EXCLUSIVE: Dem Who Got Arrested Protesting Fossil Fuels Spent Thousands On Rideshares
Democratic Colorado state Rep. Manny Rutinel has built his political profile around reducing carbon emissions, even getting arrested during a fossil-fuel protest. But his congressional campaign spent nearly $4,000 on Uber and Lyft rides, according to Federal Election Commission (FEC) records reviewed by the Daily Caller.
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Rutinel’s campaign made 127 payments totaling $3,886.19 to Uber and Lyft between May 2025 and June 2026, according to the FEC records.
Rutinel is running against Republican Rep. Gabe Evans in Colorado’s 8th Congressional District.
Just two years ago, Rutinel urged people attending Climate Con in Denver to take public transportation or carpool with other attendees to reduce their carbon footprints.
Both Uber and Lyft offer electric-vehicle options, though the FEC filings do not specify what types of vehicles Rutinel’s campaign used.
Rutinel was arrested in 2019 for storming the field at the Yale-Harvard football game to demand an end to fossil-fuel use.
Rutinel and his fellow protesters shouted “Hey hey, ho ho, fossil fuels have got to go,” according to the Washington Free Beacon. The protest delayed the game for nearly an hour.
Rutinel also supported legislation in 2022 that would have required Colorado to reduce emissions from oil production by 60 percent by 2030.
He founded Climate Refarm, an organization whose mission is “to help institutions transition to plant-based food systems while reducing greenhouse gas emissions through science-backed carbon credit solutions.”
Rutinel testified before the Colorado legislature in 2021 that “the globe must dramatically shift away from animal products and towards fruits, vegetables, legumes, whole grains and nuts” to combat climate change.
The district Rutinel hopes to represent, however, includes some of Colorado’s most productive oil and agricultural regions.
Colorado’s 8th Congressional District includes Weld County, which accounts for nearly 83 percent of Colorado’s crude-oil production and close to four percent of total U.S. production.
Weld County is also one of the country’s top ten agricultural producers, according to Upstate Colorado. It is Colorado’s leading producer of dairy and beef cattle and contains more than 4,000 farms spread across 2.5 million acres, roughly 75 percent of which are devoted to farming and livestock.
The district also includes most of Greeley, home to the headquarters of JBS USA, a subsidiary of JBS Foods, the world’s largest meat-processing company. JBS USA says its products provide more than 280 million meals each day.
The Daily Caller reached out to Rutinel’s campaign for comment but did not receive a response in time for publication.
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