The race for Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District between incumbent Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert and Adam Frisch was still too close to call Wednesday afternoon as more ballots trickled in throughout the day and Frisch’s surprising lead narrowed.
As of 4:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Frisch led with 50.01% of the vote and only 62 more votes, according to results from the secretary of state’s office — 308,182 ballots in the race have been counted.
“We are still waiting for every vote to be counted, but the lead we hold this morning is because of the support of each and every one of you,” Frisch said in a statement earlier Wednesday morning, when his lead was slightly larger.
“We entered this race in February with the intention to give Colorado a representative that will actually work for the district and the people. We traveled 23,000 miles, made hundreds of thousands of calls, spoke to as many voters as possible, and yes, we flooded your inboxes as well. But it worked, and now we are one step closer to beating Lauren Boebert.”
Frisch, a former Aspen City Council member and small business owner, is also urging any voter with a rejected ballot to cure any issues that prevented it from being counted.
County clerks will reach out to voters via phone, text or mail if they have a ballot problem. Voters have until eight days after Election Day to respond.
Boebert, the typically outspoken conservative from Silt, was silent Wednesday as results continued to come in. She last tweeted right before polls closed in Colorado on Tuesday that the “red wave has begun,” referring to the Republican Party’s attitude that Tuesday would bring widespread victory at the state and national level.
That did not end up happening, as the party did not pick up as many expected congressional seats and all four Democrats in Colorado’s statewide offices held on to their seats for a second term.
It is unclear how many votes are still left to count in the district, which encompasses the Western Slope of the state and hooks east to bring in Pueblo and some southeastern counties. What is clear is that this is a much closer race than expected in the district, which had a 9 percentage-point advantage for Republicans in an electoral analysis from nonpartisan redistricting staff last year.
Frisch won a three-way Democratic primary in June and ran his campaign with a message that he is a moderate more interested in pragmatism than party politics. He tried to cater to establishment Democrats, unaffiliated voters and Republicans who wanted to deny Boebert a second term. He was endorsed by Boebert’s Republican primary opponent, state Sen. Don Coram.
Boebert tried to paint Frisch as a hypocritical power player from a ritzy mountain town who would be beholden to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s agenda, even going as far to accuse him of being blackmailed for one of his city council votes — a claim his campaign denied.
Frisch showed fundraising momentum towards the end of his campaign. He ended up spending about $5 million on his campaign, compared to Boebert’s $7 million.
If the the difference of the votes is less than half a percent of the leading vote total, it will trigger an automatic recount. If the difference is larger, either campaign can request and pay for a recount.
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Colorado Newsline is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Colorado Newsline maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Quentin Young for questions: info@coloradonewsline.com. Follow Colorado Newsline on Facebook and Twitter.