{"id":24975,"date":"2024-11-06T23:40:16","date_gmt":"2024-11-07T06:40:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/republican-jeff-hurd-beats-democrat-adam-frisch-in-cd3-race\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T23:05:43","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T05:05:43","slug":"republican-jeff-hurd-beats-democrat-adam-frisch-in-cd3-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/republican-jeff-hurd-beats-democrat-adam-frisch-in-cd3-race\/","title":{"rendered":"Republican Jeff Hurd beats Democrat Adam Frisch in CD3 race"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Jeff
Jeff Hurd shakes hands with U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert as Hurd's daughter, Gabriella Hurd, looks on Oct. 28, 2023, in Towaoc. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald file)<\/span>dur-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Republican Jeff Hurd defeated Democrat Adam Frisch in Colorado\u2019s sprawling 3rd Congressional District, reinforcing its GOP tilt and returning mild-mannered representation to the district after the departure of Lauren Boebert.<\/p>\n

The race was too close to call on election night, but by Wednesday morning it was clear Hurd would win.<\/p>\n

Frisch, a former Aspen city councilman, conceded to Hurd, a Grand Junction attorney at about 3:30 p.m. Wednesday. At the time, Hurd had 50% of the vote to Frisch\u2019s 47%.<\/p>\n

\"Frisch\"
Frisch<\/span>dur-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cWhile we were not victorious, I believe that this campaign was part of an important movement that seeks to turn the political temperature down and start focusing on the real challenges that face communities like the ones in CD3,\u201d Frisch said in a written statement. \u201cEveryday people are sick of partisan politics as usual, and the vast majority of people view themselves first and foremost as Coloradans \u2013 not Republicans or Democrats \u2013 who want both parties to stop the petty arguments and political grandstanding and start working together to help make everyone\u2019s lives better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hurd\u2019s victory in the 3rd District, which spans the Western Slope into Pueblo and southeastern Colorado, is good news for Republicans as they look to keep their majority in the House, which would give the GOP total control of the federal government.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the loss is Frisch\u2019s second straight failure in the 3rd District, where the former Aspen city councilman nearly unseated Republican U.S. Lauren Boebert in 2022. Boebert, who currently represents the 3rd District, switched to the 4th Congressional District on the other side of the state to seek reelection this year \u2013 and won. Hurd entered the race before her move, hoping to dislodge her in the primary.<\/p>\n

Frisch raised millions of dollars on the back of Boebert\u2019s unpopularity and used his Mount Sopris-size campaign war chest this election cycle to dominate the airwaves heading into Election Day. Hurd raised a fraction of the money Frisch hauled in.<\/p>\n

But, ultimately, the district\u2019s Republican tilt couldn\u2019t be overcome.<\/p>\n

During Colorado\u2019s 2021 redistricting process, the 3rd District was estimated to lean 9 percentage points in the GOP\u2019s favor. Boebert erased that advantage with her unpopularity. But Hurd was able to tap into that tilt by running as an old-school Republican.<\/p>\n

\u201cA reporter once said that I\u2019m as exciting as a bread sandwich,\u201d Hurd said during a debate with Frisch. \u201cThat\u2019s OK. Rural Colorado doesn\u2019t need excitement.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 3rd District has not elected a Democrat to Congress in 2008, the last time U.S. Rep. John Salazar won. Salazar was unseated in 2010.<\/p>\n

Hurd and Frisch share many of the same policy views. The main difference between the candidates is their stance on abortion, with Frisch opposing any government restrictions on the procedure and Hurd saying there should be some limitations, though not imposed by the federal government.<\/p>\n

Democrats tried to improve Frisch\u2019s chances by sending out a mailer to voters in the 3rd District that appeared aimed at persuading them to back the Libertarian candidate in the race in order to siphon support from Hurd. The mail piece from the Colorado Democratic Party included a picture of James Wiley and labeled the Libertarian from Pueblo \u201cthe strongest Trump supporter in the race.\u201d It also included a picture of Hurd and called him \u201ca corporate lawyer who won\u2019t take a position on immigration or Trump.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wiley had 2.5% of the vote when Frisch conceded.<\/p>\n

Super PACs spent $1.1 million supporting Hurd and $627,000 supporting Frisch.<\/p>\n

The Congressional Leadership Fund, a Republican super PAC tied to House Speaker Mike Johnson, poured more than $300,000 into the race in the final weeks of the campaign to help Hurd. It was a sign that the race was tightening. Americans for Prosperity Action spent nearly $740,000 on the general election after helping Hurd win a six-way Republican primary in June.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Project 218 PAC, a Democratic group funded by a list of wealthy donors, spent more than $450,000 to help Frisch in the lead up to Election Day, much of it on TV advertising.<\/p>\n

At his campaign watch party in Grand Junction on Tuesday, Hurd promised to be \u201cserious, hardworking, prepared and accessible to the media.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI try to say I want to make local headlines, not national headlines,\u201d he said of how he would operate differently than Boebert.<\/p>\n

Colorado Sun correspondents Sandra Fish and Nancy Lofholm contributed to this report. Lofholm contributed reporting from Grand Junction<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The Colorado Sun is a reader-supported, nonpartisan news organization dedicated to covering Colorado issues. To learn more, go to coloradosun.com<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

difference between the candidates is their stance on abortion<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24976,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[981,233,266,28,308,826,774,1722,367],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-24975","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-colorado-3rd-congressional-district","tag-coloradosun-com","tag-election","tag-headlines","tag-local-elections","tag-political-campaigns","tag-political-candidates","tag-regional-elections","tag-u-s-rep-lauren-boebert"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24975","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24975"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24975\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78751,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24975\/revisions\/78751"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24976"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24975"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24975"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24975"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=24975"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}