Cooper Baldwin is Courier Colorado’s lead political correspondent. A CU Boulder graduate, he approaches reporting with the same two questions every time: who made the decision, and who pays for it?
Cooper Baldwin
Latest from Cooper Baldwin
-
Colorado’s final ballot: 8 more measures voters will decide Nov. 3
Out-of-state money is backing several of Colorado’s newest ballot measures. Here’s what all eight would do, and who’s behind them.
-
Coloradans are losing Medicaid. Here’s how Gabe Evans voted on health care
As thousands of Coloradans lose Medicaid under a law Rep. Gabe Evans backed, he also voted against restoring federal help that lowered marketplace insurance costs.
-
The Colorado Republicans who gave ICE $113.5 billion
Colorado’s four House Republicans voted to give ICE an unprecedented $113.5 billion, while blocking the very enforcement safeguards some of them promoted publicly.
-
Gabe Evans supports Trump’s war with Iran. Coloradans are paying the price
Rep. Gabe Evans said lower gas prices would come once the war with Iran wrapped up. Five months later, prices are still well above prewar levels, diesel has hit a record high, and the war hasn’t ended.
-
A Trump-tied group has spent $1.2 million attacking Rutinel. Who’s paying?
A brand-new super PAC tied to Trump’s political operation has flooded Colorado’s 8th District with attack ads against Manny Rutinel, and voters won’t learn who funded them until after ballots go out.
-
A court fight could erase Colorado’s only check on ICE’s warrantless arrests
A federal appeals court is weighing whether ICE has to prove someone is a flight risk before arresting them without a warrant — a question CO-8’s Gabe Evans and Manny Rutinel answer differently.
-
The real math behind CO-8’s Medicaid ad war
Two outside groups are spending big in CO-8 over the same 2025 law—one calling it the largest rural health investment in history, the other warning of a 195% premium spike. We checked both claims against the state’s own numbers and found two Greeley and Brighton hospitals—and hundreds of thousands of Coloradans—caught in the middle.
-
Rep. Gabe Evans promised striking workers solidarity. He took a check instead
Records show Rep. Gabe Evans took more than $20,000 from JBS and its lobbyists as his Greeley constituents struck the company’s meatpacking plant for three weeks — and said nothing.
-
The Colorado races that could shift power in Washington and Denver
Key congressional matchups and tight statehouse contests will determine party control on Capitol Hill and legislative supermajorities.
-
Where Colorado’s candidates for governor stand on the issues
Either Democrat Phil Weiser and Republican Victor Marx will replace term-limited Gov. Jared Polis. Here’s what each says he’d do — in plain language, checked against their records.
