Colorado’s new Congressional District map, approved by an independent commission, preserves the status quo of the seven original districts. It also creates an eighth district, just north of Denver, which is highly competitive at R+1 and is rated a Toss-up.
Yadira Caraveo was elected to the new CO-08 Congressional District in 2022. Prior to this election she served in the Colorado assembly. In Congress, Caraveo continues her commitment to lower health care costs, address the high cost of housing, combat climate change, protect a woman’s right to choose, and stop Republicans from taking away Americans’ right to vote. Caraveo is driven by the same values her parents taught her and her siblings — to work hard, always finish what you’ve started, and jump in to help without being asked.
HER BACKGROUND
Caraveo’s parents came to Colorado from a small town in Mexico, looking for a better life. They raised their four children with those values — on a construction worker’s pay in the Adams County home they still live in — doing whatever it took to put them on a path to success.
Caraveo had big dreams for herself as well, knowing from an early age she wanted to help people as a doctor. She attended public schools in Adams County, received a degree from Regis University, and continued on to medical school at the University of Colorado. She helped organize her fellow medical residents for better working conditions, becoming a union representative with SEIU.
Caraveo chose to be a pediatrician in Adams County, but with 65% of her patients’ families on Medicaid, she quickly understood that truly helping children required a lot more than what she was able to do as a doctor. Determined to break through the rhetoric and replace it with action, Caraveo became a state legislator and quickly gained a reputation for taking on tough fights and working with anyone to get things done.
In the legislature, Caraveo worked to pass historic legislation to force drug companies to lower the cost of prescriptions, drastically limit the toxic pollution that is endangering our kids’ health and our planet, expand funding for preschool, and ensure all Coloradans have access to paid family and sick leave and protect renters from eviction during the pandemic.
ON THE ISSUES
Yadira Caraveo supports abortion rights and helped codify the protections of Roe v Wade into Colorado law prior to the Supreme Court ruling. When the Dobbs decision was announced, Caraveo said, “Today is a devastating day for America. With the fall of Roe, millions of American women have lost access to their freedom to choose. As a pediatrician, I know firsthand that the government has no place in this private decision between a woman & her doctor.”
A pediatrician who is confronted daily with the fact that firearms are now the leading cause of death among children, Yadira Caraveo is steadfast in her belief that we must do more to protect our communities from senseless acts of violence. In the state legislature, Rep. Caraveo has supported the establishment of extreme risk protection order laws and plans to continue to support common-sense gun safety legislation in Congress.
Since entering the Colorado State Legislature in 2018, Dr. Yadira Caraveo has consistently supported climate action, clean energy, and environmental protections, earning a perfect 100 %lifetime score from Conservation Colorado. Even before she was elected, Caraveo was active in climate activism, being named a Champion of Change by President Obama for her work with the Union of Concerned Scientists enlisting doctors across the country to fight climate change.
