Election 2022: Boebert prevails in unexpectedly stout challenge for U.S. House seat

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Two years ago, pistol-packing restaurant operator Lauren Boebert, a political neophyte,  shocked the political world by defeating five-term congressman Scott Tipton in the Republican primary and then a political veteran Democrat in the general election to represent west and south Colorado in Congress.

Now, Boebert is in the middle of another shocker election — but not the kind she wanted.

Instead, as of Wednesday morning, Boebert found herself fighting to hold out against a surprisingly stout challenge from Democrat Adam Frisch for the 3rd Congressional District seat.

Elsewhere across Colorado, incumbent U.S. House members cruised to victory as votes were counted in the election that ended Tuesday, while the Democrats held onto the open 7th District seat in the Denver suburbs with the victory of Brittany Pettersen. And the race to fill the new 8th District seat in northern Colorado was still undecided early Wednesday.

As ballots were being counted, the nation’s attention was drawn to the close race in Colorado’s sprawling 3rd District, encompassing almost half the state, including working-class Pueblo, Grand Junction, Alamosa and Montrose as well as ritzy ski towns like Aspen and Telluride and large stretches of ranch and farmland.

As of 8:03 a.m. MT the day after Election Day, with about 93% of the vote counted, Frisch was leading Boebert by barely over 1 percentage point. The Associated Press and other news services had not yet called the race.

By 5 p.m. on Nov. 10, the lead shifted and Boebert had a roughly 1,200 advantage on Frisch.

As of noon on Monday, Nov. 14, 98% of the vote had been counted and Boebert led by 0.4% — just over 1,100 votes. At this point in the race, a Frisch comeback seems unlikely, analysts said.

(See updated results here.)

It was a race that “few political analysts had on their radar,” as the Wall Street Journal noted Wednesday, because Boebert was widely considered a shoo-in after trouncing moderate Republican Don Coram in the GOP primary. Coram later endorsed Frisch.

But a poll commissioned by the Frisch campaign a month ago showed the Democrat running within 2 points of Boebert.

Over the last two years, Boebert has been a darling of conservative cable news and talk radio. Her provocative conduct in Congress — including heckling President Biden during his State of the Union address and referring to Somali-born U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar as part of the “Jihad Squad” — has gained her a cheering section of far-right enthusiasts. She was one of 139 House members who voted to object to the results of the 2020 election, in which Donald Trump lost the presidency to Joe Biden.

In her re-election bid, she enjoyed Trump’s support and was running in a district considered slightly more Republican-leaning than when she won two years ago, thanks to redistricting.

Frisch, a wealthy former Aspen city council member, campaigned on a centrist platform, and accused Boebert of being more focused on “anger-tainment” than on issues of concern to her constituents. Boebert, meanwhile, tried to link Frisch to the agenda of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and called him “Aspen Adam” in ads.

Elsewhere in Colorado, sitting members of the U.S. House easily won re-election, including Democrats Diana DeGette (Denver), Joe Neguse (Boulder area) and Jason Crow (Aurora-Centennial area) as well as Republicans Ken Buck (eastern Colorado) and Doug Lamborn (Colorado Springs area).

In the 7th District, encompassing Denver’s west and north suburbs, Pettersen, a state senator from Lakewood, soundly defeated Republican Erik Aadland, a first-time candidate, in the race to succeed Democrat Ed Perlmutter, who is retiring from Congress.

In the new 8th District, which was created after the 2020 census because of Colorado’s growing population, Democrat Yadira Caraveo, a pediatrician and state lawmaker, defeated Republican Barbara Kirkmeyer, also a state lawmaker, in a close race.

Kirkmeyer conceded before the Associated Press called the race. At the time of her concession, Kirkmeyer was trailing by less than one percentage point. The AP officially called the race around 12:30 p.m. on Nov. 15.

The newly formed 8th District stretches north from Denver and includes parts of Adams and Weld counties. Caraveo will become the first Latina to represent Colorado in Congress.

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Mark Harden is an editor and reporter who has worked with Rocky Mountain PBS, Colorado Community Media, Colorado Politics, The Denver Post, The Denver Business Journal and more. You can reach him here.