Paid for by Stephen Varela For Colorado
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MEET GABE
NAVY VETERAN.
PROBLEM SOLVER.
COMMUNITY LEADER.
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Gabe Evans spent twelve years serving his country in the US Army and Colorado Army National Guard as a UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter pilot and company commander. He completed a combat deployment to the Middle East and responded to wildfires and floods throughout Colorado.
Gabe also spent over ten years as an Arvada police officer, where he witnessed, first-hand, the consequences of Colorado Democrats’ soft-on-crime policies.
Gabe and his wife own and operate a family farm in southern Weld County, and homeschool their two children, Bruce and Sammy. In his free time, Gabe teaches a concealed carry class in CO-08.
The grandson of Mexican immigrants, Gabe is a Colorado native who truly understands the beauty and responsibility of the American Dream. Preserving that sacred ideal for his community and children is why he served in the military, raised his hand for law enforcement, and ran for the Colorado State House in 2022. Now, Gabe’s looking for his next mission to make Colorado the best place to live and raise a family.
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MY PLATFORM
Ensuring parents will have a proper say in the discussion for their children’s future.
Protecting our local police departments from radical city councilors who want them axed.
Keeping our military strong and our veterans supported with all the benefits they need.
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Use of Stephen Varela’s military rank, job titles, and photographs in uniform does not imply endorsement by the Department of the Army or the Department of Defense.
STEPHEN'S FREEDOM FIGHTER AGENDA
Close the Border
Joe Biden has forfeited control of the southern border to the cartels and human drug traffickers. The result? Unprecedented levels of illegal immigrants and poisonous fentanyl flowing into America. In December alone, border encounters exceeded 300,000, a record. Tens of thousands of Americans are dying from fentanyl overdoses, many of whom – kids included -- ingested the poison unknowingly. Meanwhile, sanctuary cities like Denver are making massive cuts to city services in order to pay for the self-induced migrant crisis.
We must restore order at the border and protect America’s sovereignty. I support building more wall, reforming asylum laws to make it clear who does and does not qualify, reinstating Trump’s successful “remain in Mexico” policy, requiring employers to verify legal status before hiring employees (e-verify), punishing so-called “sanctuary” cities and states with funding cuts, and hiring more immigration judges and border agents. We must change the rules of engagement at the southern border!
Cut the Cost of Living
Inflation results from too much money chasing too few goods and services. Couple the Biden Administration’s reckless spending with punitive regulations on jobs producers (particularly energy jobs) that squeeze supplies and the result is predictable: inflation at levels our nation has not witnessed in decades, jeopardizing Americans’ economic freedom and independence.
I support a Balanced Budget Amendment to end the unconscionable deficits and debt we are imposing on future generations, making the Trump tax cuts permanent, opposing tax hikes (I took Americans for Tax Reform’s Taxpayer Protection Pledge) and ending punitive regulations on employers and jobs producers. We must end the Biden Administration’s anti-energy policies.
Likewise, too many Americans are struggling under the cost of soaring health care and insurance costs. It’s time to rethink our health care system. Let’s get government and insurers out of the middle of the doctor-patient relationship and put patients and consumers in charge of their health care decision-making through more price transparency. Let people take their health care plan from one job to the next and let employers and government support flow directly to the consumer.
Protect Our Jobs
The Biden Administration recently announced a ban on new liquified natural gas exports from America. It’s mind-boggling. America has the ability to export cheap, clean energy to her allies. Now, the rest of the world will turn to Russia, Iran and other overseas sources for their energy. Biden is effectively subsidizing Iran’s proxy war on Israel and Russia’s war against Ukraine!
This of course is just the latest example of Biden’s anti-American jobs agenda. Drilling bans, anti-agriculture policies, and punitive regulations on small businesses are hurting western and southern Colorado.
In Congress, I will be a hero for our small businesses and energy and agriculture producers. I’ll work to restart the Keystone Pipeline, end drilling bans, defend farmers’ property rights, and end punitive “Green New Deal” policies. I’ll also work to stop corporate welfare. The government should not be in the business of picking winners and losers in the marketplace. Let the market decide. Instead of a top-down economy dictated by Washington, D.C., let the economy grow from the bottom-up.
Support Education Freedom
As the State Board of Education representative from the Third Congressional District and a former charter school board president, I strongly back more education freedom. I believe education freedom is the civil rights issue of our day. Underprivileged kids should not be trapped in underperforming schools.
In Congress, I will work to end or fundamentally reform the U.S. Department of Education. It does nothing to contribute to education success, achievement, or freedom. The political reality is eliminating the department will be challenging. Short of that, I will work to convert the department into an education freedom and choice machine. Fund charter schools and choice programs. Give kids and young adults more technical and vocational opportunities. Defund higher education institutions who refuse to end race-based and woke education agendas.
Balance the Budget
Federal debt now exceeds $34.25 trillion. That’s more than $103,000 for every man, woman, and child in America! Make no mistake: there will be a day of reckoning for this moral atrocity.
Fiscal freedom and responsibility are important. Our debt and deficits are the greatest threats to America’s long-term prosperity. Both parties are guilty of reckless spending and irresponsible budgeting, and I’m willing to challenge the leadership of my own party, when necessary, to reduce the size, scope, and cost of government. I support a Balanced Budget Amendment to reduce and eventually eliminate the deficits and debt. Let’s reform entitlements to put them on a fiscally sound and responsible course. And we must end the corrupting influence of earmarks, in which members of Congress trade pet projects in order to pass massive spending bills.
Restore American Leadership
We see what a failure of leadership and policies of appeasement look like: it’s the Joe Biden foreign policy. Our American military has atrophied. We have fewer ships, planes and soldiers defending America. Joe Biden proposes real cuts to the military year after year. And Joe Biden’s policies of appeasement – whether to Iran in the Middle East or the Taliban in Afghanistan – have had disastrous consequences, inviting conflict and war.
The world responds to the threat of American action and intervention. Under Donald Trump, the world feared his leadership. Our NATO allies increased their defense budgets under pressure from America. The Abraham Accords brought about peace in the Middle East. China and Russia bridled their expansionist ambitions.
As a former combat veteran and a long-time veterans advocate, I strongly support our military and our veterans. The best way to prevent conflict and war is through a strong military and American leadership. I’ll work to rebuild our military, reimpose strong sanctions on Iran, and take a tough stance against our adversaries in China and Russia.
Stop the Woke Agenda
The woke agenda is corrupting our culture: transitioning kids, critical race theory, judging the value of people based on their skin color or what they look like, treating criminals like victims and cops as oppressors, censoring dissenting thought, a war on traditional religion. The list grows by the day.
Anti-Americanism is at the core of the woke agenda. And, let’s face it, the woke culture has had success. As a veteran who fought for our freedoms overseas, it kills me when I see polls showing that so many young people no longer say they are proud to call themselves Americans.
I will work to stop the woke agenda, whenever it is appropriate for the federal government to be involved. Let’s ban transitioning our kids, stop funding institutions of higher education or giving preferential regulatory treatment to technology companies that do not embrace free speech and thought, stop the war on religion, defend our law enforcement, and put dangerous criminals behind bars.
Protect our Rural Values
From unleashing wolves into our communities to trying move our water from southern and western Colorado to the Front Range, liberal politicians at the state and federal levels are waging war on our rural interests. I will stand up for our farmers and ranchers, our energy workers, and our rural heritage, values, and interests in Congress.
Defend the Second Amendment
The Second Amendment recognizes a fundamental right of Americans to defend themselves. I fully embrace the Second Amendment and will defend it against Democrat attempts to limit it – for example, the so-called “assault weapons ban”, ammunition limits, and so-called “red flag” laws that seek to take away citizens’ gun rights without due process. I also support Constitutional Carry legislation to facilitate reciprocity for carrying concealed weapons.
Protect the Unborn
I am 100% pro-life. In Congress I will work to build as much consensus around protecting the unborn as possible.
I support Donald Trump’s freedom agenda: fix the border mess, lower the cost of living, create more good American jobs, and stop and reverse the woke agenda.
My “Freedom Fighter” agenda consists of the following: