Republican Jeff Hurd beats Democrat-driven election denier in race for Boebert seat

Establishment-backed Republican candidate Jeff Hurd has won his Republican primary for Rep. Lauren Boebert’s (R-Colo.) seat in Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District, according to a projection from Decision Desk headquarters.

Hurd, an attorney in Grand Junction, won a competitive Republican race against candidates including the former state representative. Ron Hanks (R), which was raised by Democrats who saw him as the weakest opponent in November.

Hurd, who had the support of prominent Republicans in the state and the Koch-backed Americans for Action for Prosperity, launched her candidacy last August while Boebert still planned to make another run for her current 3rd District seat.

However, Boebert later decided to run in the 4th Congressional District in eastern Colorado, a more solidly Republican House seat, to avoid another expensive and potentially close race in the 3rd.

Hurd’s victory is particularly notable given that a Democratic-aligned super PAC and Democratic candidate Adam Frisch’s campaign entered the GOP primary, running ads to elevate Hanks, an election denier, or target the more popular Hurd for avoiding debates and questions about their positions.

The idea behind the Democrats’ strategy was to make Hanks appear as the most attractive conservative for Republican voters to vote for in the primaries, with the idea that his controversial views on things like the 2020 elections would likely turn off moderate Republicans and independents in in the general election, making it easier for a Democrat to win the seat in November.

Democrats used this strategy during the 2022 Senate cycle when they sought to elevate Hanks to the position of leading Republican candidate Joe O’Dea. Although O’Dea prevailed in the Republican Party primary, later losing to Senator Michael Bennet (D-Colorado) that November, Hanks won the 3rd Congressional District during that race.

Hurd’s victory is a sigh of relief for Republicans in the state, who see him as the most competitive candidate to win the seat in the fall. Before the primary, the nonpartisan election pollster Cook Political Report classified the seat as “lean Republican.”

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