In an interview for an endorsement last year with a liberal political group, Democratic state Rep. Manny Rutinel — about six months into his campaign for Congress — said he supported banning fracking, canceling student debt and enacting a single-payer healthcare system.
“I think people want someone with a lot of energy, enthusiasm — that takes bold stances on policies,” Rutinel said during the July 2025 meeting with the nonprofit Working Families Party, a recording of which was posted online Thursday.
But less than a year later, he has reversed himself on all three points.
In late May, Rutinel said in an interview with The Colorado Sun for an 8th Congressional District voter guide that he opposes a ban on fracking and does not support canceling all student debt. He also backed a public health insurance option, but not Medicare for All, which is generally regarded as how single-payer healthcare would operate in the U.S. if it was adopted.
The revelation, days before ballots are mailed to voters, are part of what one former vocal Rutinel supporter says are a series of much larger major policy reversals for the Commerce City lawmaker since he was appointed to the legislature four years ago.
“The Manny I knew in 2022 was worth fighting for,” Deep Singh Badesha, a liberal commentator and consultant who used to call Rutinel a friend, wrote in a Substack post that included the Working Families Party endorsement interview recording. “The candidate running in 2026 is someone I don’t recognize. He traveled the distance between those two people in a few years, on nearly every issue that matters.”
Singh Badhesha, who was a fiercely loyal supporter of Rutinel, said he is so upset with Rutinel’s change in positions that he has asked the candidate to return his campaign donations.
Rutinel’s campaign manager, Clay Volino, said Rutinel’s position on banning fracking changed because of the war in Iran. He did not explain the change on a single-payer healthcare system. Volino said Rutinel’s position on student debt cancellation has been consistent — he supports it for people who work in public service.
“With Trump’s unplanned forever war raising gas prices for working families like his, Manny knows an all of the above energy solution to help lower energy costs is more important than ever,” Volino said in a statement. “Manny will work with anyone in Congress who wants to make healthcare affordable for working families, whatever shape that takes, and he believes it should start with undoing Trump’s damage to Medicaid and Affordable Care Act funding. Manny has always supported the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program to cancel public servant debt.”
This isn’t the first time Rutinel’s past statements and activism have come under scrutiny during his congressional bid. Before announcing his run in the 8th District, Rutinel had a long history of of criticizing the production and consumption of meat and dairy products, saying “animal agriculture is a horrific, exploitive industry” and that “the globe must dramatically shift away from animal products and toward fruits, vegetables, legumes, whole grains and nuts.”
Responding to questions about those past statements, Rutinel says he thinks “Colorado ranchers and farmers are the envy of the world and we need to be supporting them every step of the way.”
The 8th District could be called Colorado’s agricultural capital. It spans from Denver’s northeast suburbs to Greeley and is home to some of the nation’s biggest meat and dairy producers.
Rutinel faces former state Rep. Shannon Bird of Westminster in the 8th District’s Democratic primary on June 30. The winner of that race will attempt to unseat Republican U.S. Rep. Gabe Evans of Fort Lupton in November in what’s expected to be one of the closest U.S. House races in the country.
Rutinel’s reversals also come as he and Bird are struggling to differentiate themselves in the high-stakes primary.
Despite drastically different voting records in the state legislature — Bird prides herself on a record of bipartisan pragmatism, while Rutinel voted opposite of her on state gun control, housing and drug policy — at a Colorado Sun debate last month, Rutinel and Bird agreed on virtually every issue.
But Singh Badhesha said the positions Rutinel took in his voter guide interview with The Sun, as well as during the debate, are much different than those he privately voiced.
On Israel, for instance, Singh Badhesha said Rutinel had previously called what Israel was doing in Gaza a “genocide.”
Rutinel told The Sun during the issue guide interview, however, that he would continue military funding for Israel, while promoting “stability and deescalation.”
“When Manny flipped on Israel, he told us exactly the kind of congressman he’ll be on everything,” Singh Badhesha wrote. “The fracking flip, the Medicare flip … all come from the same place.”
In a statement Thursday to The Sun, Rutinel said, “this is one of the most complex geopolitical situations in the world. I do not boil it down to one word descriptors.”
The Working Families Party did not endorse Rutinel in the 8th District Democratic primary. It backed a candidate who has since dropped out of the race.
County clerks across Colorado can begin mailing ballots to active, registered voters on Monday.
Watch The Colorado Sun debate between Rutinel and Bird below.
