Republican Jeff Hurd and Democrat Adam Frisch each entered the 3rd Congressional District race with a parallel goal: Unseat U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert.

For Hurd, a Grand Junction lawyer who jumped in the race in August 2023, the chance would be in the mostly Western Slope district’s June primary. And if he didn’t prevail against Boebert, then Frisch, a former Aspen city councilman, would await a rematch this fall as the Democratic nominee — after narrowly losing to her two years ago in one of the most surprisingly close results of that year.

But both their strategies were forced to shift in late December, when Boebert announced she would hop the Front Range and seek to represent eastern Colorado’s 4th Congressional District in 2025 and beyond.

That decision instantly reshaped the race. Boebert’s penchant for controversy and bad headlines — qualities that were certain to define the primary and general election campaigns — was gone.

Frisch, who by then was armed with solid name recognition and millions of dollars in fundraising, lost a potential opponent whom voters had signaled a willingness to abandon, even in a reliably conservative district, and against whom he had adopted a “pro-normal” strategy. Republicans were suddenly unburdened by Boebert’s bombast, and they now had a stronger chance of defending a seat that traditionally runs red — and may help them to keep their slim U.S. House majority.

“When entering the primary (last year), I had more national press interviews than I’ve had in the more than nine months since Rep. Boebert moved over to the 4th,” Hurd said in an interview this month. “So it’s maybe a bit more of a traditional race: less high-profile but no less important.”

Frisch acknowledges that, with Boebert gone, some Democrats and pundits believe there will be a return “to the mean of where the district is” — meaning consistently conservative. The 3rd District is massive, spanning most of the Western Slope and sweeping down past Interstate 25 to the southeast. It takes in Pueblo there as well as ski resort towns and ranching communities out west.

The nonpartisan Cook Political Report has shifted its rating of the race from “leans Republican” to “likely Republican,” and the district has not elected a Democrat since then-U.S. Rep. John Salazar in 2008. Also competing for the seat now are James Wiley of the Libertarian Party and Adam Withrow of the Unity Party.

Still, Frisch says he believes that his ground efforts will pay off; he says he has driven 70,000 miles across the district, and some campaign ads include an overlaid odometer ticking upward. He also thinks his commitment to a “pro-normal” approach will resonate — even if his new opponent, in contrast to Boebert, is “as interesting as a bread sandwich,” as Hurd says a journalist once described him.

“My focus is not on party,” Frisch told The Denver Post in early October. “It’s on policies that matter.”

The contest also will test the power of fundraising to overcome district demographics.

As of July, Frisch had pulled in more than $13.7 million this cycle and spent more than $10.2 million, according to federal campaign finance filings. Hurd, who has been in the race for less time than Frisch and faced a competitive primary, had raised — and spent — far less: By July, he had spent $1 million out of the $1.2 million he had raised.

Frisch’s fundraising has remained strong, although it dipped in the wake of Boebert’s announcement late last year. The next finance reports are due this week.

The candidates on the issues

Hurd, in responses to The Post’s candidate questionnaire, listed his top priorities as securing the border, boosting America’s energy output, and safeguarding water and agriculture in the district.

On immigration, he said he supported the bipartisan border bill scuttled this year under pressure from former President Donald Trump, although he said it was imperfect and needed amending.

He said he supported targeted deportations of undocumented immigrants who have committed violent crimes, but he said those who were here working should be allowed a way to continue to do so — albeit without a path to citizenship.

Asked about affordability issues, Hurd said the supply of housing needed to be increased by lowering the cost of construction materials and by lowering energy costs. He, like Frisch, did not support state or federal-level changes to local zoning rules intended to boost housing supply.

“If you want to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions, then you ought to support getting as much energy out of western and southern Colorado as possible,” Hurd said when asked how he would balance his energy priorities with water and environmental concerns. That includes, he said, backing nuclear energy alongside traditional fossil fuels like American coal and natural gas, which he argued were “cleaner” than the same fuels used in other countries. (Climate advocates and experts warn that no fossil fuels are “clean” and all contribute to the planet’s warming.)

Frisch, a former New York-based currency trader whose family runs a real estate development business, similarly listed protecting water and securing the border among his top priorities, alongside addressing the “affordability crisis.”

In a subsequent interview, he also said he wants to improve health care access in rural Colorado and that he supports “strong domestic energy,” whether in the form of wind, solar or natural gas.

He cast his overarching mission as defending rural Colorado’s interests in Congress as well as when they’re pitted against the more-populous Front Range.

Hurd and Frisch prioritize water storage and defending the 1922 Colorado River Compact, which divvies up water usage along the river.

Asked during a Sept. 30 debate in Pueblo about what bill he would first introduce, Frisch said he would “do everything I can to make sure that our local Colorado water leaders have the tools that you need to protect Colorado’s water.”

Hurd, on the same question, said he would pursue a federal exemption to a state law requiring that migrant farm workers be paid overtime.

Frisch said he supported codifying Roe vs. Wade — the Supreme Court ruling that protected base-level abortion access nationwide for decades, until it was overturned in 2022 — into federal law. Hurd, who has described himself as being “pro-life,” said he would not support a national ban on abortion but that access decisions should be left up to individual states.

Both men accused each other of being more partisan than they appeared.

Frisch said Hurd was running “for team Republican; I’m running for team CD3.” Hurd described Frisch as a “liberal Aspen Democrat who’s pretending to be a moderate.”

Trading claims in ads

In their campaign ads, Hurd focuses on immigration and energy (including falsely claiming that President Joe Biden was banning gas-powered cars), while Frisch talks up water conservation and rural Colorado while saying he has not taken “corporate PAC money.” Hurd dismissed that latter claim as hair-splitting, because campaign finance records show that Frisch has received donations from groups that do take corporate campaign cash.

Frisch has accused Hurd of ties to groups that want to take water from the San Luis Valley to support metro Denver growth, a plan Hurd says he opposes.

Against portrayals of him as a liberal, Frisch has sought to tack a more moderate path in the race. The approach makes sense: The 3rd Congressional District has 38,000 more registered Republicans than Democrats, said Colorado State University political science professor Kyle Saunders.

It’s also home to more than 238,000 unaffiliated voters, and the district has favored Republicans by an average 9 percentage points in several past elections, according to the state’s independent redistricting committee.

“As long as (Hurd) stays inside the Republican mainstream in the district, he’s got a really good shot,” Saunders said.

“I think Frisch did a really good job with what he had (against Boebert),” Saunders continued. “It’s just — that’s a really hard district. Running against Boebert was his previous strategy, but the fundamentals are so much more against him this time.”