As of September 30, 2025, Nine Colorado Democrats are running for Congress. Their campaigns have raised $11.5 million. The money comes overwhelmingly from outside Colorado—from Washington D.C., New York, and San Francisco. The candidates themselves are not homegrown Coloradans. They are Washington insiders whose donor bases reflect their careers, not their districts.
Eileen Laubacher is challenging Lauren Boebert in CD-4. She has raised $4.4 million. Boebert has raised $548,946. The eight-to-one fundraising advantage tells a story.
Laubacher is a retired Rear Admiral who spent 34 years in the Navy. She served on President Biden’s National Security Council as Senior Director for South Asia until October 2024. She claims Colorado roots—says her children were born here. She “returned to Colorado” in October 2024 and immediately launched her campaign.
Her donors reflect her career. Federal Election Commission records show 77.1% of her individual donations come from outside Colorado. Washington D.C. sent $24,045. New York sent $23,710. Houston sent $10,472. Los Angeles sent $10,285. Colorado’s Eastern Plains—the district she seeks to represent—is not her fundraising base.
Jessica Killin in CD-5 shows the same pattern. She served as chief of staff to Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff and worked as a USAA lobbyist. Her FEC filings show 91.4% of individual donations come from outside Colorado. Washington D.C. donors contributed $167,400. New York sent $119,500. San Francisco sent $38,000. Chevy Chase, Maryland sent $34,500. Bethesda, Maryland sent $33,498. Colorado Springs—her actual district—contributed $30,875. Only 65 Colorado residents have donated to her campaign. Only 25 live in her district.
Manny Rutinel in CD-8 receives 87.8% of his individual donations from out of state. His top donor cities are San Francisco ($94,325), Berkeley ($84,425), New York ($71,250), and Washington D.C. ($62,195). His Colorado base contributes $125,735—less than San Francisco alone.
Rutinel’s donor records reveal coordinated giving from artificial intelligence companies. Anthropic employees contributed $59,700. OpenAI employees contributed $28,500. Five Anthropic employees and three OpenAI employees each gave the $7,000 maximum. Three donors from a single Berkeley address—1917 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, home to Effective Altruism organizations—gave $27,600 combined.
Alex Kelloff in CD-3 gets 72.0% from out of state. Trisha Calvarese in CD-4 gets 54.5%. The pattern holds across challengers and incumbents alike.
Joe Neguse in CD-2 received $515,829 from Washington D.C.—his single largest donor city. Jason Crow in CD-6 received $72,111 from Washington D.C. Brittany Pettersen in CD-7 received $263,418 from Washington D.C. Diana DeGette in CD-1 received $153,892 from Washington D.C. and $119,800 from Cambridge, Massachusetts.
All nine campaigns process donations through ActBlue, the Democratic Party’s online fundraising platform. ActBlue handles between 17% and 49% of each campaign’s individual contributions, bundling small-dollar donations from across the country.
The combined numbers tell the story. Colorado’s nine Democratic congressional candidates raised $5.3 million from individual donors. Colorado residents contributed $1.4 million. Out-of-state donors contributed $3.9 million—74% of the total.
The candidates are Washington insiders. Their donors are Washington insiders. They seek to represent Colorado voters. The money says they answer to someone else.
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