{"id":37197,"date":"2022-11-18T18:53:12","date_gmt":"2022-11-19T01:53:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/local-dems-ok-with-adam-frischs-decision-to-concede-before-recount\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T08:36:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T08:36:10","slug":"local-dems-ok-with-adam-frischs-decision-to-concede-before-recount","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/local-dems-ok-with-adam-frischs-decision-to-concede-before-recount\/","title":{"rendered":"Local Dems OK with Adam Frisch\u2019s decision to concede before recount"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Adam
Adam Frisch, the Democratic candidate for the 3rd Congressional District, speaks to the election night party at Belly Up downtown Aspen on Election Day. (Kelsey Brunner\/Special to The Colorado Sun)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Durango-area Democrats said they are on board with Adam Frisch\u2019s decision to concede his race against incumbent U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert for Colorado\u2019s 3rd Congressional District even before a state-mandated recount begins.<\/p>\n

Frisch announced his concession in a virtual news conference Friday morning. Because Boebert leads Frisch by just over 500 votes, an automatic recount will likely be mandated by Colorado\u2019s Secretary of State in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n

\"Boebert\"
Boebert<\/span>du1-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Frisch\"
Frisch<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Frisch clarified in his concession speech that his team is \u201cnot asking for this recount,\u201d saying that it is one \u201cthat the citizens of Colorado mandate through our election system.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe believe in the integrity of elections in our great state of Colorado, and are supportive of this recount to ensure continued faith in the security of our elections,\u201d he said. \u201cHowever, the likelihood of this recount changing more than a handful of votes is very small.\u201d<\/p>\n

After Frisch\u2019s concession, a representative from the Colorado Secretary of State\u2019s Office told KDVR<\/a> that \u201cthe recount will proceed regardless of whether or not a candidate has conceded\u201d as long as it is within the 0.5% trigger margin. However, a number of Frisch supporters in La Plata County agree with Frisch\u2019s reasoning that the recount will likely not yield a different outcome.<\/p>\n

First Vice Chairwoman of La Plata County Democrats Jean Walter, who was speaking not on behalf of the organization but as \u201csomeone who\u2019s gone to the clerk\u2019s office and watched and participated in the vote counting,\u201d said she believes that Frisch made the right call to concede at this point \u201cgiven Colorado\u2019s superb track record.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe set the standard in this country for accurate results, so why have a recount of a half a percentage point?\u201d Walter said.<\/p>\n

Anne Markward, chairwoman of La Plata County Democrats, echoed Walter\u2019s sentiment, telling The Durango Herald<\/em> in a written statement that it is \u201creally unusual to make up even 550 votes by recount.\u201d<\/p>\n

In fact, a statewide recount in the primary election for the Colorado Secretary of State race involving Tina Peters and Pam Anderson found only 13 votes difference<\/a> for each candidate after re-tallying more than 88,000 votes.<\/p>\n

\u201cAdam is a numbers guy and fully recognized this,\u201d Markward wrote. \u201cHis position appears to be, why waste volunteers\u2019 time and taxpayers\u2019 money to not close the gap?\u201d<\/p>\n

Frisch, who campaigned on the basis that Boebert is a right-wing extremist based on previous claims she has made in support of the debunked QAnon conspiracy theory<\/a> and his perception of her role in the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection<\/a>, said in his concession speech that his team prided itself on running an \u201cethical campaign.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carol Cure, the former chairwoman of the La Plata County Democrats, said Frisch\u2019s ethics were reflected in his decision to concede.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s the right thing to do, if you know you\u2019ve lost an election, to concede and be a cooperative person rather than like some of the election deniers that go to any and all means to try to say they didn\u2019t lose when they did,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Markward also commended what she described as Frisch\u2019s \u201chonorable\u201d concession in her statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrisch would have represented us well,\u201d she wrote.<\/p>\n

In his concession speech, Frisch said that despite his likely loss, his \u201cadvocacy for western and southern Colorado, rural communities across the country and the people of our great nation will never end.\u201d<\/p>\n

Looking to the future, Markward wrote, the closeness of this race despite the Republican Party\u2019s 8-point advantage in CD-3 indicated that \u201cvoters strongly rejected both (Boebert\u2019s) showboating and her lack of concrete wins for her constituents.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHopefully she\u2019ll begin representing us all; if not, a good Dem candidate will win in 2024,\u201d Markward wrote.<\/p>\n

Cure said Frisch\u2019s campaign was \u201cincredible\u201d and that the outcome of his race is promising for Democrats running to represent the district in the future, even though he lost.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe went all over this huge district and talked to so many people,\u201d Cure said. \u201cAnd I really think the majority of people are really just fed up over Lauren Boebert and her antics, which don\u2019t do anything for her constituents.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kate Corliss is an intern for The Durango Herald and The Journal in Cortez and a student at American University in Washington, D.C. She can be reached at kcorliss@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u2018It\u2019s the right thing to do, if you know you\u2019ve lost an election\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":35155,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[981,663,266,28,1722,367,1621],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-37197","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-colorado-3rd-congressional-district","tag-democratic-party","tag-election","tag-headlines","tag-regional-elections","tag-u-s-rep-lauren-boebert","tag-voting"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37197","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=37197"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37197\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":83581,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37197\/revisions\/83581"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35155"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37197"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=37197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}