Democrat Adam Frisch has conceded the race for Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District.
In streamed remarks, Frisch said he called Rep. Lauren Boebert to concede Friday morning. And he said he was proud of his campaign, which drew support not just from Democrats, but also Republicans and unaffiliated voters across the vast district.
“Our plan from the very start was to build a tri-partisan coalition, and we did that in the face of deep national skepticism that we could do this,” he said. “We do not have to let hate win, but we can come together and talk about issues that are important or individual lives in our communities. We have more in common than we differ.”
Final numbers continue to trickle in but Frisch currently trails Republican incumbent Rep. Lauren Boebert by less than 600 votes.
The closeness of the race took many in the political world by surprise, given Boebert’s national profile and the fact that Republicans hold a 9 point advantage in the district. It’s Colorado’s most expansive congressional seat, spanning western and southern Colorado and including cities such as Pueblo and Grand Junction.
Boebert’s narrow margin means the state is required to order an automatic recount.
However, no Colorado recount in recent memory has resulted in more than a few dozen votes being reassigned, and those are usual cases of poorly marked ballots where human judges have to try to interpret the voter’s intent (or, recently, because a county found ballots it failed to count the first time).
Noting that history, Boebert took to Twitter to declare her win Thursday evening.
"With this victory, and with Republicans in control of the House of Representatives, we can focus on the issues that actually matter most, including getting inflation under control, increasing our domestic energy supply, securing the southern border, and being as a strong check on the White House," Boebert said in a video shot in front of the U.S. Capitol.
"Come January,” Boebert promised, “you can be certain of two things: I will be sworn in for my second term as your congresswoman, and Republicans will finally turn Pelosi's House back into the people's house."
In his concession speech, Frisch said he supports conducting the recall as a way of showing the reliability of Colorado’s election system, but that he also didn’t expect it to yield new results.
“Colorado elections are safe, accurate, and secure,” said Frisch, adding it would be unethical for his campaign to continue accepting money from supporters. “Please save your money for your groceries, your rent, your children, and for other important causes in organizations.”
The razor-thin result means that Colorado’s 3rd District is likely to be back in the national spotlight in two years, as Democrats try to seize the opportunity to build on Frisch’s close showing and Republicans bolster Boebert’s hold on the office.
And the facts in that race could end up being the same: On Thursday evening, Frisch filed the paperwork to run again in 2024.
More 3rd Congressional District coverage:
- Wait, so why is it taking so long to count votes in Colorado? Here’s why — and other ballot counting questions, answered.
- Frisch is a moderate Democrat and former Aspen City Council member. He made a centrist pitch to voters as he faced an uphill battle in District 3.
- Read our full November 2022 interview with Adam Frisch. He talked about ballot curing, voter turnout and whether he’s "Democratic enough."
- As final vote counts came in on Thursday, Nov. 17, it appeared that the race was headed to a recount. Boebert led by just 551 votes, pushing the count under the threshold for an automatic recount.
- Efforts from both parties to reach voters who needed to cure their uncounted ballots quickly ramped up. Some voters felt like all the calls, emails and even door-knocking bordered on harassment, while others were pleased to be at the center of things.
- Who made Lauren Boebert’s reelection so tough? It wasn’t the result of a tsunami of Democratic voters. In the 3rd Congressional district, Democrats were about 3% less likely to vote than Republicans.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
