The National Republican Congressional Committee announced Monday that the Republican nominees in Colorado’s most competitive congressional races were named to the House GOP campaign arm’s Young Guns program for top challengers in targeted seats.

First-time candidate Jeff Hurd and state Rep. Gabe Evans, R-Fort Lupton, are among 26 Republican House candidates inducted into the top tier of the campaign support program, which helps candidates who have met fundraising and organizational goals, the NRCC said.

Hurd, a Grand Junction attorney, is facing Democrat Adam Frisch in the 3rd Congressional District, which covers most of the Western Slope and Southern Colorado, and Evans is running against first-term Democratic U.S. Rep. Yadira Caraveo in the Northern Front Range’s 8th Congressional District.

The two Republicans defeated candidates endorsed by the Colorado Republican Party in the June 25 primary.

Both seats were among the country’s closest U.S. House races last cycle.

“Extreme House Democrats’ border, crime and cost of living crises wrecked Americans’ safety and security,” said U.S. Rep. Richard Hudson, a North Carolina Republican and the NRCC’s chairman, in a statement. “Fortunately, these Republican candidates are already well on their way to running winning campaigns that will grow our House majority in November.”

Evans is running in the state’s newest congressional district, a closely divided seat that stretches from the Adams County suburbs north to Greeley. The district Hurd is running to represent is more favorable for Republicans.

The NRCC named the 8th CD a targeted race last year, and Republican-aligned groups have spent heavily hammering Caraveo. Last week, the House GOP group opened a field office in the district.

Monday’s announcement, however, is the first indication the NRCC is treating the 3rd CD as one of its top-targeted seats.

Republican U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert has represented the 3rd CD for two terms but moved across the state to the solidly Republican 4th Congressional District earlier this year after narrowly beating Frisch in 2020.

Hurd’s and Evans’ Democratic opponents entered July with enormous campaign cash advantages over their Republican challengers. According to second-quarter fundraising reports, Caraveo had nearly $3.5 million on hand, more than six times the funds reported by Evans, while Frisch’s $4 million was 25 times as much as Hurd had in the bank.

Earlier this year, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the NRCC’s counterpart across the aisle, named Frisch to its Red to Blue program for top challengers and announced that Caraveo was part of its Frontline program, designed to protect vulnerable House incumbents.