{"id":30916,"date":"2023-10-30T17:55:05","date_gmt":"2023-10-30T23:55:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/for-boeberts-gop-rivals-its-a-race-to-the-middle\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T01:30:00","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T07:30:00","slug":"for-boeberts-gop-rivals-its-a-race-to-the-middle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/for-boeberts-gop-rivals-its-a-race-to-the-middle\/","title":{"rendered":"For Boebert\u2019s GOP rivals, it\u2019s a race to the middle"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Grand
Grand Junction lawyer Jeff Hurd, who is running against Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., in Colorado\u2019s 3rd Congressional District, talks with Allan Thayer, as his daughter Gabriella Hurd, 12, listens Saturday at the Montezuma County Lincoln Day Dinner at the Ute Mountain Casino Hotel in Towaoc. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>Jerry McBride<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

In 2020, it was Rep. Lauren Boebert\u2019s firebrand version of Republican politics that helped cement her victory in Colorado\u2019s 3rd Congressional District. Now, ahead of the 2024 election, her GOP opponents are banking on it becoming her biggest liability.<\/p>\n

Vying for a third term, Boebert became a national figure almost instantly after announcing her primary challenge to longtime district Rep. Scott Tipton in 2020. Since then, some of her actions in Washington have cast her into the glare of the spotlight of the TV news cycle, whether that\u2019s getting into shouting matches with fellow lawmakers<\/a> on the House floor, interrupting<\/a> President Joe Biden\u2019s State of the Union, helping to bring down former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) or getting kicked out of a public theater in Denver for inappropriate behavior with a male companion.<\/p>\n

But as Democrats salivate at the chance to flip the seat after a remarkably narrow loss in the 2022 election, it\u2019s Boebert\u2019s Republican primary challengers that she has to worry about first. And both are trying to win over GOP voters by promising a more low-key, approach to legislating.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere used to be that saying all politics is local. Now, it feels like all politics is what\u2019s happening in Washington, D.C. I\u2019d like to move that discussion back here,\u201d Jeff Hurd, an attorney from Grand Junction, told The Journal<\/em> on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Hurd, who has been endorsed by former Republican Colorado Gov. Bill Owens, along with several regional GOP county commissioners and other state officials, has already been branded by rivals as the \u201cestablishment\u201d Republican candidate.<\/p>\n

While in other races such a moniker would be a death knell in the campaign, Hurd is counting on it propelling him to victory.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe brand of Republican that I\u2019d like to be is one that\u2019s principled, but also pragmatic,\u201d he said. But, \u201cif I\u2019m going to win this race, I need to appeal not just to those who agree with me already and those who are in the base.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Russ
Russ Andrews, the financial adviser from the Roaring Fork Valley who is running against Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., spoke during the Montezuma County Lincoln Day Dinner at the Ute Mountain Casino Hotel on Saturday. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>Jerry McBride<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>
\u2018There\u2019s a real Democratic pickup opportunity\u2019<\/div>\n

Last cycle, Boebert won the district by fewer than 600 votes, a far cry from her winning 26,000-vote margin in 2020.<\/p>\n

Since then, Democrats have poured millions of dollars into likely Democratic candidate Adam Frisch\u2019s campaign in the hopes they can flip the seat in 2024 \u2013 and potentially win back the House of Representatives along the way. Last quarter, Frisch, an Aspen resident, outraised all the district\u2019s three GOP candidates combined.<\/p>\n

Now, there\u2019s worry that Boebert\u2019s actions has made her unelectable in a critical district that could define the future of both the Colorado and national Republican Party.<\/p>\n

\u201cFolks are seeing that there\u2019s a real Democratic pickup opportunity. And they recognize the need to have a strong Republican who will present the strongest challenge to what will be a very-well funded Democratic campaign,\u201d said Hurd. \u201cWe need to get voters that don\u2019t agree with us on 100% of the issues voting Republican.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Russ Andrews, a financial adviser from the Roaring Fork Valley who is also vying for the GOP nomination in the district, is pitching himself as the happy medium between the establishment and the far right options of the Republican Party.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m going to be my own person. I\u2019m not going to join the Freedom Caucus,\u201d he told The Journal<\/em>. \u201cThat\u2019s not the reason I\u2019m going. I don\u2019t need a teen celebrity status.\u201d<\/p>\n

A commitment to bipartisanship<\/div>\n

Neither Hurd nor Andrews has shied away from traditional Republican values. For example, both expressed strong support for the Second Amendment. But they also eschew typical hard-line conservative stances on other hot-button issues, like abortion.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe in the sanctity of life. But I do believe that abortion should be safe, legal and extremely rare,\u201d said Andrews.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, Hurd and Andrews, who has participated in a weekly conservative radio program for the past 14 years, are framing their campaigns around a commitment to bipartisan work that directly benefits the district.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s my litmus test: If it doesn\u2019t help the Western Slope, it\u2019s not getting my vote,\u201d said Andrews. But \u201cif you\u2019re going to represent 760,000 people, you have to meet in the middle.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Boebert appears to be charging ahead with what propelled her to victory in the first place.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re gonna get to work. We\u2019re gonna put our hands on things, connect with people, and make sure that we don\u2019t lose anything else in this state,\u201d she told attendees at a Saturday dinner<\/a> held by the Montezuma County Republican Central Committee. \u201cThis is our movement, and no one is taking it away from us.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

and Russ Andrews pitch themselves as moderate options<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26897,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[981,266,28,308,265,144,367,1879],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-30916","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-colorado-3rd-congressional-district","tag-election","tag-headlines","tag-local-elections","tag-politics","tag-towaoc","tag-u-s-rep-lauren-boebert","tag-ute-mountain-casino"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30916","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=30916"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30916\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":81251,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30916\/revisions\/81251"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26897"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30916"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30916"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30916"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=30916"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}