Republican leads as Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District remains uncalled

Once again, voters in Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District will have to wait for a winner. 

Republican Jeff Hurd and Democrat Adam Frisch both ended their watch parties Tuesday night with calls for patience as the race remains undecided. Hurd led by more than 8,000 votes, 2.78 percent of the vote so far, when he told supporters they could call it a night. 

“I want to respect the process. I want to make sure that all of our county clerks across the 27 counties in this district are doing their job and they have the time to do their job,” Hurd said at his watch party in Grand Junction. “I trust them. I know that they're going to get this election right, and they're going to make sure that every vote is counted. And so it's too early to call the race.”

Tom Hesse/CPR News

In a statement, Frisch noted the stormy weather that may have affected some voters on Election Day and said the race was always going to be close. 

“We’ve known all along that, just like last time, this race was going to be razor-thin. With weather conditions deteriorating on the Western Slope and election workers heading home for the night, the race currently remains too close to call. I am confident that our amazing local county clerks and election judges will quickly and accurately get all the outstanding votes counted and tabulated as soon as they can, and look forward to learning the result as soon as possible,” Frisch said. 

As of 10:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Hurd had 165,578 votes to Frisch’s 156,849 — a margin of 8,729 votes. The Associated Press estimates that 25% of the ballots had yet to be counted. 

In 2022, it took more than a week for the 3rd Congressional District race between Frisch and Rep. Lauren Boebert to be sorted out, triggering an automatic recount because of the narrowness of the margin. 

Hurd entered the congressional race last year, offering himself as an alternative to Boebert. At the time, Hurd racked up endorsements from West Slope Republicans with his pitch of being a more pragmatic Republican uninterested in the national spotlight. 

Boebert’s departure from the district at the end of 2023 cleared the way for Hurd to cruise to a primary win.

While the 3rd Congressional District has a Republican lean in terms of its voter makeup, Hurd still faced a significant fundraising deficit against Frisch, who racked up millions of dollars in anti-Boebert donations before she left the race. He also trailed Frisch in name recognition across the vast district. The fact that the race is once again close, without the polarizing presence of Boebert on the ballot, suggests this district, which hasn’t elected a Democrat since 2010, may be headed into purple territory.