Republicans are targeting Colorado’s 7th Congressional District seat for a GOP takeover.
The National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) announced its targeting CO-7. The NRCC’s job is to win as many seats as possible in November in the effort to attain a Republican majority in the U.S. House of Representatives.
CO-7 is an open seat. U.S. Representative Ed Perlmutter (D-CO-07) created the opening when he announced his retirement.
Colorado gained a U.S. House seat after the census and redistricting significantly moved the lines around. The new CO-7 was given a partisan rating of D+6 by Nate Silver’s FiveThirtyEight and includes parts of the old 2nd, 5th, and 7th districts. Those districts were previously rated D+23, R+21, and D+15 respectively.
The New York Times reported that Nancy Pelosi’s PAC is preparing to spend millions in ads to compete for Colorado’s U.S. House districts.
“In Colorado, the last several elections seemed to turn the districts around Boulder and Denver into a reliable shade of blue. But redistricting and the retirement of Representative Ed Perlmutter have prompted House Majority PAC to pony up $4.4 million in the Denver media market to defend the state’s seventh and eighth districts.”
In response to that report, NRCC Spokeswoman Courtney Parella said, “There’s bipartisan agreement: Colorado is a top House battleground. Voters are fed up with Democrats’ harmful policies that caused an inflation crisis, a massive crimewave, and an unmitigated crisis at our southern border.”
GOP candidates running in the June 28 primary include Iraq and Afghanistan War Veteran Erik Aadland, political activist Laurel Imer, building contractor and community activist Carl Andersen, economist Tim Reichert, and attorney Brad Dempsey.
The Democrat Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) appears to favor State Senator Brittany Pettersen.
In a statement, the DCCC praised Pettersen, “Brittany Pettersen has spent nearly a decade fighting for Coloradans in the state legislature, and now she’s stepping up to run for CO-07 to ensure Democrats win this open seat. She is no stranger to winning important races — her double-digit win in 2018 helped the party take the majority in the state Senate. Republicans will spend heavily to claim this seat for one of their extreme candidates, but Brittany is mounting an impressive grassroots campaign and is already securing major endorsements.”
FEC records do not currently show significant data on the financial status of the race. The bulk of the candidates on both sides were announced after the December 31, 2021 fourth quarter deadline. The results of candidate fundraising and expenditures for March 31, 2022, first-quarter deadline report will be released in the near future.
The Cook Political Report currently gives the race for CO-7 a “Likely Democrat” rating.
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Aaron Gulbransen is a reporter at The Star News Network. Email tips to [email protected]. Follow Aaron on GETTR, Twitter, and Parler.
Photo “Erik Aadland” by Erik Aadland. Photo “Brittany Petterson” by Brittany Petterson. Background Photo “U.S. Capitol” by Martin Falbisoner. CC BY-SA 3.0.
