{"id":37625,"date":"2022-10-27T15:59:06","date_gmt":"2022-10-27T21:59:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/frisch-targets-gop-voters-tired-of-boeberts-angertainment\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T02:39:00","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T08:39:00","slug":"frisch-targets-gop-voters-tired-of-boeberts-angertainment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/frisch-targets-gop-voters-tired-of-boeberts-angertainment\/","title":{"rendered":"Frisch targets GOP voters tired of Boebert\u2019s \u2018angertainment\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Democratic
Democratic candidate for the 3rd Congressional District for Colorado Adam Frisch during an appearance on the campus of the University of Colorado-Pueblo on Wednesday in Pueblo. Colorado's Rep. Lauren Boebert is being challenged by conservative Democratic candidate Frisch in the midterm election. Boebert has gained a national following for galvanizing anti-establishment angst on the right. (David Zalubowski\/Associated Press file)<\/span>AP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

PUEBLO \u2013 A word was notably missing from a recent news release by Colorado congressional candidate Adam Frisch: \u201cDemocrat.”<\/p>\n

Frisch, a former city councilman from the posh, mostly liberal ski town of Aspen, instead called himself a \u201cconservative businessman\u201d and left his party affiliation unmentioned.<\/p>\n

Downplaying that he’s a Democrat is a strategy Frisch\u2019s campaign hopes will allow him to mount an upset victory in the largely rural and conservative-leaning Colorado congressional district where he’s taking on first-term Republican Lauren Boebert<\/a>. She is one of several far-right figures \u2013 along with Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene<\/a> \u2013 who\u2019ve become political celebrities since taking the country by storm in 2020.<\/p>\n

\"Rep.
Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., speaks to reporters at the Capitol in Washington, June 8. (J. Scott Applewhite\/Associated Press file)<\/span>AP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Boebert is trying ensure voters don\u2019t forget the uppercase \u201cD\u201d next to Frisch\u2019s name, derisively dubbing her opponent \u201cAspen Adam\u201d and following the GOP script of trying to paint to him as a typical liberal who would cow to what they say is Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi\u2019s \u201cradical agenda.”<\/p>\n

Frisch knows he\u2019ll have to compel thousands to cross party lines: After redistricting made the district more Republican, GOP voters outnumber Democratic voters 150,000 to 115,000.<\/p>\n

His strategy was on display during a recent town hall in the working-class town of Pueblo where Frisch wore a large belt buckle, jeans and cowboy boots. He touted what he described as \u201cmoderate\u201d and \u201cpragmatic\u201d views that make him pro-business and pro-energy. He asked voters if they really wanted two more years of Boebert’s brand of what he calls \u201cangertainment.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think 40% of the Republican Party wants their party back,\u201d he told the crowd.<\/p>\n

Frisch hopes to lure Republican voters disillusioned by Boebert\u2019s brash style and unabashed backing of former President Donald Trump. He doesn’t spend much time talking about Boebert\u2019s stances on key district issues like oil and gas or health care, topics on which both candidates more or less agree.<\/p>\n

A close race in rural Colorado would be a major development in the nationwide fight over the direction of the Republican Party, in which Trump-loyalists like Boebert, Greene and Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz are challenging an old guard that has mostly accommodated Trump while trying to keep the far right at arm’s length.<\/p>\n

But Seth Masket, director of the Center on American Politics at the University of Denver, does not expect that to happen. Though some Republican voters disapprove of Boebert, it’ll be a big lift for them to cross party lines and support even a conservative Democrat, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would be a pretty stunning thing if she did lose,\u201d Masket said. \u201cThat might force a little bit of a recalibration as to what sort of candidates (the GOP) think they want.\u201d<\/p>\n

Boebert, who invigorated a loyal base of right-wing voters en route to her 2020 upset of five-term GOP Rep. Scott Tipton<\/a>, isn\u2019t buying Frisch\u2019s conservative branding. To the incumbent, Frisch\u2019s platform mirrors a trend of Democratic lawmakers and candidates backpedaling on issues such as the \u201cdefund the police\u201d movement<\/a> and grappling with sky-high inflation and steep prices<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cAdam’s priority is to act like a Republican because he knows he has no chance to win this election being the Pelosi-loving liberal that he is,” Boebert said.<\/p>\n

She\u2019s also not backing down from her firebrand ways that have earned her widespread notoriety, frequent national TV appearances and a spot on the so-called MAGA Squad.<\/p>\n

When President Joe Biden was coming to the end of his State of the Union address in March, she interrupted a somber moment<\/a> about Biden’s son to blame Biden for the 13 service members who were killed during the U.S. withdrawal in Afghanistan. \u201cYou put them in. Thirteen of them,” she yelled.<\/p>\n

Boebert commonly rails against the Democratic establishment, invoking portentous rhetoric about liberal persecution of conservatives and a displacement of Americans by immigrants in the U.S. without permission. She warns that the direction of the country hangs in the balance in the midterms.<\/p>\n

Republican Scott McInnis, a former district congressman and now a commissioner in Mesa County that includes Grand Junction, said that Republican voters like that Boebert\u2019s a fighter.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou got to be louder, you got to be tougher, and you got to be smarter than the people you are up against,\u201d said McInnis. \u201cPeople in this district like a scrapper. They like it; they like that energy.\u201d<\/p>\n

The same energy that galvanized anti-establishment angst grates on more traditional Republicans.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I\u2019m hearing from long-term, mainstream Republicans: They are not happy with the new face of the party,\u201d said Republican state Sen. Don Coram, who lost the June party primary to Boebert and has endorsed Frisch. \u201cWe would rather sacrifice a Republican than sacrifice the Republic.\u201d<\/p>\n

Coram added that mainstream Republicans are hoping that if Frisch unseats Boebert, they can replace him with a traditional Republican come the 2024 election.<\/p>\n

Frisch avoids Boebert\u2019s impassioned rhetoric about a larger cultural struggle, rarely mentions Boebert\u2019s controversies that have thrust her onto the national stage, and speaks in less definitive language. When discussing broad concerns such as inflation, he’s nodded at his willingness to seek bipartisan solutions \u2013 \u201cwe need to find a way” \u2013 but avoided grandiose promises.<\/p>\n

His platform tends to lean conservative, favoring the private sector to work out kinks in health care, promoting some natural gas and oil production in the district and the nation, and supporting the removal of Nancy Pelosi as speaker of the House in favor of \u201cthe next generation of leaders.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a recent interview, Frisch said bi-partisanship is the only path to \u201cget stuff done.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I tell people, if there was a \u2018get stuff done party\u2019 (I would be in it), everyone nods,\u201d Frisch said. “When I tell people I want the circus to stop, people nod,\u201d he said, \u201con the left, right or center.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whether Frisch will garner enough Republican votes, however, appears to be coming down to one question asked by an attendee at the town hall in Pueblo. The question, said Frisch, is one of the most common on the campaign trail: Does the adjective \u201cDemocratic\u201d on his ticket mean he\u2019ll bend to the party line?<\/p>\n

\u201cI’m not running to be the voice of any party,\u201d he said. \u201cWe are making a pure competency pitch.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Democratic candidate for the 3rd Congressional District for Colorado Adam Frisch during an appearance on the campus of the University of Colorado-Pueblo on Wednesday in Pueblo. Colorado's Rep. Lauren Boebert is being challenged by conservative Democratic candidate Frisch in the midterm election. Boebert has gained a national following for galvanizing anti-establishment angst on the right. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":37626,"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-37625","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\/37625","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=37625"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37625\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":83722,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37625\/revisions\/83722"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37626"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37625"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=37625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}