Republican Kirkmeyer concedes to Democrat Caraveo in 8th District race

Republican Barbara Kirkmeyer on Wednesday evening conceded to Democrat Yadira Caraveo in the 8th Congressional District race, one of Colorado’s most competitive midterm contests.

Why it matters: It marks the first time the state is expected to send a Latina to Congress and suggests her candidacy galvanized Latino voters in the district.

Driving the news: Caraveo led Kirkmeyer by 48.5% to 47.7% as of 6pm on Wednesday.

What to know: The new 8th District extends from the suburbs of Thornton and Northglenn through Greeley in Weld County. Nearly 40% of the district’s population is Latino.

• While Colorado’s independent redistricting commission drew the district to be competitive, it favored Republicans.
• National observers, including the Cook Political Report and FiveThirtyEight, had the race leaning Republican — with the latter giving Caraveo a 9% chance of winning.
• Caraveo was positioned to win by securing a majority of votes in Adams County, home to the largest bloc of voters in the district.

Details: Caraveo, a state lawmaker and pediatrician, said her campaign knocked on nearly 300,000 doors in the district, demonstrating she was part of the community she hoped to represent.

• Her campaign spread a message focusing on standing up for working families by lowering drug prescription drugs, taxes and making health care more accessible.

Zoom in: Caraveo's parents are from a town called Nicolás Bravo in Chihuahua, Mexico, and emigrated to the United States in the 1970s. She is bilingual.

• She used her backstory to appeal to blue-collar workers in this working-class district, sharing how her father put her and her siblings through college on a construction worker's salary.

The other side: Kirkmeyer, a state senator and former Weld County commissioner, was able to win a plurality of votes in Weld and Larimer counties, though those areas had fewer voters than Adams County.

• "While this is not the outcome we hoped for, I am proud of our team and our campaign," Kirkmeyer wrote on Twitter.