{"id":37303,"date":"2022-11-09T22:52:36","date_gmt":"2022-11-10T05:52:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/how-did-the-boebert-frisch-race-get-so-close\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T02:36:52","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T08:36:52","slug":"how-did-the-boebert-frisch-race-get-so-close","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/how-did-the-boebert-frisch-race-get-so-close\/","title":{"rendered":"How did the Boebert-Frisch race get so close?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Republican
Republican U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado speaks during a debate May 26 at the Sky Ute Resort and Casino in Ignacio. (William Woody for Colorado Newsline)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Incumbent U.S. House Rep. Lauren Boebert was expected to win her bid for reelection in a landslide, but with 95% of ballots counted, her Democrat challenger Adam Frisch was ahead Wednesday night by fewer than 100 votes.<\/p>\n

Frisch\u2019s narrow lead comes as a surprise after redistricting in Southwest Colorado left Republicans with a 9-point advantage<\/a> in the 3rd Congressional District. An analysis from FiveThirtyEight<\/a> estimated, based on polling data, that Boebert had a 97-in-100 chance of winning a second term.<\/p>\n

Boebert, whose reelection campaign was endorsed b<\/a>y former President Donald Trump, raised nearly $3 million more <\/a>than Frisch over the course of the election cycle. Frisch received minimal financial support from the Democratic Party as a result of Boebert\u2019s significant polling advantages, which leaves many voters asking how the competition between the candidates became so neck-and-neck.<\/p>\n

Former Colorado Republican Party state chairman and Republican political strategist Dick Wadhams said Frisch\u2019s campaign \u201csuccessfully played down any perceptions of being a more liberal Democrat from Aspen and convinced people that he was more of a moderate Democrat.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, Wadhams said, he did not expect the race to be so close \u2013 let alone in Frisch\u2019s favor.<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt that he would do well, but I didn\u2019t think he could come close to winning or outright win,\u201d Wadhams said Wednesday in an interview with The Durango Herald<\/em>.<\/p>\n

After Boebert\u2019s victory in Republican primary election<\/a>, during which she scored two-thirds of the vote against her opponent Don Coram, Wadhams told the Herald<\/em> that Boebert should \u201cthink about that 30% of the Republican electorate that voted against her\u201d and how to earn their support in the lead-up to Election Day.<\/p>\n

Given her nationwide name recognition and popularity among prominent Republican figures, he said it is possible that is an area where she could have lost voters.<\/p>\n

\u201cGiven what we\u2019ve seen the past day or two, if some voters in the district felt like she paid more attention to her national profile than to the needs of the district, I mean, that\u2019s something you always have to think about,\u201d Wadhams said Wednesday.<\/p>\n

With votes still being counted Wednesday in Pueblo and Mesa counties, Wadhams said the outcome of the election \u201ccan certainly go either way.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a statement released Wednesday morning, Frisch acknowledged the campaign \u201cstill has a lot of work ahead as ballots are still being counted\u201d but thanked his voters for their support.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are still waiting for every vote to be counted, but the lead we hold this morning is because of the support of each and every one of you,\u201d the statement reads. \u201cFrom the bottom of my heart, I want to offer you my deepest appreciation.\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":"

despite expectations that Boebert would cinch reelection<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28706,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[981,266,28,1722,367],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-37303","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-colorado-3rd-congressional-district","tag-election","tag-headlines","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\/37303","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=37303"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37303\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":83620,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37303\/revisions\/83620"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28706"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37303"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37303"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37303"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=37303"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}