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Colorado Needs to Give Gabe Evans the Boot
An inspiring 4th of July parade in Colorado's 8th Congressional District proves that its people deserve better than Evans, who supports the Trump agenda and voted to gut the social safety net.
Jul 07, 2026
The Greeley Stampede 4th of July Parade is the largest Independence Day Parade in Colorado, and it is held deep in the soon-to-be-blue-again Congressional District 8. That is why I registered our walking unit in that parade. We wanted to make sure all the tens of thousands of people who turned out were reminded of the human and economic good our social safety net does in Colorado. It was an incredible experience fueled by love for one another and not love of Trump’s America. The 2026 Greeley Stampede Parade was the most uplifting and hopeful thing I have experienced in a long, long time. It proved to me that Republican Rep. Gabe Evans, of Colorado's 8th District, needs to get the boot in November’s general election.
Gabe Evans is currently barely representing his constituents in his diverse, incredibly beautiful district. And mostly, Evans seems to represent himself first and supports the Trump agenda. Immigrant rights? Are you kidding me? Stopping wars and the bombing President Donald Trump uses to distract everyone from those Epstein files? No, Gabe goes right along with the Trump agenda, the whole Project 2025 agenda, and mostly the me-first agenda. Greed and neglect are about to turn CD8 beautiful blue again, deep and lasting blue. And marching in this parade reaffirmed all those feelings of community and connection I know people hunger for in a post-pandemic world.
The crowd at the parade was so gorgeous. As we all saw in the stores for months, all that red, white, and blue was going to turn up somewhere. At the Greeley parade on the 4th of July, there were little tykes in adorable outfits, their older siblings in stars and stripes along with their parents and beyond. Many families had tents up for shade, and one creative group was misting their folks to stay cool. This was the sort of old-fashioned, community supported parade that once was so common in America. I saw US Navy sailors marching, local businesses, car clubs, cowboys and cowgirls, bands, floats, and people balancing on floats to see and absorb the whole moment. Life affirming community was on parade.
As we continued along the parade route, I kept thinking about how many of those beautiful people, how many at this celebration—how many of the children and how many of our disabled—will lose access to their healthcare because their Barely-Representative Gabe Evans thought voting for the Big, Beautiful Bill was cost cutting via the devastating cuts to Medicaid, SNAP benefits, and more, and has never told the truth about his lack of character and failure to represent his district. Evans knew he was hurting people with his vote, and his reality is that he did not care.
Barely-cares Evans cannot hide from his votes, and he cannot hide from his constituents.
People in his district see through his deep and abiding devotion to the cruel and community-killing, family-splitting and painful cuts to Medicaid coverage. After being a part of this parade, I know without a doubt that the people of Colorado’s CD8 are hardworking, decent, and kind people—and they will not stand for anyone destroying any part of what they are.
Evans needs to get the boot from these dear people before he does more damage by supporting huge, unnecessary cuts to Social Security when the change that needs making is to make sure billionaires pay their fair share in taxes—oh, and the almost-trillionaire too. It is ridiculous to have a representative like Barely-there Evans is this district since neighbors and friends rely on and deeply support Social Security—even the 9news announcer cheered when our unit passed by (maybe he is grateful his parents receive their earned benefits, I thought, since he was lots younger than me).
Barely-cares Evans cannot hide from his votes, and he cannot hide from his constituents. The patients, the nurses, the doctors, the healthcare techs, the housekeeping staff, the dietary crew, and all the lives impacted and damaged by his selfishness stand in stark contrast to what is alive and well in his own backyard—hardworking Colorado CD8 families and all the other residents who receive their earned benefits through Social Security and all who are lifted from despair and suffering through Medicare and Medicaid. We all showed up to celebrate 250 years as a nation. The ideal is still in sight in places like Colorado’s Congressional District 8, but only if we confirm that solidarity and give Evans the boot.
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Colorado Governor Fires Officials Who Criticized Democrat's Release of Election-Denying Clerk
"Firing people who oppose you is also a page out of Trump's playbook," said US Rep. Pramila Jayapal.
Jul 02, 2026
US Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal on Thursday accused Democratic Colorado Gov. Jared Polis of conduct commonly seen from President Donald Trump's after Polis fired two members of the state clemency board, citing their decision to speak out publicly against his release of former county Clerk Tina Peters.
In 2024, Peters was sentenced to nine years in prison for tampering with voting equipment in an effort to prove the false claim that the 2020 election was rigged against Trump. The president, who faced his own legal challenges for spreading the falsehood and trying to overturn the election, issued a symbolic pardon for Peters and pressured Polis to commute her sentence, which Polis did in May, angering members of his own party and democracy advocates.
Two members of the state clemency board, Hannah Seigel Proff and Azra Taslimi, were among those who opposed Polis' decision, and they went against the board's usual custom of maintaining secrecy about its proceedings to reveal that the entire board had twice voted unanimously to reject Peters' bid for a shorter sentence, only to be overruled by the governor.
On Wednesday, Proff and Taslimi told The New York Times that they'd received dismissal letters from Polis, who told them they had "breached the required duty of confidentiality by publicly divulging board members’ votes."
Jayapal (D-Wash.) said Polis' commutation of Peters's sentence was akin to acting like the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol by election-denying Trump supporters "didn't happen."
"Firing people who oppose you is also a page out of Trump's playbook," said the congresswomen.
The board members also revealed that Polis had passed over other deserving applications for parole before he allowed Peters to walk free on June 1.
"We have reviewed hundreds of applications that moved us to tears," they wrote in an op-ed at The Denver Post. "People who spent decades atoning for a single terrible decision, who attended college or seminary behind bars, completed countless programs, developed curricula for other incarcerated people, mentored young offenders, and raised thousands of dollars for victims’ rights organizations."
"Along with nine other members of the board, we have read applications supported by prosecutors who tried the case, by prison wardens who watched the transformation happen, and even by victims themselves," they continued. "And we have seen the governor fail to act or delay many of these applications."
A spokesperson for Polis told the Times that their decision to divulge the two unanimous votes against Peters' release threatened the "credibility of the board." Taslimi told 9NEWS Denver that Polis' real message in deciding to fire the two board members "is that the public doesn't have the right to know that his own advisory board told him no, twice, unanimously."
"That's not protecting the process, that's protecting himself from scrutiny," said Taslimi.
Gov. Jared Polis passed over other deserving inmates to give clemency to Tina Peters, according to two members of his clemency board who revealed Polis overruled the unanimous recommendation of his experts. Polis has now fired both of them. pic.twitter.com/N2bc8uxSc7
— Kyle Clark (@KyleClark) July 2, 2026
The two dismissed board members noted in their op-ed that Peters, unlike many of the people who have submitted clemency applications that have been rejected by Polis, has "expressed no contrition" for the crime she was convicted of.
"Within hours of her release, Peters appeared on a podcast and immediately resumed her attacks on the integrity of US elections," they wrote. "She repeated the debunked conspiracy theory that voting machines cheated Donald Trump out of reelection in 2020 and portrayed herself as a martyr to the effort to expose it. She called her release a miracle."
"The governor said he was moved by her admission that she made a mistake," they added. "She walked out of prison and told the world she made no mistake at all."
Proff told 9NEWS that she might regret her decision to speak out if her fellow board members were "disappointed" in her public revelations about the panel's operations.
"But I really have a feeling that the person who's upset," said Proff, "is the one that was using our board as backing for a politically unpopular and unjust decision."
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Another Blow to Democratic Establishment as Melat Kiros Unseats 30-Year Incumbent
“We won tonight, but this is also something so much bigger than this moment," said Kiros, a 29-year-old democratic socialist.
Jul 01, 2026
Melat Kiros, a 29-year-old democratic socialist and first-time candidate, defeated 15-term incumbent Rep. Diana DeGette on Tuesday in Colorado's 1st Congressional District primary, the latest signal that progressive momentum and backlash against the Democratic establishment are spreading nationwide.
"We won tonight, but this is also something so much bigger than this moment," Kiros, who was fired from the law firm Sidley Austin in 2023 for speaking out in support of Palestinian rights demonstrators, told backers late Tuesday after The Associated Press called the race in her favor. "We believe that fundamental change can, and will, happen if we fight for it—if we organize, if we show no fear in standing up for what’s right. That is the message that Denver has sent to both parties, to Donald Trump, and to the entire country."
Kiros' upset win came a week after a series of progressive victories in New York congressional primaries, which sparked backlash from the party's corporate wing. Days after the New York contests, more than a dozen centrist Democrats signed an open letter declaring that "we are capitalist, not socialist," a clear rebuke of insurgent progressives.
Justice Democrats, a national progressive group that backed Kiros, said it is having its "most successful cycle to date, winning six Democratic primaries and proceeding to the top two in two California primaries." The organization recruited Darializa Avila Chevalier, who upset five-term incumbent Rep. Adriano Espaillat in New York's 13th Congressional District last week.
"Melat and our candidates continue winning this cycle because Democratic voters are finally getting leaders acting on their demands to bring the fight to the corporations raising our prices, the war lobbies profiting off endless war and genocide, and the immigration gestapo terrorizing our communities," Alexandra Rojas, Justice Democrats' executive director, said in a statement Tuesday.
Kiros—whose platform includes Medicare for All, universal childcare, and abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement—prevailed despite a last-minute torrent of super PAC spending in support of DeGette. Drop Site reported that "super PACs funded by AIPAC and major big tech donors have poured roughly $2 million behind Rep. Diana DeGette on the eve of her contentious primary."
"Across the country, voters are rejecting corporate politics and electing candidates willing to take on billionaire influence, confront the climate crisis, fight for working people, and speak with moral clarity on the defining issues of the moment," said the youth-led Sunrise Movement following Kiros' win.
Kiros will be the heavy favorite to win the general election in November, when she will face Republican Christy Peterson.
Progressives also celebrated Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser's Democratic gubernatorial primary win over US Sen. Michael Bennet, whose campaign received nearly $3 million in support from billionaire former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
“This movement is what democracy looks like,” Weiser told supporters late Tuesday. “You all sent a very clear message: The future of Colorado will not be decided by out-of-state billionaires, by corporations or special interests. Colorado’s future belongs to all of us."
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