Three weeks after she won the Republican nomination in Colorado’s newest congressional district, state Sen. Barb Kirkmeyer achieved top status in the House GOP campaign arm’s Young Guns program for candidates in competitive districts, the National Republican Congressional Committee announced Tuesday.

The Brighton state lawmaker and former Weld County commissioner, who won a four-way primary on June 28, faces Democratic state Rep. Yadira Caraveo, a Thornton pediatrician, in the evenly divided 8th Congressional District.

Established after Colorado gained a congressional seat following the 2020 census, the new district stretches from Adams County suburbs north of Denver to Greeley. Both national parties have targeted the district, and national forecasters predict it will be among the most competitive races in the country in this year’s midterms.

Kirkmeyer is among 10 Republican House hopefuls added this week to the top tier of the campaign support program, which helps candidates who have met fundraising and organizational benchmarks. In all, 46 candidates have so far attained Young Gun designation.

GOP congressional nominee Erik Aadland, running in the open 7th Congressional District, meanwhile, was tapped on Friday for the program’s On the Radar level, one step below the Young Guns.

An Army veteran and first-time candidate, Aadland is running against state Sen. Brittany Pettersen, a Lakewood Democrat, for the Jefferson County-based seat, which is held by retiring U.S. Rep. Ed Perlmutter. The Arvada Democrat announced in January that he isn’t seeking a ninth term.

“There’s a record-breaking class of Republican House candidates running this fall because Americans are fed up with Democrats’ agenda that has led to 40-year high inflation, sky-high gas prices, a crisis at our southern border, and rampant violent crime,” Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy said in a statement announcing additions to the program.

Kirkmeyer welcomed the news.

“I look forward to working with other fresh, new Republican voices emerging across our nation to promote common-sense, conservative alternatives to Joe Biden’s and Yadira Caraveo’s far-left agenda,” she told Colorado Politics in an email. “Together, we’ll work to improve Americans’ quality of life by restoring order at the Southern border, ending the crime spree plaguing our communities, and reining in sky-high inflation.”

Noting that Caraveo finished the second quarter with more than 10 times as much cash on hand as Kirkmeyer, Elana Schrager, the Democrat’s campaign spokeswoman, shrugged at the announcement and called her opponent’s new status “just an attempt by national Republicans to distract from her failing and cashless campaign.”

Added Schrager: “Families from Commerce City up to Greeley want a representative who will listen and work for them — not an extreme right-wing ideologue like Barb Kirkmeyer, who’s spent her nearly three decades as a career politician failing to get things done for Coloradans and instead prioritizing radical ideas like secession from Colorado or taking away women’s right to choose, even in cases of rape and incest.”

Meanwhile, Aadland said in a written statement that he is “overjoyed” to make the list.

“This program chooses the best and the brightest contenders during an election cycle; I am humbled to be considered one of them,” he said. “My campaign is accelerating every day and we truly have our eyes on victory in November. I can assure the NRCC that adding me to this list was the right decision, I will not let them, or the constituents in CD7, down.”

Pettersen’s campaign manager, Mark Hatton, suggested Republicans “would be smart to spend their money elsewhere.”

“National Republicans wanted nothing to do with Erik Aadland during the primary and openly rooted for his opponent,” Hatton said in an email. “Now that they are stuck with an election denier and far-right fanatic hellbent on dismantling abortion rights and marriage equality, they are doing a 180 to save face. But no amount of spin can distract from Aadland’s out-of-step views and abysmal fundraising. Sen. Pettersen’s deep roots in the community, proven track record and strong campaign will hold this seat.”

One of the two Republicans Aadland defeated in the primary, Golden economist Tim Reichert, landed a spot in the On the Radar program in April.