Colorado’s farmers and ranchers are getting squeezed every which way by Gabe Evans and Jeff Hurd’s cost-hiking, anti-agriculture agenda, the New York Times reports.
Both Evans and Hurd repeatedly voted for tariffs that are jacking up costs on farming equipment, as well as the war in Iran that is making fertilizer, diesel, and gas unaffordable. Evans and Hurd also now have to answer for the Administration’s decision to import foreign beef, a kick in the teeth to local farmers and ranchers.
For his part, Evans is sticking by the President’s anti-agriculture agenda. Evans has “emphasized his allegiance to the president” and is a “reliable supporter” of reckless tariffs.
DCCC Spokesperson Lindsay Reilly:
“Gabe Evans and Jeff Hurd are putting their loyalty to Trump ahead of Colorado farmers and ranchers. Voters will hold them accountable in November.”
Read the reporting for yourself…
New York Times: Trump’s Trade War Is Shaping the Fight for Congress
- Colorado’s farmers and ranchers are struggling against factors beyond their control, with higher costs for fuel and fertilizer resulting from President Trump’s decision to wage a trade war featuring steep tariffs and an actual war against Iran.
- In a bid to lower meat prices last month, the president also agreed to allow cheaper beef imports to compete with domestic cattle producers who were finally turning the corner after difficult years.
- In the more competitive Eighth Congressional District immediately north of Denver, with its mix of economically pressed blue-collar workers and ranchers, Representative Gabe Evans… emphasized his allegiance to the president. He has been a reliable supporter of Mr. Trump’s tariff policy.
- In Colorado, Mr. Evans is being challenged by Manny Rutinel, a 31-year-old state representative who emphasizes his family’s economic struggles as he was growing up — noting that he used to sell his blood plasma to help pay the bills.
- As he mingled with supporters at the popular Tacos Los Viejones Mexican street food stand across from a gas station that showed diesel selling at nearly $5.50 a gallon, Mr. Rutinel said Mr. Evans’s constituents deserved a change given the congressman’s support of White House policies making their lives unaffordable.
- “Tariffs are the reason why our grocery prices are soaring at the moment, and they are also at the same time kicking the teeth of our farmers and ranchers and putting their livelihoods at risk,” Mr. Rutinel said. “And Gabe Evans has been in lock step with Donald Trump in enabling these policies that are making life impossible in America.”
- In the Third District, the Democrat Dwayne Romero, a former Aspen city councilman, West Point graduate and decorated military veteran who is challenging Mr. Hurd, said a single vote against Mr. Trump’s tariff policies hardly makes a maverick of his opponent.
- “One alternative vote doesn’t make the man,” said Mr. Romero, the former state director of economic development who has served on multiple local boards. “Doesn’t make the backbone. Doesn’t make the position of defending his constituents. It is almost a throwaway.”
- He said Mr. Hurd had been aligned with Mr. Trump on almost every issue, including a major tax and policy measure that included health care and safety net cuts, and that both the congressman and the president have retreated from pledges to lower costs and avoid drawn-out military conflicts.
- The push to import cheaper beef is just the latest economic weight placed on ranchers by the administration, he said.
- “It is really just putting a finger in the eye of our ranching community to import beef at a discounted price just to relieve some of the expense,” Mr. Romero said. “It really is salt in the wound.”
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