Rep. Gabe Evans (R-CO) warned that socialism is on the move outside of New York after socialist Melat Kiros ousted a longtime Democratic incumbent in Colorado’s primary elections on Tuesday night.
Evans told the Washington Examiner that “New York is picking their socialist operators and moving them around the country to places where they think they’re going to have potential to develop a good reception with the local culture.”
Evans is set to face off against progressive state Rep. Manny Rutinel in the general election for his toss-up House seat in an area President Donald Trump won by 2 percentage points in 2024. Rutinel coasted to victory over a more moderate opponent in the Democratic primary on Tuesday.
Evans is already honing in on Rutinel’s progressive credentials and ties to New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, the nation’s highest-ranking socialist.
“They’re both socialists from New York,” Evans said of Kiros and Rutinel. “My opponent is on video campaigning with Mamdani in New York. He’s already brought [Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY)] out to the district to stump for him last year.”
Evans was referring to a video posted by Mamdani celebrating Dominican Day in New York last August. Rutinel, who lived in the Dominican Republic until he was 6 years old, appears in the video.
Mamdani has emerged as a boogeyman for Republicans as they try to maintain their narrow House majority, though Trump has largely refrained from going after the mayor. Still, the success of three left-wing candidates endorsed by Mamdani in New York’s congressional primary has reinvigorated Republican midterm messaging around socialism.
Though Rutinel does not identify as a socialist, Kiros’s ascendancy — the first major socialist victory outside of New York this cycle — is likely to provide ample fodder for Evans and his allies in the heavily Latino district.
The National Republican Congressional Committee previewed potential attack lines against Rutinel by the fall, noting the “socialism train that started in New York City stormed through Colorado last night and its newest passenger is radical far-left vegan activist Manny Rutinel.”
“Rutinel may have escaped his primary by racing to the far left but in November Coloradans will reject his radical agenda to raise taxes, end animal agriculture, and ban fracking,” NRCC spokesman Zach Bannon told Washington Examiner in a statement.
Rutinel, early in his run for Congress last year, said he supported banning fracking, canceling student debt, and a single-payer healthcare system, but he has since walked those positions back.
Hispanic Americans have, in many parts of the country, rejected socialism, including in South Florida, which is home to a large Cuban American population.
Evans said the socialist label won’t play in his district among the Latino population, which sits north of Denver, pointing to municipal results in Rutinel’s hometown last year.
“They don’t like them,” said Evans, “and they’re willing to throw them out, even when they’re incumbents, because they’re wrecking the economy.
JEFFRIES CONGRATULATES DSA-BACKED CHALLENGER WHO OUSTED HIS ENDORSEMENT PICK IN COLORADO
Some centrist Democrats feared that nominating Rutinel would jeopardize Democrats’ chances against Evans, given his past progressive stances.
“The guy is just not going to be ready for primetime. It’s a seat that should be an easy pick up for us that we’re just going to have to take off the map,” one Democratic strategist familiar with the race told the Washington Examiner before the primary.