More than $300,000 has been spent by independent expenditure committees on the House District 26 election between Democrat incumbent Meghan Lukens and Republican Challenger Nathan Butler, according to campaign finance reports.

The vast majority of the money, including $170,000 from Colorado Way Forward, has gone to support Lukens in the contest with a mailer strategy split between highlighting her track record as a state lawmaker while also taking aim at Butler.

Some mailers funded by outside groups in support of Lukens highlight the Republican candidate’s stance on abortion, others point to his presence at the January 6 riot in Washington D.C. in 2021.

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In one mailer, Butler appears wearing a red oversized “Make America Great Again” hat with the words, “More Maga Than Man” written below his image.

Lukens said Tuesday that it is illegal for her to coordinate with outside spending groups and had no influence over the campaign materials, but she did not condone the campaign tactics for being too negative or unfair to Butler.

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“My opponent has said that he — he said on social media, he said it at debates and forums, he said it in The Steamboat Pilot — that he wants to regulate access to abortion,” said Lukens.

“He said on social media, at debates and forums and in The Steamboat Pilot that he went to the Jan. 6 insurrection in Washington, D.C., so these are facts,” she added. “I think the voters need to know what the facts are.”

Butler told the newspaper Tuesday the campaign tactic targeting him was part comical “because they are so inaccurate” but that they also made him angry, “not on my own behalf, but on behalf of the voters that have to be given this garbage and try to sift through what is factual and what is not.”

Ticking off examples of what he described as misleading political messaging, Butler said that he traveled to Washington, D.C. in January 2021 to attend a Jan. 5 Prayer for America event at the capitol and returned to the capitol the following day.

“I am disabled so I can’t just go to a place, do an event and fly back immediately I happened to be there on (January) 6^th and I went on down because I have a background in counterintelligence, I have a background in reading people and seeing what is going on,” said Butler, who is a disabled veteran of the U.S. Army.

“I treated it as being, not quote a on the ground reporter but I wanted to see for myself so I could tell everyone what happened,” he added. “I didn’t see anything so it’s like, okay?”

He added that political messaging suggesting he would “push for an abortion ban,” was untrue. Butler has said he will not pursue any abortion regulations but does support closing what he calls “an at-birth loophole” in state law.

For those mailers suggesting he wants, “to roll back background checks — that is a federal thing,” said Butler.

Butler also noted that he has said “multiple times” that he does not believe former President Donald Trump won the 2020 election.

“Joe Biden won the 2020 election,” Butler said again Tuesday.

The Republican said he did not believe the outside groups operating on behalf of Lukens had a place in state politics and that if an outside group had taken the same approach in targeting his opponent, he would be “livid.”

“I would publicly be condemning it and if they had donated to me, I would probably consider giving the money back because there is really no room for it in politics,” said Butler. “I feel like as candidates we have an obligation, although we can’t control what they do, we can still come out and condemn it.”