This story by Chase Woodruff appeared on Colorado Newsline on October 11, 2024.
Coloradans will elect representatives to the 119th Congress in all eight of the state’s congressional districts in 2024. Members will be sworn in to serve two-year terms beginning on January 3, 2025.
Republicans currently hold a razor-thin majority in the House of Representatives, which they have used to stymie President Joe Biden’s legislative agenda while targeting his administration with a series of investigations and impeachment inquiries.
Democrats are looking to flip the lower chamber while holding on to the White House and the U.S. Senate.
Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District, the state’s largest by land area, spans much of the Western Slope along with Pueblo and the San Luis Valley. It’s currently represented by Republican U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert, who sent shockwaves through Colorado politics last year when she announced, amid mounting doubts about her ability to win reelection to a third term, that she would move across the state to run instead in the more heavily Republican 4th District on the Eastern Plains.
Republican Jeff Hurd, a Grand Junction attorney, had already launched his campaign to challenge Boebert and went on to win the 3rd District’s GOP primary with 41% of the vote. He faces Democrat Adam Frisch, a former Aspen City Council member who came just 546 votes shy of upsetting Boebert in the 2022 election. Two minor party candidates, James Wiley of the Libertarian Party and Adam Withrow of the Unity Party, will also appear on the ballot.
Registered voters in Colorado should soon receive their ballots in the mail for the November 5 general election, which includes races for president, Congress, the state Legislature, the University of Colorado Board of Regents and other local positions, as well as a handful of statewide ballot measures.
Voters can contact their county clerk if they have not received their ballot or check the online BallotTrax system. They can also visit the secretary of state’s website to make a plan to vote in person ahead of or on Election Day. Ballots need to be received by the county clerk by 7pm on that day, so voters should make a plan to mail their ballot at least eight days ahead of time or drop it off in person.
Jeff Hurd did not return a questionnaire.
Adam Frisch (Democrat)
Age: 57
City of residence: Aspen
Occupation: Small business owner
Jeff Hurd (Republican)
Age: 45
City of residence: Grand Junction
Occupation: Attorney
James Wiley (Libertarian)
Age: 30
City of residence: Pueblo
Occupation: Business development and political consultant
Adam Withrow (Unity)
Age: 41
City of residence: Pueblo
Occupation: Contractor, educator
Key provisions of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act are set to expire in 2025. Which if any of these tax cuts should Congress extend, and what other significant changes to the federal tax code would you support?
FRISCH: We need to make sure middle-class 3rd District residents are not burdened any more than we already are at our current tax levels. The 2017 tax cut law has been a disaster for our spiraling national debt — a staggering $35 trillion and growing, and a blanket extension of the (Tax Cuts and Jobs Act) will add another $4 trillion. No family or business would ever run their own finances like the federal government does. Make no mistake — both parties are to blame for these obscene numbers. With too many families and businesses already struggling, re-upping this handout to billionaires and big corporations would be a terrible mistake. Having said that, I am focused on how any possible new tax code affects our ranchers, farmers, and small business owners. I will push for changes that support our farmers and ranchers, incentivize hiring people over robots, and help working families in the 3rd District continue living and working in the place they call home.
WILEY: I support extending the tax cuts from the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, particularly the reduction in individual tax rates and increased standard deductions. These provisions have allowed working Americans to keep more of their earnings, and I believe it’s critical to eliminate the federal government’s ability to tax hard-working individuals. Taxation is theft. The most insidious taxation we have is inflation and I would stop inflation by abolishing the federal reserve bank and allowing the free market to provide transaction alternatives.
WITHROW: If we want to balance our budget, we need to stop cutting revenue. It’s time to let the whole thing expire. We need to close the loopholes that are exploited by the ultra-wealthy, and we need to raise more people up to incomes that can actually afford to pay taxes.
What legislation would you pursue in Congress relating to abortion and reproductive rights?
FRISCH: If elected I will support a federal law that codifies Roe v. Wade. Overturning Roe was a dangerous mistake that has jeopardized the health of millions of women. I am the son and brother of OB-GYNs, and a father to an amazing daughter. I know that throughout any pregnancy, there is never a time when the government — at the state or federal level — is going to make a better decision than a woman and her doctor. The reality is, if men could get pregnant, this would never be an issue. We do not need government mandated pregnancies or government mandated family planning.
WILEY: I believe in the sovereignty of human life and will pursue a constitutional amendment affirming the right to life from conception. My stance is rooted in the principle that all humans, regardless of developmental stage, possess the right to live. I will also advocate for advances in medical technology that support life outside the womb, giving mothers the option of transplant operations rather than fatal abortions. I do not believe that the government should sanction the taking of innocent life, and I would work to end all federal funding of abortion services that don’t sustain the life of the child.
WITHROW: I personally think abortion is a right and that no one needs to give a reason why. Ultimately, any legislation needs to err on the side of freedom, but it’s realistically outside of the scope of the powers of the federal government. I’m not interested in preventing Alabama from being Alabama, I just also don’t want them trying to prevent Colorado from being Colorado.
Do you support Donald Trump’s plans for the “largest mass deportation in the history of our country,” including deployment of the National Guard in Colorado communities to forcibly deport all of the approximately 200,000 undocumented immigrants residing in the state?
FRISCH: No. I visited the Southern Border recently, and I know that it desperately needs to be secured, because the 3rd District’s economic prosperity and our national security depend on a border that operates safely and efficiently. I met with community leaders, farmers and ranchers, and local officials, and saw how hard the community and Border Patrol is working to keep the border secure. They need more support and resources to secure our border with more agents, provide updated technology to law enforcement to detect fentanyl and other contraband infecting our communities, and allow for more judges to support our legal immigration systems and more swiftly rule on asylum claims. Then we can begin to work on reforming our immigration system in fair, merit-based ways that provides an updated agriculture worker visa program for our ranchers and farmers and supports the people who are already living and working here, including Dreamers.
WILEY: I support strict immigration enforcement and believe that securing our borders is a priority. While I agree that illegal immigration undermines the rule of law, I do not support the militarization of our communities to carry out mass deportations. Instead, I propose privatizing border lands and allowing local communities and volunteer militias to help secure borders under local law enforcement oversight. I believe in deporting those involved in criminal activity, while streamlining the legal immigration process for those who wish to contribute positively to society.
WITHROW: No. Mobilizing the military to do door-to-door searches and asking everyone for their papers sounds like a nightmare to me.
Long-term inflation in housing and health care costs are responsible for the biggest strain on household budgets compared to a generation ago. What can Congress do to reduce the costs of owning or renting a home or accessing medical care?
FRISCH: Families across the 3rd District are struggling to afford necessities like housing, gas and diesel for their cars, health care, insurance, and groceries to put on the table, while politicians from both parties spend too much money and mega-corporations price-gouge hardworking Coloradans. Unlike my opponent, I am proud not to take any corporate PAC money. Sky-high demand for housing isn’t going anywhere anytime soon, so we need to focus on more supply. While it is imperative that local communities retain control over their housing and zoning laws, I will secure resources from D.C. to help close the gap for Coloradans and reinvest in our district. When I served on my local city council for 8 years, I invested most of my efforts towards making housing affordable. I will also work to improve rural health care with federal support like protecting Medicare and Medicaid, prioritizing mental health, and increasing funding for our rural critical access hospitals.
WILEY: To address housing inflation, I support reducing government interference in the housing market. Zoning reforms and eliminating unnecessary regulations will increase the supply of affordable housing, making homeownership more attainable for working families. For health care, I advocate for abolishing the Food and Drug Administration and the National Institutes of Health, which have driven up health care costs through excessive regulation. By allowing cross-state competition for health insurance and increasing price transparency, we can reduce health care costs and give individuals more freedom to choose the care they need at a price they can afford. Expanding health savings accounts and encouraging free-market solutions are also key to lowering costs in both housing and health care.
WITHROW: Two things: Implement a single-payer health care system and eliminate corporate profit seeking from our health and well-being. Implement living wages and tie them to the Consumer Price Index. If a living wage is tied to the CPI, any increase in the overall cost of living will be followed by an increase in wages. That will slow down all price increases.
Many Coloradans surveyed by the statewide Voter Voices project list their top issue this election year as democracy and good governance. As a member of Congress, how would you seek to find common ground with members of the opposite party, and rebuild shared trust in our elections and institutions?
FRISCH: People in rural Colorado don’t trust their government because it has consistently failed to address the challenges in their lives. I’m not a partisan guy, and after driving over 65,000 miles across our district, I can confirm most people view themselves as rural Coloradans — not Republicans or Democrats — who want both parties to stop fighting and start working together to help make everyone’s lives better. That’s why my first stop once elected is to join the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus, made up of an equal number of members from both parties, to focus on issues that deserve and need bipartisan solutions. I am also supportive of efforts to clean up Congress. I will fight to shine a light on dark money and will push to clean up our campaign finance system so our politics work for everyday families, not special interests. I will also work to ban Members of Congress from trading stocks while in office. And finally, unlike my opponent, I fully support term limits for Congress.
WILEY: Over the last four years I have worked closely with members of the Republican Party, the historical Libertarian nemesis, to fight for election transparency and reform. As the primary victims of election fraud in 2020, many Republicans have realized what Libertarians have always known, the state and its contractors like Dominion Voting Systems cannot be trusted. I have organized numerous class actions and fought ceaselessly against election fraud, as the executive director of Save Our Suffrage in 2021 and the organizer of the Colorado Recount Coalition in 2022, working with warriors like attorneys Gary Fielder and Ernest Walker and whistleblowers like Tina Peters.
WITHROW: We need to implement a system of hybrid proportional representation and get away from first past the post in single member districts. We also need to establish good governance boards at the local, state, and federal levels. Good governance boards need to be empowered to add recall measures to the ballot for elected officials that fail to abide by measurable standards.