Democratic challenger for Colorado’s Third Congressional District Adam Frisch has called Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) to concede in their close race. He was 551 votes behind Boebert with 99% of precincts reporting.
“Only a quarter of our district is registered Democrats,” he said this morning at a press conference, where he also thanked his supporters.
Colorado law requires a recount of votes if the second-place finisher receives less than 0.5% fewer votes than the first-place finisher. Boebert has 166,758 votes so far and Frisch is fewer than 0.5% – or 818 votes – behind her.
But Frisch said that he’s unlikely to win, even with a recount.
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“The likelihood of this recount changing more than a handful of votes is very small,” he said.
“We have shown the country that extremists politicians can be defeated, loud voices are not invincible, and shouting will not solve problems.”
Boebert claimed victory late last night and then tweeted that Frisch called her to concede earlier today.
“I look forward to getting past election season and focusing on conservative governance in the House majority,” she wrote. “Time to get to work!”
Adam Frisch called me to concede this race.
I look forward to getting past election season and focusing on conservative governance in the House majority.
Time to get to work!
— Lauren Boebert (@laurenboebert) November 18, 2022
The race was unexpectedly tight; Donald Trump won Colorado’s Third by eight percentage points in 2020. But two years of Boebert’s antics in Congress turned off at least some independent voters in her district.
“I don’t like the way she behaves in Congress,” said 70-year-old Marilyn Morris of Pueblo, an unaffiliated voter, right before the election. “That is not respectful, and I wouldn’t vote for her for that reason alone.”
“She’s lying all the time, so I just don’t trust her.”
“I think Boebert is kind of crazy,” 59-year-old Richard Hirano of Craig said. “I just think she’s sometimes off the deep end. She sounds like she’s trying to push that we need to be ruled by religious belief.”
Since she was elected in 2020, Boebert has earned her place as one of the most anti-LGBTQ members of Congress.
She led a press conference outside the Capitol when Congress was voting on the Equality Act, where she went on an unhinged rant full of fake claims about transgender pre-teens and told reporters she is raising her sons “to be men” and she is “proud of that.”
“The so-called Equality Act, which we all know is the Democrats using a play on words,” Boebert said during a media appearance this year. “There is nothing about equality in that act. If anything, it’s the supremacy for gays, lesbians, and transves-hikes.”
She also took a brave stance against Spongebob Squarepants being gay. The cartoon character has not come out.
Boebert made fun of Assistant Secretary for Health Admiral Rachel Levine, tweeting a photo of the highly accomplished transgender woman with the words, “Welcome to woke medicine, America.”
Last year she mocked Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and his husband, Chasten, after they adopted twin babies, saying that the gay Cabinet secretary “was trying to figure out how to chestfeed” his children.
Frisch campaigned as a moderate Democrat and didn’t make LGBTQ issues central to his campaign.
