We mapped out where Republican U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert and Democrat Adam Frisch, a former Aspen city councilman, picked up the most support in their closely contested 3rd Congressional District race. The outcome could determine whether Democrats or Republicans control the U.S. House.
Boebert held a lead over Frisch as of Tuesday afternoon of 1,122 votes, or less than 1 percentage point.
Mesa County was Boebert’s stronghold this year. She was leading Frisch by 18 percentage points in the Western Slope county Tuesday afternoon.
Frisch, meanwhile, was holding big leads in La Plata County, home of Durango, and Pueblo County in southern Colorado. His 6-percentage-point victory in Pueblo, the district’s most populous county, as of Tuesday afternoon is a reversal from 3rd District races in recent years, and it’s what’s keeping him in the fight.
Ballots will be counted in the Republican-leaning district which spans the Western Slope into Pueblo and southeast Colorado, through Friday, after which the race will be called — though recounts are possible.
Counties are shaded based on the percentage of the vote the candidates’ received — red for Boebert and blue for Frisch.
A sliver of Eagle County in the Roaring Fork Valley between Aspen and Glenwood Springs is also in the 3rd District. It’s not reflected on the map, but Frisch was leading Boebert in the county as of Tuesday afternoon, with 2,916 votes to Boebert’s 1,150.
If you want to see how Boebert is faring this year compared with 2020 and 2018, when the 3rd District’s boundaries were different, check out the table below.
As part of last year’s once-in-a-decade redistricting process, Las Animas and Otero counties in southeast Colorado were added to the 3rd District, and Routt, Lake, Jackson and Custer counties in the high country were removed. Boebert ran in 2020 against Democrat Diane Mitsch Bush. In 2018, Republican U.S. Rep. Scott Tipton ran successfully for reelection against Mitsch Bush.