As election night heads into the wee hours, the race in Colorado’s most politically balanced congressional district is still too close to call.

Incumbent Democratic Rep. Yadira Caraveo leads her Republican challenger, state Rep. Gabe Evans, by 4,247 votes, less than two points, with many ballots still to be counted.

of Colorado 8th Congressional District, north of Denver, it’s a true tossup seat, drawn by the 2021 reapportionment committee to be split equally between the two parties. The first race for the chair, in 2022, it has not been set for more than one day after closing the polls.

On Tuesday night, before his election party ended, Evans spoke briefly to supporters and encouraged them to remain optimistic.

“This was going to be one of the closest races in the country. I could have told you that 16 months ago. So no surprises, no changes. We will wake up tomorrow morning. We will see where the numbers are and continue to move forward,” he said.

Evans said he feels good about his path to victory because many ballots in the more Republican part of the district are still up for grabs. “We know there will be more of a conservative vote from Weld County. So we absolutely have this path. The trajectories are there, the percentages are there”.

Caraveo did not host an election night event. As a caucus for Adams County Democrats wrapped up, his campaign communications director, Kevin Porter, said, “Our team is closely monitoring the votes as they come in and are cautiously optimistic about where we stand “.

The outcome of this race could help determine the balance of power in the US House. That means both campaigns and their allies have spent the last few months flooding the airwaves, stuffing mailboxes and hitting the streets to find and persuade voters.

Evans is finishing his first term in the Legislature, representing parts of Adams and Weld counties. He entered politics after spending 10 years as an Arvada police officer and serving as a helicopter pilot in the US Army. He ran on issues like border control and public safety and the economy. He grew up in Aurora and Elbert County.

Caraveo, a pediatrician, is finishing his first term in Congress. Before that, she served in the state for four years. She made reproductive health care and her efforts to lower health care costs and cap the price of insulin a key part of her campaign.

She also emphasized her bipartisan credentials — the Lugar Center ranked her the 28th most bipartisan member of Congress — and her ability to get legislation passed despite being in the minority.

“I’ve made sure to represent a very purple district well over the last two years, sometimes pushing against my own party,” she said. Those pushes include supporting House Republicans’ version of the Farm Bill in committee and voting to “strongly condemn” Vice President Kamala Harris’ handling of the border.

Although she raised three times as much money as her challenger, some Democrats worried that she did not campaign enough. Caraveo announced earlier this year that she has depression and that her mental health care affected her schedule.

A key element of the race in this largely working-class district was turnout and the question of how margins in the presidential race might translate into down-ticket contests.

Hart Van Denburg/CPR News

Hart Van Denburg/CPR News

Colorado’s 8th Congressional District is the most diverse seat in the state, with Latino residents making up nearly 40 percent of the population. Both candidates drew on their family backgrounds to try to connect with those voters. Caraeo is the daughter of Mexican immigrants, while Evans has Mexican heritage through her maternal grandparents.

For Evans, much of his work has been just introducing himself to voters in the district, especially since he’s relatively new to politics.

“They call it a political campaign for a reason. I was part of a military campaign and so you’re tired and you know you have to keep pushing to finish strong, and that’s what we’re doing now,” he told CPR News ahead of the election. . “But we feel really, really good just being able to get the message out to voters about how we’re making things better.”

Evans’ background drew Chris Fahrenbruch to Evans’ campaign. Thornton, a Republican, is a veteran of the U.S. Air Force.

“I saw a flyer with Gabe’s name on it and I saw he was military, he was law enforcement, and I was like, that’s my guy,” Fahrenbruch said at Evans’ election night party in Brighton at the Bella Sera events, a wedding venue just off the city’s main street. The place had white net curtains on the ceiling and white flowers.

In the early evening, Evans greeted the crowd and posed for pictures with supporters before moving upstairs to a small room to watch the results with staff and family. The mood was low for most of the night as Evans trailed Caraveo in the early turns.

Whether the final votes will reverse that split or cement it could become clearer when the counting begins Wednesday morning.