The Colorado Republican Party on Tuesday endorsed Janak Joshi in the 8th Congressional District’s GOP primary, saying the former state lawmaker has a better chance of ousting the battleground seat’s Democratic incumbent, U.S. Rep. Yadira Caraveo.

Joshi, a former physician who represented a Colorado Springs state House district for three terms last decade, is facing state Rep. Gabe Evans, R-Fort Lupton, an Army veteran and former Arvada police officer, in the June 25 primary for the district, which stretches from Adams County suburbs north of Denver to Greeley.

Joshi’s endorsement is the latest stemming from controversial rules adopted by the state GOP allowing the party to take sides in this year’s contested primaries, for the first time in memory.

“Our main criteria for choosing to endorse Dr. Joshi is his higher likelihood of defeating the incumbent Democrat in the general election,” said the state party in an email announcing its decision.

Among the reasons cited by the GOP was Evans’ refusal to fill out a questionnaire distributed by the state party late last month that asked eligible candidates about their history of voting for former President Donald Trump and their positions on numerous issues, including immigration, gun control and vaccination requirements.

The questionnaire also asked candidates to denounce Americans for Prosperity, the conservative political network founded by industrialist Charles Koch and his late brother, David Koch, whose political arm, Americans for Prosperity Action, has endorsed Evans and spent heavily to support the district’s Republican nominee in the 2022 election.

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In its statement endorsing Joshi, the state party said it will “ultimately support Gabe Evans if he wins the Republican Primary election” but faulted the candidate for his ties to AFP, noting the organization spent tens of millions of dollars in an unsuccessful attempt to defeat Trump in this year’s presidential primaries. The endorsement also criticized Evans for a handful of votes in the legislature, including voting to elect a Democrat as House speaker.

Taken together, the state party said, those factors make Evans “much more likely to be defeated by the Democrats through his inability to convince voters that he is the best choice for CD8, especially with Libertarians vowing to run a spoiler candidate against him.”

Added the GOP: “Janak Joshi on the other hand, has a 100% record in defending taxpayers against out-of-control government spending while also being a leader to secure our border, finish the wall, protect the unborn, and defend the Second Amendment against weak Republicans and radical Democrats like Joe Biden and Yadira Caraveo.”

Caraveo, a pediatrician and former state lawmaker, won the newly created congressional seat in 2022 by less than 1 percentage point in one of the closest congressional races in the country. This year, it’s the lone Colorado district rated as a toss-up by national election forecasters, with its outcome expected to help decide which party controls the House after the November election.

Joshi told Colorado Politics that he was honored to receive the endorsement.

“I know that I answer to the grassroots Republican voters who want to see President Trump and our America First values succeed, instead of answering to the insider politicians and dark money groups who are backing my opponent,” Joshi said in a text message.

Noting that he won top-line primary ballot designation at the district’s GOP assembly — where Joshi came within a couple of delegate votes of failing to qualify for the primary — Evans shrugged off the party’s endorsement as inconsequential.

“I was honored to earn the endorsement of grassroots Republicans by a two-to-one margin at the 8th Congressional District Republican Assembly,” Evans told Colorado Politics in an email. “Those hard-working Republican primary voters are the ones I care about. They are embracing my ‘fight back’ movement because we are committed to bringing conservative change to Washington, D.C., instead of winning the support of out-of-touch Denver party bosses.”

A spokeswoman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee told Colorado Politics that the Joshi endorsement underscores the difficulty Republicans face trying to win the district, which has been targeted by both national parties. 

“The (Colorado) GOP is finally admitting they know what we’ve known all along — Gabe Evans is a weak candidate who would be overwhelmingly rejected in the general election,” said the DCCC’s Mallory Payne in an email. “But unfortunately for them, so would Janak Joshi. They share the same extreme MAGA agenda of trying to ban abortion with no exceptions for rape or incest and threatening our democracy. Evans and Joshi aren’t just dangerous, they’re out of touch with Colorado.” 

State Republicans also sent its questionnaire to two of the primary candidates running in the Western Slope-based 3rd Congressional District — former state Rep. Ron Hanks, R-Cañon City, and State Board of Education member Stephen Varela — since both met an essential criteria for the GOP’s endorsement by qualifying for the primary at the party’s district assembly.

However, Varela, like Evans, refused to participate in the process and called on the state party not to “interfere” in the party’s primaries.

Colorado Republican Party Chairman Dave Williams told Colorado Politics on Tuesday that party officials will decide soon on an endorsement in the 3rd CD, where the winner of a six-way primary will face Democrat Adam Frisch in November.

Under recently approved rules, the party can endorse one, both or neither of the 3rd CD primary candidates — Hanks and Varela — who made the ballot at assembly, Williams noted in a recent online town hall.

Williams, who is running against fellow Republican Jeff Crank in the GOP primary in the El Paso County-based 5th Congressional District, has already won an endorsement from the state party he chairs.

The state GOP’s bylaws, amended last fall with Williams’ support, make the party’s endorsement automatic when just one candidate emerges from assembly, like Williams did, instead of qualifying by petition, like Crank.

Williams said the state party hasn’t yet decided whether to spend anything to support its endorsed candidates.

“To be determined,” Williams said in a text message. “We want be mindful of our general election efforts and resources while ensuring campaign finance compliance.”

A Williams critic filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission last month alleging the state party violated campaign finance laws by promoting his congressional candidacy and attacking Crank in party emails and a slick mailer sent to voters in the 5th CD ahead of precinct caucuses.

Colorado Democratic Party Chair Shad Murib told Colorado Politics that the GOP’s decision to endorse Joshi fits a pattern.

“From Donald Trump’s hush money trials and Lauren Boebert and Greg Lopez’s run-ins with the police, to Dave Williams funneling donor money to his own consulting firm, it’s not a surprise to me that the Colorado GOP endorsed Janak Joshi, who had his medical license revoked in 2008 due to unprofessional conduct,” Murib said in a text message.

“Yadira Caraveo is putting her head down and getting things done for Colorado’s working families, and the GOP seems hellbent on putting folks in Congress who think they’re above the law,” Murib added.