Colorado Dem Manny Rutinel Flip Flops on Meat and Oil, Then Flips House Seat

Rutinel managed to win over swing district voters after distancing himself from his left-wing past

Colorado Democrat Manny Rutinel, a former anti-meat and anti-oil crusader who went great lengths to distance himself from his activist past, successfully unseated the Republican incumbent, Gabe Evans, in the state's competitive Eighth Congressional District.

Rutinel was up 15.4 points with 81 percent of the vote counted when the race was called shortly before 11 p.m. The race was expected to be one of the closest in the nation, though Rutinel ran away with it. Evans flipped the seat in 2024 by roughly 2,500 votes.

Rutinel's efforts to recast himself as a moderate appear to have paid off. The Democrat spent years condemning the ranching and oil industries, attacks that continued until just months before launching his congressional bid, and pushed left-wing legislation while serving in the state legislature.

In October 2024, Rutinel spoke at a convention hosted by the Animal Legal Defense Fund, a group that aims to give animals equal rights as humans and once filed a negligence lawsuit on behalf of an American quarter horse. He told the audience his "whole job" working for the far-left environmental group Earthjustice "was to take on large meat corporations and sue them for all they're worth."

He also coauthored an article advocating for a "farm transition climate policy" through which meat producers would be paid to farm plants rather than raise livestock due to "animal agriculture's climate impact."

While vying to represent the eighth district, where ranches and other animal-based agriculture generated roughly $1.2 billion in 2022, Rutinel began describing himself as a "friend" to ranchers and said he hasn't "been a vegan for several years."

That wasn't the only time Rutinel rewrote the past. Between 2013 and 2014, the Yale Law School graduate published blog posts with headlines like "What Would Jesus Do? Socialism" and "Why a More Socialistic Society Is Superior." When the Washington Free Beacon exposed the blog, a campaign spokesman said, "Manny is not a vegan or a socialist."

Evans flipped the eighth district in 2024, making him the first Republican to win the seat after it was drawn in 2021. The former police officer and Army helicopter pilot regularly denounced Rutinel's left-wing résumé and touted his own solidly Republican voting record, such as backing tax cuts and stricter Medicaid work requirements included in President Donald Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill.