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And now to Colorado's 8th Congressional District. Democrats hope to flip the seat into their column as they try to win the U.S. House. And winning could come down to appealing to the unaffiliated voters in the district's Denver suburbs and rural Eastern Plains. Colorado Public Radio's Rae Solomon reports.
RAE SOLOMON, BYLINE: Karen Jenkins has just finished lunch in Greeley, Colorado. She's a retired nurse from rural Platteville, about 50 minutes northeast of Denver. She's also a Republican voter and says immigration is her biggest priority.
KAREN JENKINS: I want all the illegals out of our country. I want America first.
SOLOMON: Jenkins says she was cheering on Trump's aggressive approach with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE.
JENKINS: They started out really strong, and then after Minneapolis, we backed off. And we shouldn't have because I think that the only way to treat the people that were the activists is through signs of strength. And we showed weakness.
SOLOMON: In a lot of ways, you could say that Jenkins is a typical CD-8 voter. Typical because this district is nearly evenly split between Republicans and Democrats. That's because when it was drawn up after the 2020 census, it was designed to swing. So if you drive an hour south to the Denver suburbs, you're also likely to bump into devoted Democratic voters, like Margaret Garcia at a park with her kids.
MARGARET GARCIA: A strong stance against ICE is very important to me. Like, after seeing what happened in Minnesota, I'm just really concerned. And I don't want that happening in my community.
SOLOMON: Politically, Colorado's 8th Congressional District is as diverse as they come. It spans urban and rural regions. In this era of unabashed partisan gerrymandering, Colorado's 8th remains a toss-up. That makes Nancy Quarles a typical CD-8 voter too. Even though she's registered as a Republican, she says she often votes against her own party, including in 2024, when she did not vote for President Trump.
NANCY QUARLES: The current last couple years, I've been really undecided.
SOLOMON: And that's true of this year's congressional race. She says she just wants to vote for someone who's serious about tackling the affordability crisis.
QUARLES: At the grocery store, things are climbing, climbing, climbing in terms of cost. I just got my little pay increase. Just don't quite help when you got homeowners insurance, auto insurance. Our property taxes just climbed.
SOLOMON: In 2022, CD-8 voters elected a Democrat as the district's first congressperson. Two years later, they pivoted right, narrowly electing a Republican, Representative Gabe Evans, who's now running for reelection. Two Democrats are duking it out in a hotly contested primary to oppose him. To win in November, candidates have to thread a tricky needle to keep the party faithful while also picking up swing voters like April Caduff from Greeley, a small city an hour northeast of Denver.
APRIL CADUFF: I'm going back and forth. All the ads and things that they keep showing on TV, you know, I know a lot of that is poo poo.
SOLOMON: Like most CD-8 voters, Caduff is unaffiliated, and her political preferences shift from year to year.
CADUFF: I wasn't for Trump, but my husband made me vote for Trump (laughter). That's bad.
SOLOMON: Which year?
CADUFF: But at the time, that was the only better choice that we had.
SOLOMON: That was in the last presidential election. Now she says the president doesn't seem interested in the issues she cares about, like fixing inflation and the dysfunctional healthcare system. And she regrets that vote.
CADUFF: I would like to rescind it. I really would. Trump's more business-oriented than he is people-oriented, and he doesn't see how it's hurting us.
SOLOMON: This go round in the midterms, President Trump isn't on the ballot, but Caduff sees a chance to oppose his administration. She says, as an independent, she wants choices beyond the two major parties. But for now, she's leaning towards the Democratic candidate come November. The primary to decide who will face Evans is at the end of this month. For NPR News, I'm Rae Solomon in Greeley, Colorado.
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