Colorado Democrats said Friday that they’re launching an effort to train volunteers and engage voters in the state’s competitive 8th Congressional District more than a year before the 2024 election.

While both national parties have already targeted Democratic U.S. Rep. Yadira Caraveo’s bid for reelection to the state’s newest House seat, state Democratic Chair Shad Murib said the party aims to boost turnout in the district up and down the ballot, including in this year’s local elections.

Caraveo drew a Republican challenger this week when Weld County Commissioner Scott James announced his candidacy, though he could soon have company in the GOP primary. The race is expected to be among the most expensive and hard-fought nationwide.

Created ahead of last year’s election, the 8th CD stretches from suburbs north of Denver to Greeley, covering parts of Adams, Weld and Larimer counties. Democrats hold a slight edge in voter registration and recent election results, but Donald Trump carried its precincts in 2016 and Caraveo won by fewer than 2,000 votes last year, ensuring its battleground status.

“We know that the Republican Party is going to come after this district up and down the ballot with negative ads and divisive rhetoric, and we’re going to make sure that they don’t gain a foothold in this district by doing something that we haven’t really tried before that shows our commitment to early investment and not taking anything for granted,” Murib told reporters in an online press conference.

He said that 10 organizers will hit the ground this weekend as part of what the Democrats are dubbing the Horizon Project.

Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser and State Board of Education Member Rhonda Solis, who was elected last year to represent the 8th CD, joined Murib to roll out the program.

Murib said the party has identified more than 10,000 habitual Democratic voters in the district who didn’t cast ballots last year. Rather than wait until weeks or months before the election next year, Weiser said, the party plans to start “opening up conversations” this summer and continue talking with the same voters into 2024.

“We want to hear from people, what’s on your mind? What do you care about?” Weiser said.

“I got elected to my local school board and now to the State Board of Education because people showed up and voted,” Solis said.

The program is similar to one unveiled a month ago in the Western Slope-based 3rd Congressional District, where Republican U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert is seeking a third term.

Boebert won reelection last year in the Republican-leaning district by the narrowest margin of any congressional race in the country, beating Democrat Adam Frisch by just 546 votes, which spawned the name Democrats have given the effort – the 546 Project.

Murib’s GOP counterpart, state Republican Chairman Dave Williams, mocked his opponents’ propensity for branding campaigns in a statement about the new initiative.

“Colorado Democrats are really good at coming up with pointless names to identify their pet projects that are designed to deceive voters into going along with their extreme agenda that is failing our state,” he told Colorado Politics in a text message. “The desperation of Democrats to trick voters with their superficial marketing amounts to nothing more than lipstick on a pig.”

Elena Ehrlin, James’ campaign manager, took aim at Caraveo in an emailed statement.

“Yadira Caraveo’s field organizers have a difficult job, because they’re going to be on the front lines of explaining to voters why she continued her extreme crusade against the Colorado energy producers who fund our public schools,” she said, noting that Caraveo voted against a Republican-sponsored energy bill.

Murib said he’s anxious to hear from voters in the district

“We’re going to make sure that these folks who used to be regular voters not only vote in 2023 elections but are also geared up and committed to support our candidates in 2024,” he said. “But we’re not going to tell them what to do. We’re going to spend the vast majority of our time listening.”