SERVING COLORADO'S 8TH DISTRICT: A CONVERSATION WITH CONGRESSMAN GABE EVANS

The Berthoud Beat Podcast spoke with Congressman Gabe Evans, representative of Colorado's 8th Congressional District. Discover his hope and plans for the 8th District ahead of the 2026 election.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:11

Hey everybody, welcome back to the Birth of Meat Podcast. Today we're joined remotely by Gabe Evans, who represents Colorado's 8th Congressional District, covering much of Adam's counties, including Greeley, Arts of Weber County, and Colorado born and raised, Army veteran, former Blackhawk helicopter pilot, National Guard officer, and police officer. Congressman Gabe Evans was elected to Congress in 2024 after serving in the Colorado House of Representatives. He currently serves on the Energy and Commerce and Homeland Security Committees while helping operate his family's farm in Weld County with his wife Anne and his two children. Congressman Evans, welcome to the podcast. Appreciate you joining us today. So on the on the personal side, you've served in the military, your law enforcement, state government, and now Congress. How have those experiences shaped your approach to public service and prepared you to represent Colorado's 8th District in Washington?

SPEAKER_01 1:11

Yeah, great question. It keeps you in touch with the people that you're working with. I was born and raised in Colorado, born in Aurora. Grew up first half of my life in Aurora, second part of my life out in uh more rural Elbert County. Um, as you said, joined the U.S. Army, spent 12 years uh doing that job combat deployment overseas as part of the global war on terror. And then uh everything that we do with Rotary Wing support here in uh in the state of Colorado, fighting wildfires, uh search and rescues, things like that up in the mountains. Um, another 10 years as a police officer with the city of Arvada, uh, made it up to command level ranks in both of those organizations. And so for 22 years of my life, um combined service between the military and law enforcement, it really was all about serving the community and helping people uh navigate difficulties, whether that was within their own community, trying to figure out uh all of the different non-criminal uh situations that cops get called to, or whether that was protecting the country uh overseas or responding to, like I said, wildfires here in Colorado. And so taking all of those experiences first to the state legislature and then to Congress, uh it really gives me that insight into how we come up with not just slick-sounding uh slogans and glossy brochures, but how do we actually get down and solve the issues uh that are affecting people's day-to-day life? Um, as I like to say, you didn't actually come up with a solution if a cop at 2 a.m. in the morning in the middle of a snowstorm on a holiday weekend, if he doesn't have the resources uh to solve something, we didn't actually solve the problem.

SPEAKER_00 2:48

Perfect. Thank you. Well, I I really appreciate that approach. And on behalf of the podcast, I do want to say thank you for your service. Um, in speaking on representing Colorado's 8th district, it is one of the most diverse and competitive districts in the country. What are the biggest concerns you're hearing from your constituents, and how are you working towards addressing those?

SPEAKER_01 3:10

As you said, it's a very diverse district. We've got the fifth largest city, Thornton, Colorado, that's the fifth largest city in the state of Colorado, is in the district. But then we also have some of the most productive agricultural and uh and rural places uh in the country, also in the district uh to the to the north. Um, Weld County and the piece of Lariburg County that I represent. Uh that's over $2.3 billion of annual agricultural product. And so my experience really does span that from being a big city cop in Arvada to growing up uh rural in Elbert County and working on about a 75,000 acre um cattle ranch uh growing up as a as a kid. Um I I span uh my experiences really do span this district. And what I hear as I'm talking to folks is economy and cost of living. Uh we know that costs are high, and that's probably the top concern that people have. And those are the things that I'm working on in Congress. Um I'm a part of two different bipartisan groups, the four country caucus, that's the veterans, Republicans and Democrats, that say we work together once before in the military without regard to political affiliation. How do we do that again for the benefit of the country in Washington, D.C.? Uh and then I'm a part of another bipartisan group, the problem solvers, the problem solvers caucus. Uh, same thing, just without the veterans. It's the Republicans and the Democrats who say, how do we work together to actually solve problems? And so some of the things that I'm working on through both of those committees are how do we, how do we right-size government? How do we have the appropriate amount of regulation to keep people safe and keep the environment safe? How do we cut through all of the red tape and bureaucracy that's strangling our economy? We've seen that here in Colorado, with the reporting around Colorado being the sixth most heavily regulated state in the nation and the third most expensive state in the nation. We've seen over 200 major business leaders in the state of Colorado sign an open letter to the state government and the state Democrats saying we've made Colorado a business unfriendly state through the regulatory burden and the fees and all of the different red tape that's been imposed. And so those are the things that I work on in Congress. Those are the things that those bipartisan groups work on. And the challenge boils down to uh the Constitution creates two levels of government. I work right now, obviously, at the federal governments, but the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution says that anything that's not expressly delegated to the feds is reserved to the states. And unfortunately, we're not getting a lot of that cooperation from the state of Colorado in trying to right-size government and trying to cut red tape. Um, and I'll give you some examples. I voted to lower taxes on small business, state of Colorado voted to retax small business. I voted for no tax on overtime. State of Colorado voted to retax overtime. I voted that people have the choice to choose the energy that works for them. If they want uh electric air conditioning but a natural gas furnace, they have the choice. They should have the right to be able to choose the energy source that works for them. And unfortunately, the state of Colorado uh has finalized the rule to ban natural gas for residential heating uh and cooking by 2050. And so that's the push-pull, but those are the things that I'm working on. How do we make sure we right-size the government and we reward work, reward the uh uh the innovators and the entrepreneurs rather than saddle them with taxes and fees and bureaucracy and regulation?

SPEAKER_00 6:38

Now, with uh a lot of these issues that we are having in our state uh when it comes to pricing, when it comes to cost of living, uh cost of fuel, things like that, um, are are you planning on hosting any other public forums in the near future for your constituents to connect with you and maybe voice some of the issues that aren't quite on the radar yet?

SPEAKER_01 7:01

Yeah, um connecting with my constituents is an absolute top priority for me. I have had personally over 500 in-person meetings with my constituents in the 18 months or so that I've been in Congress. Uh, and my staff has done another 2,500 in-person meetings uh with constituents. And so my only two rules are uh we uh if we're if we're gonna have a meet and have a conversation, it has to be a conversation, not a screaming match, and it has to be in a venue where we can control the conversation and make sure that it's a conversation and not a screaming match. Um if you uh if you remember last summer we did a press conference, myself and some other uh elected leaders did a press conference down at the state capitol in Denver. And unfortunately, some protesters found out about it, uh, and they literally screamed for an hour to the point where like I couldn't even hear the questions from the media, and the media couldn't hear my answer. And so that's obviously not helpful uh to public discourse, and so that's that's why I have those two rules. I'll meet with anyone, I'll talk with anyone, it just has to be a conversation, and it has to be in a place where we can make sure that they can't get hijacked um by anyone else. And following those rules, and again, I've had over 500 in-person meetings, events, uh town halls, roundtables, site visits, tours, conversations, uh, etc. Um, and we're gonna continue doing that because that's literally the job description representative. You can't represent if you don't go out and talk to folks and hear what's on their mind.

SPEAKER_00 8:29

Perfect. Thank you. Um now you had mentioned earlier um that you were on the energy common, uh, the energy and commerce committee and the homeland security committee. Uh what issues on those committees do you believe are most important to Colorado families right now?

SPEAKER_01 8:45

Yeah, so energy and commerce, uh, we have jurisdiction over 70% of the U.S. economy. Uh, really anything that crosses state uh state borders going back to the Constitution, the Constitution gives the federal government the authority to regulate interstate commerce, and that's basically what the Energy and Commerce Committee does. Anything that crosses those state lines, uh, we have the authority over that. And so uh it really and truly does go back to um what we just talked about in terms of right-sizing the government, and I'll give you a specific example. My signature bill uh for the 119th Congress. Um, so Congress runs in two-year terms, and uh since the beginning of the country, we've had 119 two-year terms. We're in the 119th now. My signature bill directly addresses an air quality permitting issue that we have in Colorado. We'll often hear air quality in Colorado is bad. Well, there's two things uh that go along with that. The first is 70% of the pollution that they're talking about doesn't even come from Colorado. And then the second part is under federal law, uh federal law doesn't care. If air, if certain pollutants um uh reach a certain threshold, then federal law kicks in and mandates uh certain regulations that shall take effect. And unfortunately, those things are very, very expensive. Um, for instance, reformulated gas. If your ground level ozone hits a certain level under federal law, there is no choice, there is no question, thou shalt sell reformulated gas in that what's called the ozone non-attainment area. And on average, that costs an additional 40 cents a gallon. Uh and so I'm working at the federal level to adjust the law so that the law actually considers the sources of these emissions, and we don't punish Colorado, we don't punish Colorado jobs, we don't punish innovators and entrepreneurs and ultimately the cost of living, we don't make that worse by punishing Colorado for pollution, 70 of which is outside of the control of Colorado. Um, and so what my bill does, it's called the FIRE Act. And the Fire Act does two things. It says if Canada, somewhere outside of Colorado, uh, is uh having a wildfire, and that wildfire smoke is blowing back into the state of Colorado, we obviously have no control over a wildfire in northern Canada. Um, so don't punish Colorado, don't punish the economy of Colorado with all of these burdensome regulations for wildfire smoke from Canada or California that we have no control over. And then the second part of the law says don't punish Colorado for good forest management practices. Uh, we all know, unfortunately, we got uh the pine beetle is eating up our pine trees in Colorado. And so if we have dead pine trees or other high fuel loads in the forest, that's a very high risk for wildfire. And so we want to proactively manage that fuel load. We want to get the dead trees out, we want to get the logging slash out, we want to be able to clear the brush out because we know a little bit of emissions, whether it's a controlled burn or whether it's some diesel engines removing that fuel load, a little bit of emissions now prevents 10 times as many emissions, plus all of the other bad things that happen when you have a Cameron Peak fire or a Heyman fire or a peak two fire, a sunshine fire, a Cold Springs fire. And so that's the second part of the Fire Act is don't punish Colorado for doing good forest management and wildfire prevention uh practices, uh, even if there's a little bit of emissions associated with that, because we know that we're preventing 10 times as many emissions in the future. It's an incredibly bipartisan concept. Jared Polis asked for it in 2024. Uh, you have 25 Democrats from California that asked for this in 2023. Um, I'm obviously a Republican, but my co-sponsor, excuse me, my, so he's my my lead co-prime, so it's the two of us leading the bill, uh, is a Democrat from California. Um, and so that would be a specific example of something that I'm working on in the Energy and Commerce Committee that's directly and specifically designed to help Colorado in a bipartisan fashion deliver something that I as a Republican want uh and that my Democrat governor wants and has said so in writing.

SPEAKER_00 13:03

Now, going back onto the uh the wildfire management, um part of my background uh in education, at least, is in wildlife biology. And one thing that I find very interesting is how many people don't understand the necessity of uh proper forest management when it comes to that and the amount that the forest not only recovers but grows back uh healthier after controlled burns or even natural burns. I mean, for instance, you can go up to Rocky Mountain National Park and um they have uh several different zones where um they've they've done a controlled burn in each area uh over the course of the years, and you can see uh a living time lapse almost of freshly burned into fully recovered. Um with uh you being on that committee. Um what do you think is a better way to kind of spread awareness to uh some of those issues with um the uh the wildfire problems?

SPEAKER_01 14:15

Yeah, I mean you hit the nail on the head. There's a difference between doing the controlled burns or the natural cycle of burns versus what we unfortunately have right now. That in this area, the natural cycle um is you know, seven, ten, fifteen years, you'll have a burn. But what that means is you only have maybe seven to fifteen years worth of fuel and fuel load that's burning. So your fires are less intense, less damaging, and you actually do have some vegetation. You know, the big pine trees that have real thick bark at the bottom, you have some vegetation that can survive. That is totally different. That natural cycle or that that man-made controlled burn to replicate the natural cycle, that is totally different than what we're seeing now, which is 40 or 50 or 60 years worth of fuel building up in the forests. And then when that lights off, that burn is much bigger, it's hotter, it's more intense, uh, and oftentimes there's nothing that survives that. And then that has so many other ramifications. We talked the air quality piece of it, um, but specifically in um in the front range of Colorado, where so much of our water uh originates in the mountains and then comes down the creeks and the rivers and the streams to the front range. When you have a damaging, a major damaging burn, that impacts water, that impacts water quality because now there's no vegetation left to keep all of the silt and dirt from running into the streams and rivers and then uh plugging those up, suffocating the fish. And then when it gets down to the front range, now you have an incredibly low water quality that's plugging up your water treatment plants uh and costing ratepayers millions, because the water treatment plant now has to figure out how do we get all of this silt and runoff out of the water stream before we send it to people's houses. Um, after uh after one of the big fires in northern Colorado uh a few years ago, Cameron Peak, uh the city of Greeley, their water treatment plants plugged up over 40 times the next spring during the runoff because of all of the water, all of the dirt and junk coming down into the water supply. And so raising awareness is like what you and I are doing right now. We have to talk about it. I, as a sitting congressman on the committee of jurisdiction, talk about it and use this platform that I have to bring awareness to the fact that managing our forests and wildfire prevention, that's not a partisan issue. I agree with it. My government, the Democrat governors asked for it. I got a Democrat from California working on this bill with me. This is just good ecology, this is good environmentalism that replicates that natural cycle. And when we do that, we actually have lower emissions, we have better water quality, and when we lower those emissions through my bill, the FIRE Act, then we don't punish Colorado jobs, and we don't punish the Colorado economy for wildfire smoke from other places that we have no control over, or and we don't punish uh Colorado for doing good forest management practice here within the state where we do have control.

SPEAKER_00 17:13

Now, a lot of these projects, a lot of these committees cost money. Um, and I know your office has advocated for projects ranging from public safety, water infrastructure, education, workforce development. Uh, what investments do you believe will have the greatest long-term impact on Northern Colorado?

SPEAKER_01 17:33

Yeah, some of the investments that I've personally worked on, uh, my office was able to secure $1 million to finish paving Weld County Road 7th between Berthett and Meade, obviously a major commuter artery, especially when uh I-25 gets plugged up. Um, so being able to help pave that last two mile, that's gonna have decades-long uh impact, um, not just on the quality of life for folks that have to take that road, but for the economy. Because you've got uh major job creators that are starting to grow up on that road. And so when we have a nice paved road for them, that's gonna make that area more attractive to bring that economic growth to rather than sending everybody bumping down a dirt road. Um so that would just be one example, very, very local to Bertha. Uh, another one we just had um Secretary Sean Duffy, so he's the Secretary of Transportation. Uh, he and I were out at Denver International Airport a couple of days ago talking about how we were able to get $43 million specifically for VIA to upgrade radios, to upgrade some of the software and some of the other uh technology that the air traffic controllers use. Um, and one of the things that I was most excited about there uh was actually radar to track aircraft uh on the ground. Um, because one of the most critical um modes of flight is what we call it, uh, periods of flight is when you're going from taxiing on the ground to the active runway and then taking off. Uh and so as a Blackhawk helicopter pilot based out of Buckley Air Force Base, I've flown in, around, under, and through the airspace uh at Denver International Airport, and having that situational awareness to track planes on the ground as they're crossing onto the active runway to go take off, and then as planes are landing, that ground tracking radar is gonna be incredibly important for better situational awareness when you have fog or other bad weather conditions or when you have uh emergencies. A plane has a tire blowout uh upon landing or takeoff. Well, that's gonna create an accordion effect for all of the other traffic waiting. And if I can actually see those aircraft in real time, that helps me have better situational awareness to manage uh any sort of emergencies, uh, keep people safe, but then also fix it faster so everybody's flight has a less severe delay. That would be another example of something that we've brought specifically back to Colorado to help the entire region through greater safety and fewer delays by upgrading the infrastructure out at the airport.

SPEAKER_00 20:03

Now moving on to another uh really hot issue in not only our country, but in Colorado specifically, uh immigration. With the amount of immigrants that we do have in our state and the amount that they contribute to our economy, our society, our culture, uh what do you think the path forward should be for undocumented immigrants who enter the United States unlawfully but have since built stable lives, contributed to their communities, and raised their families here? Um what's kind of the framework that you think needs to be in place?

SPEAKER_01 20:42

Yeah, great question. Uh I am the only Hispanic in Colorado's delegation in Congress. House, Senate, Republican, Democrat, out of the ten folks from Colorado that uh represent our state in Washington, D.C., I'm the only Hispanic. And so my story starts with my grandfather, Guatemalan Chavez. Uh, he was born in Mexico, came to the United States. He earned his citizenship with two Purple Hearts fighting in World War II in Patton's Third Army. Uh married uh my grandma, my abolita, uh, María Calderón. They uh they had my mom, Rebecca Chavez. She came to Denver in the 70s, I was born in Aurora in the 80s. And so understanding those folks that come to the United States, that in my grandfather's case are literally willing to shed their own blood for their new country, um, that that's a part of my life. That's a part of who I am. And so I think we have to do three things in this space. Um, we have to secure the border. As a cop, I saw this, as a soldier, I saw this. We have to protect the United States, we have to protect the homeland. That's a lot of the work that I do on the Homeland Security Committee. We must have a secure border. We got to get the bad guys out of our community. Uh, Colorado is unfortunately right now the second most dangerous state in the country. We have 2% of the nation's population, but 10% of the nation's human trafficking. We're one of Only a few states right now where drug overdose debts continue to go up in the state of Colorado, and that's because state Democrats in Colorado absolutely refuse to work with federal law enforcement because Colorado's a sanctuary state. But the people who pay the price are the folks that are still dying as a result of cartel peddling poison in our community or who being human trafficked because of a state law that was passed that does not allow the state government to work with the feds even to go find human trafficked kids. There's actually a lawsuit between the governor and his own administration right now. And the governor keeps losing because of a law that he signed into effect that says he cannot give that information to the feds as they're trying to find these human trafficked kids. So we've got to get the bad guys out of our communities. But for the folks that you described, been here a long time working hard, not causing problems, we have to have some sort of pathway forward for those folks. Um and so that is a uh it is the largest piece of immigration reform in the 119th Congress. I was an original co-sponsor for it. I helped to write the bill. Um it's called the Dignity Act. And what it says is if you've been in the country uh for a long time, you are uh not, you're not causing um crimes, you're not uh affiliated with Brender Aguar, the Sinaloa cartel or the Jalisco cartel, you can pass a security check, you pay any back taxes, um, and you're not on welfare. We will, if we can get this bill passed, uh we will give you a work permit. We will give you legal status to continue to live and to work in the United States in Colorado, um, not only because that's the humane thing to do for that person that's not causing any problems but supporting our economy, but because our economy needs it. Not my numbers. This is Trump's UFDA number. 40% of the agricultural workforce in the United States right now doesn't have their paperwork in order. And so this gives not just that person that's working hard supporting an American farmer or rancher, working in ag, working in construction, helping with our housing crunch, uh, working in health care as a nurse and helping with our shortages there. This helps not only the person, but it helps the overall economy and it helps the employers because now the employers know they're hiring somebody that's legally able to work. The worker has that legal status, and again, this is a work permit. This isn't citizenship, this isn't voting, this isn't amnesty. It's a work permit. They have to pay for the work permit. It doesn't cost the U.S. government anything. It actually raises $70 billion in revenue because if you want that work permit, you have to pay for that work permit. But it gives them that work permit so that they can continue to support their employer, we can continue to support the economy and make sure that we're we're not making the cost of living or the economy worse by, as I say, by deporting grandmas, not gangsters. We got to deport the gang the gangsters, leave the grandmas alone.

SPEAKER_00 24:55

Now, with some of the different paths that you can gain citizenship via the military or through federal application, do you think that the current process that we have now is attainable for most people?

SPEAKER_01 25:10

It's long and complicated. Uh, there's a guy I know, he actually lives up in Bertha. He's been working for, I think he told me the last time we talked, 18 years uh to get his citizenship here. That's entirely too long for somebody that's trying to do things the right way. And so one of the other investments that we've made uh in Congress last year uh was we actually added uh millions and millions of dollars to hire more um immigration judges to be able to look and judge and adjudicate these cases and to try to clear the backlog. Uh one of the other things sitting on the Homeland Security Committee, just a couple of weeks ago, we had Secretary Mark Wayne Mullen, um the uh the Secretary for Homeland Security, which has oversight of USCIS, the U.S. Customs, uh, U.S. Citizens and uh Immigration Services. Um and I asked him, I we basically asked that question, you know, Secretary, what do we need to make the process move faster so that we can get these uh these either citizenship or these work permits, these visas, um, how do we clear the backlog? Because we've got good people and good employers who are getting jammed up in all of this red tape and bureaucracy. And a lot of that, unfortunately, has to do with the Biden admin, when the Biden administration threw open the border and we had this massive influx of people uh into the United States, that gummed up the system. And so the people right now, unfortunately, that are paying the price, I've got, and my office handles these requests every day. Um, somebody who's legal right now. Today, they have a work permit to be in the United States. They've been trying to get it renewed for months, they can't get it renewed because of that backlog. And now they're running out of time before their permit expires, and they will go from being legal to being illegal, not having the authority uh to be in the United States and work here because of the backlog that Biden created when he gummed the system up with you know over 10 million people flooding in. And so that's one of the other areas that we're working to clear that backlog, working with the secretary and and actually allocating uh money to hire more immigration judges.

SPEAKER_00 27:10

Thank you. Um now moving on to more of the bipartisanship and leadership concerns that a lot of people not only in our state, our city, our country, are having concerns with at the moment. If Republicans are in the minority in the House next session, how do you think that would affect your approach to legislating and policy making?

SPEAKER_01 27:37

Well, like I said, I'm a part of those two bipartisan caucuses already, for country, the bipartisan veterans that work together, um, problem solvers, uh, other bipartisan Republican and uh Democrats that work together. We've talked about some of my bills that have bipartisan um sponsors, me being the Republican and I'm on legislation, actually, several Democrats from California. Um, when I was in the minority, just the super minority in the state legislature in Colorado a few years ago, there were 19 Republicans to 46 Democrats. And I still got 60% of my bills passed down in the state legislature in Colorado, and more than 60% of my bills were bipartisan because going back to being a cop and a soldier, I've seen the actual issues that actual people are facing every day in their communities. They're not Republican, they're not Democrat, they're basic common sense issues. Those are the things that I work on to try to fix. I'm able to do it in a bipartisan fashion. I've done it before in a super minority in the state legislature, still getting almost 60% of my bills passed. Um, I'm doing it in Congress now. The vast majority of my bills are in Congress now, um, are bipartisan, and I'm a member of those two bipartisan caucuses. So, of course, we don't want the Republicans to go into the uh into the minority, um, but I can function in any environment, and I've proven that in the past.

SPEAKER_00 28:58

Now, a lot of the people in District 8 are worried about both parties working together successfully. Where do you think you would look for opportunities to work across the aisle and where have you looked for those opportunities?

SPEAKER_01 29:11

Uh we've talked about the Fire Act, we've talked about Four Country, we've talked about Problem Solvers Caucus. Um, and we'll talk about another bill that I introduced uh just yesterday, bipartisan, it's called the Rate Payer Protection Act. Uh, we know AI is here to stay. Whether you like it or not, AI is here. The only question is, is it here in the United States? Or does the Communist Chinese Party usurp the United States and China becomes the global leader in AI? And as powerful as AI is, if you're nervous about AI with the US being the global leader in it, you need to be terrified of Communist Chinese Party AI. But we also know folks have a lot of concerns around the data centers that support AI and what's that going to do to my utility bill. And so yesterday I uh I introduced a bipartisan piece of legislation, the Rape Pair Protection Act, to make sure that we strike the right balance uh and that we can continue to be, we being the United States, can continue to be the global leader in AI development, and we don't cede that ground to the communist Chinese, but that we make sure that AI and data centers are paying their way for everything that they need. They want more generation, transmission, distribution, they want more uh electrical infrastructure. They have to pay for all of that stuff and not pass that cost on to the ratepayer. Uh, and so that's what my bill, again, bipartisan piece of legislation, the Ratepayer Protection Act, does uh in Congress.

SPEAKER_00 30:40

Perfect. Thank you. Um now, me personally, um, I don't have a horse in the race. You know, uh the way that I was raised was to vote for what matters to me personally, not red or blue or green or whatever other parties are out there. Uh do you think that thinking like that, voting for what matters to you and your community could solve a lot of the issues when it comes to the divide in parties?

SPEAKER_01 31:09

You have just described a core tenant of what it means to be a conservative and also capitalism. Um and we call it self-interest rightly understood. Uh, you know how to run your life better than anyone else knows how to run your life. And so that are that that's the small government uh individual liberty, freedom of speech principles that I believe in is that you know how to run your life better than anyone else. So you should uh absolutely look at candidates, look at issues, look at policies, and you have to make the vote uh based on what best takes care of you. That is that is how the United States has grown and flourished over the last 250 years, we're celebrating 250 years, um, is that individual liberty, uh, that that small government, um, that freedom of speech, to have those conversations, do that independent thought and analysis, um, that that's the hallmark of capitalism uh and and freedom. Uh it was is self-interest rightly understood.

SPEAKER_00 32:11

Thank you. Now let's go ahead and finish with the fun part here. A couple quick questions and try to answer these in one sentence or less. Number one What is one issue that doesn't receive enough attention in Washington?

SPEAKER_01 32:28

There's so many. Um right now I'm gonna go with aging infrastructure. Um we talk kind of around the issue a lot, but the fact is we really haven't built anything big or new in half a century uh in this country. And so we we just really have to focus on how do we replace and upgrade aging infrastructure.

SPEAKER_00 32:58

What is the most rewarding part of representing Colorado's 8th district?

SPEAKER_01 33:03

I was uh again, being a cop and a soldier for 22 years and being a Colorado native, uh, I got to be on the receiving end of a lot of these different problems, uh, you know, from the federal, state, and local governments. And so being in a position to actually take that hard-earned boots on the ground experience and try to fix it in a way that's an actual fix and not just a talking point in Washington, DC, uh, that's incredibly rewarding to me.

unknown 33:28

Incredibly rewarding.

SPEAKER_00 33:30

Now, a little bit more of a light-hearted question. When you're not working, how do you spend your free time and how do you spend time with your family?

SPEAKER_01 33:37

Uh I raise a few cows, and so that means I have to do all of the things that cows require, fix fence, haul hay, fix the tractor that moves the hay bales around, um, de-light uh water tanks in the winter, uh, work on all of the you know the F-350 that does all of the hauling, so that's that's how I grew up. Uh, and I you know I like being uh close to ag and working on on machinery.

SPEAKER_00 34:04

What book has most influenced your leadership style?

SPEAKER_01 34:10

Um Steal My Soldier's Hearts. Um, it is a book about an army battalion in Vietnam. Um, and then the the colonel who wrote the book, uh David Hackworth, when he when he takes over as battalion commander, uh it's the worst performing uh unit in Vietnam. And then at the end of his tour, they're the best performing unit in Vietnam. And so it's not even really a book about leadership, but anyone that can take the worst performing battalion and turn them into the best performing battalion in combat, uh there's a lot of leadership lessons to be learned there.

SPEAKER_00 34:47

I'll have to check it out. Uh lastly, five years from now, what would success look like for Colorado's 8th district?

SPEAKER_01 34:55

Uh we're not bottom in all of the terrible metrics. Uh, and when I say we, I mean the state of Colorado. We're not bottom of the nation in all of the terrible metrics. Right now, second most dangerous state in the nation, third most expensive state in the nation, sixth most regulated state in the nation, uh, 10% of the human trafficking in the nation, even though we only have 2% of the population. Our overdose death rates are still going up. Uh, businesses are leaving the area. Um, we have to reverse all of those things. And that goes back to what I said earlier. There's a relationship between the federal governments and the state governments. I'm doing everything I can at the federal level to try to fix some of those issues, uh, and we need to get some balance back in the state of Colorado so that the state will be an actual partner uh rather than making us a the you know California East.

SPEAKER_00 35:48

Perfect. Thank you so much for your answers. Uh Congressman Gabe Evans, thank you so much for joining us today and sharing your story, your priorities, your vision for Colorado's 8th Congressional District. And I just want to give a big thank you to our listeners for tuning in. If you enjoyed this conversation, be sure to subscribe, leave a review, share the episode with friends and family, especially with the upcoming elections. This has been your host, Trent Butish. We'll see you all next time. Thanks for listening.