The independent expenditure arm of the House Republicans on Thursday announced it plans to reserve $2.3 million in fall TV advertising in Colorado’s battleground 8th Congressional District, a seat considered crucial to determining which party wields the gavel in the U.S. House of Representatives after the election.

The National Republican Congressional Committee’s independent expenditure entity’s initial round of ad reservations totals $45.7 million across 22 districts. The ads in the Denver media market are expected to support GOP nominee state Rep. Gabe Evans, who won the nomination in Tuesday’s primary to challenge first-term Democratic U.S. Rep. Yadira Caraveo in the nearly evenly divided district.

“The NRCC committed from Day One to not just hold our majority, but go on offense to grow our majority — today we are putting our money where our mouth is,” said U.S. Rep. Richard Hudson of North Carolina, the NRCC’s chairman, in a statement.

“This initial investment gives our candidates firepower to remind voters of the Biden border, crime, and inflation crises wreaking havoc on their daily lives. Extreme Democrats who enabled the chaos and malaise should polish up their resumes — they will be unemployed soon.”

A spokesman for the Democrats’ House Majority PAC said the party is prepared to defend Caraveo in her bid for reelection.

“No amount of money can change the fact that Gabe Evans supported banning abortion with no exceptions for rape or incest and voted against lowering costs for Colorado families,” said CJ Warnke, the group’s communications director, in an email to Colorado Politics.

“Rep. Yadira Caraveo has delivered for CO-08 time and time again, and HMP looks forward to supporting her in November,” he added.

Democrats need to flip four seats to take the majority in the chamber in November, though that number could change as voters fill vacancies in special elections.

The announcement brings potential spending in the district by the national parties’ leading congressional committees to nearly $13 million.

The NRCC’s Colorado booking follows $5.1 million reserved in the Denver market last month by the Congressional Leadership Fund, a political action committee aligned with House Republican leadership.

Last week, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee announced it plans to spend $1.5 million on top of the $3.9 million in reservations announced earlier by the party’s HMP.

Some of the national group’s early ad buys could wind up supporting their parties’ respective nominees in another targeted House race in the Western Slope-based 3rd Congressional District, where Republican nominee Jeff Hurd faces Democrat Adam Frisch, who nearly won the seat in the last election.

The races in the two Colorado districts were among the closest in the country in 2022. Caraveo, a pediatrician and former state lawmaker, won in the newly created district by just over 1,600 votes, while Republican U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert won her second term in the GOP-leaning 3rd CD by fewer than 600 votes.

Boebert moved across the state earlier this year to run in the solidly Republican 4th Congressional District, which was represented by Republican Ken Buck until he resigned this spring. On Tuesday, Boebert won a six-way primary to run for the seat in November.

The campaign committees’ preliminary ad reservations could change in the coming months. By booking early, however, the groups can lock in lower ad rates for September and October before prices increase as the election approaches.