In 2020, it was Rep. Lauren Boebert’s firebrand version of Republican politics that helped cement her victory in Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District. Now, ahead of the 2024 election, her GOP opponents are banking on it becoming her biggest liability.
Vying for a third term, Boebert became a national figure almost instantly after announcing her primary challenge to longtime district Rep. Scott Tipton in 2020. Since then, some of her actions in Washington have cast her into the glare of the spotlight of the TV news cycle, whether that’s getting into shouting matches with fellow lawmakers on the House floor, interrupting President Joe Biden’s State of the Union, helping to bring down former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) or getting kicked out of a public theater in Denver for inappropriate behavior with a male companion.
But as Democrats salivate at the chance to flip the seat after a remarkably narrow loss in the 2022 election, it’s Boebert’s Republican primary challengers that she has to worry about first. And both are trying to win over GOP voters by promising a more low-key, approach to legislating.
“There used to be that saying all politics is local. Now, it feels like all politics is what's happening in Washington, D.C. I'd like to move that discussion back here,” Jeff Hurd, an attorney from Grand Junction, told The Journal on Saturday.
Hurd, who has been endorsed by former Republican Colorado Gov. Bill Owens, along with several regional GOP county commissioners and other state officials, has already been branded by rivals as the “establishment” Republican candidate.
While in other races such a moniker would be a death knell in the campaign, Hurd is counting on it propelling him to victory.
“The brand of Republican that I'd like to be is one that's principled, but also pragmatic,” he said. But, “if I’m going to win this race, I need to appeal not just to those who agree with me already and those who are in the base.”
Last cycle, Boebert won the district by fewer than 600 votes, a far cry from her winning 26,000-vote margin in 2020.
Since then, Democrats have poured millions of dollars into likely Democratic candidate Adam Frisch’s campaign in the hopes they can flip the seat in 2024 – and potentially win back the House of Representatives along the way. Last quarter, Frisch, an Aspen resident, outraised all the district’s three GOP candidates combined.
Now, there’s worry that Boebert’s actions has made her unelectable in a critical district that could define the future of both the Colorado and national Republican Party.
“Folks are seeing that there's a real Democratic pickup opportunity. And they recognize the need to have a strong Republican who will present the strongest challenge to what will be a very-well funded Democratic campaign,” said Hurd. “We need to get voters that don't agree with us on 100% of the issues voting Republican.”
Meanwhile, Russ Andrews, a financial adviser from the Roaring Fork Valley who is also vying for the GOP nomination in the district, is pitching himself as the happy medium between the establishment and the far right options of the Republican Party.
“I'm going to be my own person. I'm not going to join the Freedom Caucus,” he told The Journal. “That's not the reason I'm going. I don't need a teen celebrity status.”
Neither Hurd nor Andrews has shied away from traditional Republican values. For example, both expressed strong support for the Second Amendment. But they also eschew typical hard-line conservative stances on other hot-button issues, like abortion.
“I believe in the sanctity of life. But I do believe that abortion should be safe, legal and extremely rare,” said Andrews.
Ultimately, Hurd and Andrews, who has participated in a weekly conservative radio program for the past 14 years, are framing their campaigns around a commitment to bipartisan work that directly benefits the district.
“That’s my litmus test: If it doesn’t help the Western Slope, it’s not getting my vote,” said Andrews. But “if you're going to represent 760,000 people, you have to meet in the middle.”
Meanwhile, Boebert appears to be charging ahead with what propelled her to victory in the first place.
“We're gonna get to work. We're gonna put our hands on things, connect with people, and make sure that we don't lose anything else in this state,” she told attendees at a Saturday dinner held by the Montezuma County Republican Central Committee. “This is our movement, and no one is taking it away from us.”
