Republican Lauren Boebert was narrowly leading Democrat Diane Mitsch Bush in Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District race, preliminary Tuesday results show.

As of 8:44 p.m., Boebert was up 50.41% to 46.52% over Mitsch Bush in the massive district, which spans the Western Slope and reaches around to Pueblo.

The candidates were split by fewer than 14,520 votes. The race was too close to call as several counties had not yet reported their results.

The battle for the open seat is Colorado’s most competitive congressional race this year. Whoever wins will be the first woman to represent the district.

In early voting in La Plata County, Mitsch Bush was leading Boebert. The Democrat had 56.7% of the vote compared with Boebert, who had 40.2%. The remaining percentages went to minor party candidates.

Results for Montezuma County were not available as of 9 p.m. Tuesday.

Pueblo is likely to be the deciding factor in the race. Mitsch Bush must win by a large margin in the county in order to make up for the Republican strongholds elsewhere in the district, including Grand Junction.

The race may not be called on election night, however, because Pueblo County Clerk and Recorder Gilbert “Bo” Ortiz said he wouldn’t finish counting ballots until Wednesday at the earliest. Ortiz urged people to be patient.

“We’re going to count them as fast as we can,” Ortiz said. “We’re expecting to be counting votes on Wednesday.”

Ortiz said his office counted ballots after Election Day in both 2016 and 2018 and that it’s not out of the ordinary for the tally to take some time.

Jim Carpenter, a Democratic political consultant who has worked on several 3rd Congressional District races, called Pueblo “essential” for Mitsch Bush. “It’s a numbers game,” he said. “... It’s really important to get those votes.”

Mitsch Bush ran against incumbent U.S. Rep. Scott Tipton for the 3rd District seat in 2018 but fell short by 8 percentage points. She was one of only two Democrats on the ballot in Pueblo two years ago to lose, which dragged down her campaign.

Boebert ousted Tipton – a five-term incumbent – in the primary this year, shocking the political establishment and giving Democrats hope that they could finally win back the district for the first time since U.S. Rep. John Salazar was beaten in 2010.

That competitiveness was reflected in campaign spending. The race broke both candidate fundraising and outside spending records for the district. Mitsch Bush raised $4.2 million to Boebert’s $2.4 million, records show.

Outside groups took major interest in the contest in mid-October, pouring nearly $9 million into the race through Sunday. Republicans spent more than $5 million, most of it opposing Mitsch Bush. Democrats reported spending nearly $4 million, most to oppose Boebert.

Boebert, 33, is anything but a traditional candidate. She openly carries a handgun on her hip and has an arrest record that’s grabbed headlines in recent months. She has also been the focus of national headlines because she didn’t shy away from the QAnon movement during an interview in May.

QAnon is a wide-ranging conspiracy theory that started on the notorious internet forum 4chan and has recently pushed the idea that the coronavirus pandemic is part of a government plot to control the public.

“Everything that I’ve heard of Q, I hope that this is real because it only means that America is getting stronger and better, and people are returning to conservative values,” she said in the May interview.

Boebert has since distanced herself from QAnon, but Democrats have used her remarks earlier this year to paint her as too extreme to be in Congress, despite the fact that the 3rd District leans Republican and definitively backed Trump in 2016.

“When somebody sways one way or the next, I get hesitant,” said Jay Schivitz of Gypsum at a polling place in Eagle where he was dropping off his ballot on Tuesday. He voted for Mitsch Bush.

Boebert isn’t too extreme for Woody Walcher, whose white pickup truck stood out in the parking lot in front of the Mesa County Clerk and Recorder’s Office on Tuesday. It sat where anyone driving into the lot could see the three American flags flapping from the pickup bed. Wallace said he had rolled up his Trump flags and tucked them in his tool bin to be in compliance with electioneering rules.

Walcher, a Republican retiree who lives on East Orchard Mesa outside Palisade, was sitting in his truck behind dark tinted windows, partly to fill out his ballot and also to keep a watch out for anyone who might be intimidating voters.

While he kept an eye on the line of voters outside the polling place, the retired businessman blackened a bubble for 3rd District candidate Lauren Boebert of Rifle.

“She is an independent thinker. She is for freedom. She is a business owner,” Walcher said, ticking off her perceived virtues as a candidate. “Her opponent is a politician.”

Sun correspondent Nancy Lofholm reported from Grand Junction. Staff writer Jason Blevins contributed reporting from Eagle. Sun correspondent Sandra Fish also contributed to this report. The Colorado Sun is a reader-supported, nonpartisan news organization dedicated to covering Colorado issues. To learn more, go to coloradosun.com.