Less than a week after President Joe Biden’s disastrous debate performance, Adam Frisch, the Democratic candidate for Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District, became one of the first to call on the president to end his presidential campaign.
Now, Frisch says he wants to refocus his campaign on issues more pertinent to CD-3, not the evolving presidential campaign.
Since President Joe Biden announced he would no longer seek the Democratic Party’s nomination, Democrats quickly coalesced around Vice President Kamala Harris to become the next nominee. In the meantime, Democratic candidates for other offices, like the U.S. House of Representatives, are examining the impact of the switch-up on their campaigns.
While Frisch came within 546 votes of unseating current CD-3 Rep. Lauren Boebert in 2022, he faces a more moderate opponent this November – Grand Junction attorney Jeff Hurd – which could make Frisch’s race harder to win in the Republican-leaning district. Hurd campaigned with concrete policy goals, setting himself up as a serious Republican candidate and alternative to Boebert’s theatrics.
Frisch said he heard concerns from voters almost immediately after Biden’s poor debate performance, including at an event in Durango, and felt “encouragement, almost pressure,” to weigh in.
“To me, the writing was on the wall with respect to President Biden – that he was not capable of running the campaign at the same time as running the country,” he said. “So I think he should focus on running the country and pass the torch to a new generation.”
In the next few weeks, lawmakers from across the country shared concerns about Biden’s prospects, including Sen. Michael Bennet of Colorado who became one of the most outspoken in sharing his worries that Trump would “win it by a landslide” if Biden continued.
Now that Biden has stepped out of the race, the Colorado Democratic Party, along with Gov. Jared Polis and both of the state’s U.S. senators, have endorsed Harris.
Frisch, however, said he will likely wait until after the nomination is official to endorse Harris. He added that he would have preferred a more competitive process to select the nominee.
“My preference would have (been) an open primary,” he said. “... Having said that, from midday on Sunday (July 21) through now, it's very impressive what the vice president and her team have been able to do. … The vice president seemed to have figured out a pretty darn good way through grit and determination and hard work and clearing the field.”
But in the final months leading up to the election, Frisch said he wants to bring the focus back to CD-3 as a race separate from the presidential race.
“There's 100 days left, and we're going to spend as many of those days as possible refocusing on how important CD-3 is to this conversation in the House of Representatives,” he said. “I've driven 58,000 miles, and I can vouch that there's a lot of frustration. A lot of Democrats are frustrated with what the D.C. Democrats are talking about in our district, and there's a lot of Republicans and independents (who) are also frustrated with what the conversations are in D.C.”
To do that, he said he intends to keep meeting with voters across the district and emphasizing CD-3 issues. Frisch added that encouraging voters to view the CD-3 race as separate from other candidate races is something his campaign has focused on since the beginning.
“We've always assumed that we're not going to focus on who's at the top of the ticket and whether they're doing better or worse,” he said. “We are running a very independent race.”
While Frisch’s brand as an independent candidate is key to his campaign, he is still benefiting from association with the Democratic Party. CD-3 is one of the races the Democratic National Campaign Committee is targeting to flip from red to blue in November. Frisch’s campaign fundraising also includes donations through platforms like ActBlue, a fundraising platform that promotes Democratic candidates.
Still, he said he intends to take his moderate, independent approach to Congress, saying he thinks he will be the “least partisan person” there.
“My loyalty is to the district, and only to the district,” Frisch said. “I'm going to be voting on the district's needs. There's no partisan politics for me to play, and we'll be able to go there and be an independent voice.”
Kathryn Squyres 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 ksquyres@durangoherald.com.
