year," Caraveo said.

Yadira Caraveo hopes for a "balance" on several other issues

Caraveo was one of only four Democrats on the House Agriculture Committee to vote for the Farm Bill, despite her opposition to parts of it, including a $30 billion cut to the nutrition program SNAP and reallocation of funds to address climate change.

"So we really need to come together as two parties, talk about the climate issues that we might disagree on, talk about the food and nutrition issues that we disagree on, and, finally, get a Farm Bill put together to give our farmers, ranchers and producers some certainty," she said.

In addition to farming, oil and gas is another big employer in CD8, and Caraveo Caravaggio says she supports an all-of-the-above approach to energy.

"We talk about the evolution into renewable energy that we think of the workers who have good health insurance because they work in oil and gas," she said. "But also keep in mind that areas like Commerce City have been the subject of a lot of pollution and a lot of other issues for decades."

"So it's really important for me to balance all of those issues, and I think I would like to do at least two more years in the majority to get that work done for the constituents of the 8th District."