Colorado's Lauren Boebert draws GOP primary challenge from Grand Junction attorney Jeff Hurd

Grand Junction Republican Jeff Hurd announced on Wednesday that he's mounting a primary challenge against U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert in Colorado's sprawling 3rd Congressional District.

Declaring that he's running to provide "serious leadership for rural Colorado" in Congress, the attorney and former chairman of the local chamber of commerce said his top priority will be to help create economic opportunities so the district's communities can thrive.

"As an attorney, I fight for issues that matter to rural Colorado and to working families — things like lowering the cost of living, keeping electricity bills low, and making sure Coloradans have high-speed internet for work, for school, and for healthcare," Hurd said in a statement.

"I see that it’s critical for Western and Southern Colorado to have a sincere and hard-working voice in Congress that prioritizes their families, their communities, and their businesses."

Although he didn't mention the two-term incumbent in his announcement, Hurd made clear that he intends to draw a contrast with Boebert's confrontational approach to politics.

"Colorado’s Third Congressional District needs a representative in Washington, DC, who is committed to consensus-building and has a proven track record of being part of the solution, not creating more problems," Hurd said. "I’m ready to provide serious leadership for rural Colorado.”

A Colorado native, Hurd grew up in Grand Junction and heads the Western Slope city's office of Denver-based law firm Ireland Stapleton Pryor & Pascoe. He got his law degree at the University of Denver's Sturm College of Law and clerked for Timothy M. Tymkovich, the chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit. Hurd and his wife, Barbora, have five children.

Hurd's campaign co-chairs are former U.S. Sen. Hank Brown, a Republican who represented Colorado in the 1990s, and former Colorado Mesa University President Tim Foster, who served as the GOP's majority leader in the state House of Representatives in the mid-1990s, his campaign said.

Boebert's campaign manager expressed confidence that the outspoken lawmaker will win another term while at the same time getting in a jab at the establishment Republicans his boss has routinely criticized.

"Congresswoman Lauren Boebert has a clear record of delivering results for the 3rd District and effectively defending our freedoms, all while standing strong on her conservative principles," Drew Sexton said in an email to Colorado Politics.

"The go-along-to-get-along crowd racked up unsustainable debt, drove up inflation, allowed crime to run rampant in our neighborhoods, and opened our borders to dangerous, drug-trafficking cartels that have wreaked havoc in our Colorado communities. 3rd District voters want a principled, conservative fighter with a record of delivering results for our community, which is exactly why Congresswoman Boebert will be reelected," he added.

The head of the Colorado Republican Party told Colorado Politics that he anticipates Boebert will win her party's nomination.

“It’s a free country ... though it’s unlikely voters will risk losing the seat to a liberal like Adam Frisch by letting go of the advantage of incumbency with Lauren Boebert because others have a personal axe to grind," state GOP Chairman Dave Williams said in a text message.

Asked to elaborate on who has axes to grind, Williams responded: "Those who think Lauren should not have ever been elected to begin with."

No stranger to surviving primaries, Boebert first won election in 2020 after upsetting five-term Republican U.S. Rep. Scott Tipton in the GOP primary. Last year, she easily fended of a primary challenge from outgoing state Sen. Don Coram, a moderate Republican from Montrose, winning by a nearly 30-point margin.

Next year's race is getting crowded in the traditionally Republican-leaning district, which covers most of the Western Slope and parts of Southern Colorado, including Pueblo County and the San Luis Valley.

Democrat Adam Frisch, the Aspen businessman and former city council member who came within 546 votes of unseating Boebert last year, has been campaigning for a rematch since February.

Last month, Frisch reported hauling in more than three times what Boebert raised in the most recent fundraising period, leading the national election analysts at the Cook Political Report to move the seat into "toss-up" territory.

Comparing the $2.6 million Frisch raised in the second quarter — "thanks to an avalanche of small-dollar donations" — to Boebert's roughly $818,000 in contributions, Cook Political Report editor David Wasserman added that Boebert has also "avoided taking any steps to moderate her image."

Frisch is facing a primary on the Democratic side, too. Last month, Grand Junction Mayor Anna Stout jumped in the race, joining Gunnison veterinarian Debby Burnett, who sought the Democratic nomination in 2022 but failed to make the primary ballot.

A spokeswoman for the National Republican Congressional Committee greeted Stout's entry in the Democratic primary last month by declaring that "Colorado Democrats are in total disarray."

“Frisch and Stout infighting sets up a brutal no-holds-barred primary battle," NRCC spokeswoman Melanie Bomar said in a release. "Whichever of these self-serving candidates survives this chaotic, costly race will enter the general election broke and badly damaged."

She didn't immediately respond to a request for comment on Hurd's announcement.

First-time candidates Russ Andrews, a Republican, and Democrats David Karpas and Adam Withrow have also filed to run for the seat. Perennial third-party candidate Gary Swing is seeking the Unity Party's nomination in the district, and Mark Elworth Jr. is running as a Libertarian.