Democrat Yadira Caraveo went on the air Tuesday in the race to represent Colorado’s newest congressional district with a biographical TV ad that describes the pediatrician and state lawmaker’s priorities.

The 30-second spot, airing on broadcast stations in the Denver market, is part of a $2.2 million ad reservation a spokeswoman for Caraveo’s campaign said is set to run through Election Day.

Caraveo, a two-term state representative from Thornton, is facing state Sen. Barb Kirkmeyer, a Brighton Republican, in the battleground 8th Congressional District, an evenly divided district that covers portions of Adams and Weld counties north of the Denver metro area.

“Diana’s been my patient since she was two,” says Caraveo over footage of her examining a young patient at her Thornton pediatric practice.

“Her family isn’t that different from mine. My dad is a construction worker. And I put myself through med school,” Caraveo says. 

“As a doctor, I saw families struggling, so I went to the legislature to help — passing lower drug prices and expanding kindergarten. But with costs rising, we need to do more.”

While Caraveo is on an extended leave from her medical practice through the election, a campaign spokeswoman told Colorado Politics she paused her hiatus to conduct back-to-school physicals last month for a family she’s been seeing for years, and that’s what the camera crew recorded.

If elected, Caraveo will be the first Latina and the first physician sent to Congress from Colorado.

Kirkmeyer, who has yet to release a general election TV ad, panned her opponent’s debut in a statement to Colorado Politics.

“After voting to kill Colorado energy jobs, raise our cost of living, take away our TABOR tax refunds and put more criminals and fentanyl out on the streets, Yadira Caraveo wants to reinvent herself,” Kirkmeyer said via email. “It won’t work.”

A spokesman for Kirkmeyer declined to say when her campaign plans to hit the airwaves.

The 8th CD is almost certain to feature the most hotly contested congressional race in Colorado this fall. Election forecasters rate the open seat as a toss-up or say it leans Republican, based on voter registration, the district’s preference in recent elections and a handful of polls this summer that found Kirkmeyer with a single-digit lead.

This spring, the Democrats’ House Majority PAC and the Republicans’ Congressional Leadership Fund, the national parties’ chief political action committees devoted to House races, each reserved $4.4 million worth of TV ads in the Denver market, and in late August the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s independent expenditure arm booked $1.6 million in additional airtime in Denver.

“Democrats can spend all the money they want, but it won’t change the fact Yadira Caraveo supports Democrats’ open-borders, tax-and-spend agenda that’s made life more difficult for Colorado families,” National Republican Congressional Committee spokeswoman Courtney Parella said in a text message to Colorado Politics.

Although the national groups’ ad reservations aren’t specifically earmarked for the Caraveo-Kirkmeyer race, much of the money will likely focus on voters in the 8th CD, political strategists say. A portion could be devoted to the Jefferson County-based 7th Congressional District, however, where state Sen. Brittany Pettersen, a Lakewood Democrat, and Republican Erik Aadland, a first-time candidate from Pine, are facing off. The Democratic-leaning seat is currently represented by eight-term U.S. Rep. Ed Perlmutter, an Arvada Democrat who announced his retirement earlier this year.