A statewide Republican group released a television ad Wednesday attacking U.S. Rep. Yadira Caraveo, blaming the Thornton Democrat for problems related to the recent influx of immigrants to Colorado.

The Congressional Leadership Fund, a super PAC linked to House Republican leadership, says in the 30-second spot that after promising not to play “partisan games,” Caraveo has regularly voted with her Democratic colleagues since arriving in Washington, including against Republican border legislation last year.

“Congresswoman Caraveo said she would make things right,” says the ad’s spokesperson, “but she’s only making things worse.”

Caraveo, a pediatrician and former state representative, is seeking a second term in the 8th Congressional District, which stretches from the suburbs north of Denver to Greeley. She faces a challenger from state Rep. Gabe Evans (R-Fort Lupton) in a race that both major parties see as crucial to deciding who will lead the House in the next Congress.

A spokeswoman for Caraveo’s campaign criticized the ad as an attempt to mislead voters by distorting the incumbent’s approach to border security and immigration reform, including Caraveo’s support for a comprehensive, bipartisan bill that Republicans seized on to score political points.

The ad, which will air on cable, broadcast and digital platforms, is part of $5.25 million in ad spending the Republican committee has booked for the Denver market this summer. Last week, CLF increased its ad spending in several counties, adding $150,000 to the funds earmarked for the attack on Caraveo, among other things.

If you add up the spending commitments of both parties, up to $13 million in outside money could flow across the district’s screens in the next two months.

CLF’s Democratic counterpart, House Majority PAC, had aired a commercial a day earlier that slammed Evans for his support of an abortion ban. The commercial featured a local gynecologist calling the Republican “too extreme for Colorado.”

The ad targeting Caraveo links Democrats’ 2023 vote against HR 2 to overwhelmed hospitals, overwhelmed law enforcement, overcrowded schools and the fentanyl crisis.

The bill passed narrowly along party lines in the House of Representatives, with two Republicans joining each Democrat in opposition, and fizzled out in the Senate.

“The Democrats’ radical left agenda has created an illegal immigration crisis, allowed crime to run rampant and made everyday life unaffordable. And Democrats not only refuse to take responsibility, they want even more power,” said Courtney Parella, CLF communications director, in a statement announcing the group’s first wave of ads that will reach Democrats in nearly a dozen swing seats across the country.

Mary Alice Blackstock, Caraveo’s campaign manager, predicted the attacks would be ineffective.

“Colorado voters are too smart to be fooled by extremist Gabe Evans and his allies who are working overtime to distort Congresswoman Caraveo’s bipartisan record on border security and immigration reform,” Blackstock said in an emailed statement.

“To be clear, it was Republicans who killed the most comprehensive bipartisan border security and immigration reform package of the last decade for purely political reasons,” Blackstock said.

“While Gabe Evans in Washington would only rubber-stamp the do-nothing agenda of extreme Republicans, Congresswoman Caraveo remains willing to work across party lines to secure the border, stop the flow of fentanyl and illegal drugs, and fix our broken immigration system.”

Earlier this year, Republicans failed to thwart a bipartisan immigration bill in the Senate at the urging of former President Donald Trump. Trump was criticized by some Republican lawmakers for his role in the deal’s collapse.

“The border is a very important issue for Donald Trump,” Utah Republican Senator Mitt Romney said in January. “And the fact that he’s telling Republican senators and congressmen that he doesn’t want us to solve the border problem – because he wants to blame Biden for it – is really appalling.”

Caraveo’s campaign team pointed to a bipartisan package of immigration legislation that the Democrat introduced and carried this spring.

“This comprehensive plan would provide funding to needy interior cities like Denver, ease the financial burden on local governments and stem the flow of illegal drugs into the United States,” Caraveo said in a statement. “It would also provide much-needed resources to law enforcement both at the border and here in Colorado.”

Parella, the Republican group’s spokeswoman, said the new ads demonstrate Democrats’ failure to achieve their goals.

“This November, voters face a clear choice: either they restore sanity and strengthen the economy, or they put even more pressure on Democrats in Washington and their unrealistic priorities,” she said.

Mail-in ballots will be mailed to most Colorado voters in just over four weeks and must be returned to their county clerk’s office by 7 p.m. on November 5.