Editor’s note: This is a breaking news story and will be updated.
Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado took the lead over her Democratic challenger Adam Frisch by the thinnest of margins Thursday as the two are locked in razor-tight House race.
Boebert currently has 157,743 votes to Frisch’s 157,357 votes, with 95.8% of all votes in, per RealClearPolitics, with five votes for write-in candidates. No winner has been called at the time of publication.
The race between both candidates in the district has yielded unexpectedly competitive results. In 2022, the district had a Cook Partisan Voting Index score of R+7, and it was not listed on a list of battleground House districts by Larry J. Sabato’s Crystal ball, which tracks competitive races for Congress. (RELATED: GOP Hopes Dashed On The Rocks)
Frisch, a local businessman who served on the Aspen City Council from 2005 to 2011, ran a campaign focused primarily on local issues, such as water protection, agriculture regulations and the cost of living in a predominantly rural district that covers nearly the whole western portion of the state. He also frequently criticized Boebert for her national profile, claiming that she spent “time in a TV studio and grandstanding” rather than paying attention to her district.
Defeat Lauren Boebert.https://t.co/q5VHGYgr2C
— Adam Frisch for CD-3 (@AdamForColorado) November 10, 2022
“She is all hat and no cattle,” Frisch wrote on his website, adding on Twitter that she was “lying, self-serving, and morally compromised.”
Boebert, a first-term representative who gained prominence for her support for gun rights, owning a restaurant in Colorado (named “Shooter’s Grill”) that encouraged the open carrying of firearms, ran on her record in Congress and her conservative ideology. She described herself as “pro-freedom, pro-guns, and pro-Constitution” on her campaign website, and has been a vocal supporter of former President Donald Trump.
As of Thursday morning, both Frisch and Boebert’s campaigns were calling on voters whose mail-in or provisional ballots had been rejected to respond to county clerks’ letters asking them to make corrections, to ensure their vote may be counted. “Text ‘colorado’ to the SofS [Colorado Secretary of State’s office] at 28683 and follow prompts to fix any errors,” wrote Frisch on Twitter.
All overseas and military ballots had not been counted as of Thursday. Given the narrow difference between Frisch and Boebert, these ballots could be key to determining the victory.
Colorado’s election laws require a recount when the difference between both candidates is less than 0.5% of the total votes cast, a process that is automatically triggered. It is likely that the district’s race will proceed to a recount once all outstanding ballots are counted.
Should the election be disputed following the recount, either candidate would have legal standing to file a lawsuit before Colorado’s state courts of the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado in Denver. Ultimately, however, the decision on whether to seat Boebert or Frisch may be decided by the House of Representatives, which is accorded the power to “be the Judge of the Elections, Returns and Qualifications of its own Members,” under Article I, Section 5 of the U.S. Constitution.
Colorado’s 3rd District has voted, in majority, for every Republican presidential candidate since 2000, per Ballotpedia, and has been represented by a Republican since 2011 when former Rep. Scott Tipton defeated Democratic incumbent John Salazar. Tipton was unseated by Boebert in the district’s Republican primary in 2020.
Frisch and Boebert’s campaigns did not immediately return requests for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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