In U.S. Rep. Gabe Evans’ (R-CO) congressional district, high demand has forced the Weld County Food Bank to cut back on how much food it gives to families in need. On top of that, the Republicans’ Big Beautiful Bill is sending more people to food banks — with even more expected to arrive at the doors of the Weld facility in the coming year.
Against that backdrop, Democrats are driving a mobile billboard around Evans’ congressional district today — where the Weld County Food Bank is located — depicting a fork and plate with the sentence, “GABE EVANS IS TAKING FOOD OFF YOUR PLATE.”
The mobile billboard, launched by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), aims to focus voters’ attention on cuts to federal food assistance that have “led to nearly 28,000 Coloradans losing critical nutrition assistance as rising grocery costs continue to be a driving source of the affordability challenges facing everyday Americans,” according to a DCCC news release.
Republicans cut the food aid funding via their Big Beautiful Bill, passed last year, that — as the billboard also states — sliced $187 billion from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), also called food stamps. The program provides food to low-income earners.
“Coloradans are struggling to keep up with sky-high grocery costs because of Gabe Evans’ broken promises, and the DCCC is holding him accountable for his betrayal,” said DCCC spokesperson Lindsay Reilly. “Instead of helping folks back home feed their families, Evans decided to make massive cuts to nutrition assistance, taking food off the table of millions of hardworking families – just so they could pay for tax breaks for his billionaire backers.”
The National Republican Congressional Campaign Committee didn’t return an email seeking comment, nor did Evans’ congressional office.
But Evans said at a news conference in early August that the Big Beautiful Bill will “cut out fraud, waste and abuse” from SNAP, a claim that’s proving not to be true as preliminary effects of the bill are seen around the country. These impacts, caused by the bill’s work and reporting requirements, are greater than congressional analysts predicted.
At the news conference, Evans refused to say how many people would lose SNAP benefits in his district due to the Big Beautiful Bill.
Evans, who represents a swing district widely considered key in the battle to control the U.S. House after next year’s midterm elections, has stood behind his vote for the Big Beautiful Bill.
In fact, speaking on right-wing radio, Evans took “100%” credit for the bill’s passage because, he said, he was “100%” of the majority that passed the Big Beautiful Bill, the first version of which passed by a single vote in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Evans faces Democrat Manny Rutinel in his congressional race later this year.
