COLORADO, USA — Jeff Hurd will face lone Democratic challenger Adam Frisch for U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert's former seat in Colorado's 3rd Congressional District.
Grand Junction-based attorney Jeff Hurd. Hurd entered the race against Boebert in 2023, before the congresswoman switched districts. He has racked up several endorsements from notable Republicans in Colorado, from county commissioners to the state's most recent Republican governor. Hurd has not run for public office previously.
Boebert won the seat in 2022 by a slim margin – only 546 votes – after running a highly contested race against Democrat businessman Adam Frisch. It was the closest congressional race in the 2022 election cycle.
The 3rd Congressional District is Colorado’s largest: It covers the Western Slope and stretches east across the San Luis Valley, including Grand Junction, Montrose, Pueblo and Durango.
The latest results are below:
Results are called by The Associated Press.
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Colorado Board of Education member Stephen Varela was a primary contender. He was appointed to the board by a Republican vacancy committee in 2023, and his term ends this year.
Varela is a combat veteran who describes himself as a "battle-tested conservative," but before that he was a battle-tested Democrat. Varela has changed his voter affiliation 18 times since 2011. He won top line on the primary ballot from delegates at the 3rd Congressional District assembly in April.
Noted election denier and former state Rep. Ron Hanks was also in the Republican race. Hanks has a history of political controversy. In 2023, he pushed elections officials not to certify Colorado's election without offering any evidence of fraud.
Hanks was also present in Washington, D.C., on the day of the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. Hanks falsely claimed that antifa was responsible and suggested that a foreign government could intervene to prevent Joe Biden from becoming president. In the race for the 3rd District, Hanks won the endorsement of the Colorado Republican Party.
Three other Republican primary candidates were also new to politics. Durango-based businessman Lew Webb, former Navy contractor and financial advisor Russ Andrews, and Delta County business owner Curtis McCrackin round out the ballot.
As of May, the Colorado Secretary of State's voter registration records showed the 3rd District leans Republican, though most voters are unaffiliated: 29% of active voters in the district are registered as Republican, 22% Democrat, and 46.5% unaffiliated.
It's unclear whether Boebert's polarizing policies and personal life made the race more competitive in 2022, but the voting margin indicated that despite a Republican tilt, races in the district can be close.
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