Colorado State Treasurer Dave Young on Wednesday became the fourth high-profile Democrat to launch a campaign to challenge Republican U.S. Rep. Gabe Evans in Colorado’s closely divided 8th Congressional District.

“I am running to stand up for Colorado’s working families and deliver results that matter in a time of uncertainty,” said Young, a former state lawmaker and junior high math and science teacher, in a statement announcing his candidacy. The 8th CD covers parts of Adams, Weld and Larimer counties, stretching from suburbs north Denver to Greeley.

“Colorado’s 8th Congressional District deserves a representative who shows up, listens and delivers,” Young added. “I’ve spent my life making government work better for people, and I’m ready to bring that same energy and experience to Washington.”

The 72-year-old Young told Colorado Politics that his two terms as the state’s top elected financial officer — he’s term-limited after next year — and three terms representing a swing seat in Greeley in the legislature demonstrate that he’s the Democrat best equipped to take on Evans in what’s already shaping up to be one of the most heavily targeted seats in the 2026 election.

“The reason why I’m running is my track record really does point to the fact that I have the skills to produce the kind of effective results that I think people are clamoring for out of government,” Young said.

Young’s competition in the Democratic primary so far includes the seat’s former incumbent and two state legislators: former U.S. Rep. Yadira Caraveo — who lost her bid for a second term last year in one of the closest House races in the country — and state Reps. Manny Rutinel, D-Commerce City, and Shannon Bird, D-Westminster. An additional candidate, former Colorado Education Association President Amie Baca-Oehlert, is expected to announce her bid later this week.

Young said in an interview that Evans’ vote last month in favor of the GOP budget bill sealed his decision to run.

This is a critical moment,” Young said. “My sister — and I’ve spoken about her many times — is very disabled and really dependent for her life support on Medicaid funding. And when Gabe Evans takes a vote to gut Medicaid funding, that’s a moment that I’ve got to step up and make sure that people understand that’s devastating — and correct it.”

The massive Republican tax and spending package — officially dubbed the “One Big, Beautiful Bill,” in an homage to President Donald Trump’s nickname for the centerpiece of his legislative agenda — passed the House by a single vote along party lines and is under consideration in the Senate. The bill would extend tax cuts approved during Trump’s first term in the White House and add new ones while adding $350 billion spending defense, border security and deportations, and cutting nearly $1 trillion in cuts to Medicaid and food stamps over 10 years.

Evans and others insist the proposed Medicaid cuts will strengthen the program for those who need it by rooting out what he calls waste, fraud and abuse, but Democrats cite nonpartisan budget analysts who say the bill risks taking away health care from millions of Americans and threatening the existence of hospitals that rely on the program to stay afloat.

Young said Evans’ vote on the budget package is an example of their differences in approach to government.

“I’m really propelled based on the vote that Gabe Evans took to gut Medicaid, but it’s bigger than that,” Young said. “I’m dedicated to make a change in DC so that we can actually have government work for hard-working families.”

Pointing to his work as a legislator on the Joint Budget Committee and as state treasurer establishing a retirement savings program for Coloradans and a loan program for small businesses, Young said he has “a strong track record on kitchen table economic issues, and I think that’s what people are really wanting us to focus on.”

Added Young: “I’m fighting back on this effort to try to give tax breaks to billionaires at the expenses of people who are doing the work every day. This is how I live my life, and I will fight against people that just want tax breaks at the expense of hard-working families.”

A spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee jeered at Young’s announcement that he was joining “the already messy, expensive clown car of a Democrat primary.”

“Out of touch Democrat Dave Young is the latest far-left liberal to jump in the messy Democrat primary that’s already a sprint to the left,” NRCC regional press secretary Zach Bannon said in a release. “Whether it’s Young, Bird, Caraveo or Rutinel who escapes the wreckage, voters in Colorado will reject their extreme agenda.”

After working as a computer programmer for a defense contractor in the early 1970s, Young taught math, science, technology and health — while coaching football, wresting and track and sponsoring student council — at a public school in Greeley from 1975 to 1999. He later taught K-12 teachers as a professor at the University of Colorado at Denver from 2001 to 2011, following a brief stint working as an information architect for one of the largest web development companies in the world.

Young said he looks to his parents’ experience in World War II for motivation to embark on what he acknowledged will be a tough race.

“People have said to me, ‘Why are you doing this? This is a really difficult job. You know, you could just sit back.'” Young said. “But my parents’ generation, they fought, they sacrificed, and they fought against this kind of dictatorship that we see unfolding in the Trump administration. They’d be mortified if they saw this happening after all the sacrifices they made. So I’m motivated, because of their sacrifice, not to sit back.”

“People ask me, ‘What are you going to do to push back on this?'” Young continued. “And this is exactly what I’m going to do. I’m going to run, I’m going to win this seat from Gabe Evans, and I’m going to do positive work to restore the control of Congress, to create positive work for our government.”

Next year’s Colorado primary ballot won’t be finalized until next spring, with the primary election set for June 30, 2026.

Editor’s note: This story has been updated with a comment from a spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee.