WASHINGTON – Adam Frisch, the Democratic candidate for Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District, leads in fundraising this quarter with about $2.2 million. His Republican opponent, Jeff Hurd, raised just over $1 million during the same quarter.
With the election about two weeks away, the Federal Election Commission made data public for the campaigns. The most recent fundraising period ran from July to the end of September. Frisch has framed his campaign around the way he fundraises and connects with the community.
Most of Frisch’s individual contributions come from outside Colorado. Most of those out-of-state individual donations can be attributed to political action committees – organizations set up to donate to campaigns. For Hurd, most individual contributions come from inside Colorado. However, he does not have financial support from the Colorado Republican Party as a result of party infighting.
Both campaigns raised more money from individual contributions as opposed to political action committees. Frisch has touted not taking money from “corporate PACs,” meaning PACs that are set up by corporations.
Candidates prefer it when funds come from grassroots donors that make small contributions. Frisch has fundraised more from smaller donations compared to Hurd. That trend has remained consistent since before the primary. Most of Frisch’s donations come from contributions of less than $200. Most of Hurd’s donations come from donations of more than $2,000.
Nick Bayer, a spokesman for Hurd’s campaign, said Republican PACs and businesses have taken an interest in Herd’s campaign because winning CD-3 can help maintain a Republican majority in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Individual donations can stem from a variety of places. For example, an individual contributor can donate directly to a campaign, but it is only attached to the individual for the quarter if they have contributed over $200 throughout the year.
Individuals can also contribute indirectly to a campaign by donating to PACs. That money is then donated to campaigns, which can cause donations to come from out of state. For example, Frisch had more individual contributions from out-of-state, mostly through donations from PACs, such as ActBlue.
Hurd had more individual contributions coming from inside Colorado compared to Frisch. Hurd had about 70% of individual contributions coming from inside Colorado, while Frisch had about 30% of individual contributions from outside Colorado.
“I spent my time focusing on raising money ideally from the district and from the state,” Frisch said. “Because of how nationalized the race was last year when we were running against Lauren Boebert, there were a lot of national, individual donors. I'm assuming that is still happening.”
Frisch recently criticized Hurd on the social media platform X for a mailer paid for by the Arizona GOP.
“Many of Arizona's priorities are contrary to those of Colorado and CD3, such as water usage,” Frisch wrote.
Bayer said the Colorado Republican Party has not reached out to Hurd or his campaign with any financial support. That has caused the campaign to focus on individual contributions as well as reaching out to out-of-state Republicans.
A faction of Colorado’s Republican Party tried to oust chair Dave Williams in August.
“The chairman of the party, Dave Williams never reached out to Jeff after he won the primary,” Bayer said. “They have been completely absent.”
Maria Tedesco 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 mtedesco@durangoherald.com.
