Four candidates run for GOP nomination in Colorado’s new 8th Congressional District


Four candidates are running in the Republican primary for Colorado’s 8th Congressional District on June 28, 2022. The state gained an eighth congressional district following the 2020 census. Three officeholders and a veteran comprise the candidate field.

Tyler Allcorn is a former Green Beret. Allcorn refers to his experience as a Green Beret and emigrating from Canada when he was nine, naming national security and border security as priorities, along with reducing government spending.

Barbara Kirkmeyer began serving in the state Senate in 2021 and was on the Weld County Commission before that. Kirkmeyer said she passed “17 bills to promote economic and personal freedom and improve Coloradans’ safety and quality of life” in the state Senate and that she left Weld County as “Colorado’s only large, debt-free county.”

Jan Kulmann became mayor of Thornton in 2019 after serving on the city council. Kulmann emphasizes her background as an engineer and as a former member of the Stargate Charter School Governance Board, saying she supports “an all-of-the-above energy policy” and school choice.

Lori Saine began serving on the Weld County Commission in 2021 and previously served in the state House, including as minority caucus chair. Saine said she “took on radical left-wing environmental extremists and defended our oil and gas jobs, our water rights and our Colorado way of life.”

Allcorn, Kirkmeyer, and Kulmann qualified for the primary ballot via signatures. Saine qualified through an assembly vote. She received 73% of delegates’ votes at the district assembly, where a candidate needed at least 30% to advance.

As of June 2022, three race forecasters rate the general election as a Toss-up.

Allcorn, Kirkmeyer, and Kulmann completed Ballotpedia’s Candidate Connection survey. Click the link below to read their responses.

Along with Colorado’s 8th, six other new U.S. House districts were created as a result of apportionment after the 2020 census.

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