CNN
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Democrat Adam Frisch announced Friday that he had called GOP Rep. Lauren Boebert and conceded the race for Colorado’s 3rd congressional district.
Although there is an automatic recount being conducted by the office of the Colorado Secretary of State, Frisch said in a Facebook Live speech that he did not request a recount, does not expect that the results change and does not want there to be fundraising for an essentially futile cause.
“The likelihood of this recount changing more than a handful of votes is very small. Very, very small. It would be dishonest and unethical for us or any other group to continue to raise false hopes and encourage the fundraiser for a recount,” Frisch said. “Elections in Colorado are safe, accurate, and secure. Please save your money for groceries, rent, kids, and other important causes and organizations. I come to hang up with Representative Boebert. I called her to formally concede this election.
Boebert recognized Friday that she had received Frisch’s concession call, tweeting, “I look forward to getting through election season and focusing on Conservative governance in the House majority.” It’s time to get to work!”
By Friday morning, with almost all the votes counted, Boebert led Frisch by just 551 votes in what had been considered a safe Republican district in western Colorado. In Colorado, any race decided by a margin of 0.5% or less of the votes obtained by the top runner-up is automatically recounted. The current margin of 551 votes is about 0.34% of Boebert’s 163,758 votes.
According to information released by the office of the Colorado Secretary of State, all but one county in the Western Slope District has finished reporting votes.
Under Colorado law, counties have until Nov. 29 to conduct a risk mitigation audit, which involves rechecking a small number of ballots against recorded votes, and then until Nov. 30 to certify their final results.
Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold has until Dec. 5 to certify the election and order any mandatory recounts. These recounts must be completed by December 13.
Boebert’s tight race in a seat that became more Republican after redistricting – former President Donald Trump would have won by 8 points in 2020 – took many political observers by surprise. Frisch, a local businessman and former Aspen city councilman, made the election a referendum on the hardline lawmaker’s controversial tenure in Washington. Throughout the run, his campaign drove around a trailer called the “Beat Boebert Buggy”, and his Biography Twitter described Frisch as a “candidate to defeat Lauren Boebert”.
Boebert suggested to CNN last week that a lack of voter enthusiasm for his party’s candidates for governor and the U.S. Senate made his race much tighter than expected.
She noted that Gov. Jared Polis and Sen. Michael Bennet, both Democrats, skated for re-election.
“I think Polis and Bennet definitely carried the ticket for the Democratic Party,” she told CNN.
“I don’t know if there wasn’t enough enthusiasm for our top gubernatorial and Senate candidates or what happened there. But there have been a lot of changes in the votes there,” she said.
Boebert was a political newcomer in 2020, when she upset Rep. Scott Tipton in a GOP primary. She found significant support in Colorado by positioning herself as a close ally of Trump. His explosive political style, however, has been controversial in Washington. Earlier this year, she shouted during President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address as he spoke about helping American veterans, and in 2021 his baseless suggestion that Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar was a terrorist made national headlines. Boebert then apologized to “anyone in the Muslim community that I have offended.”
A handful of House races remain unnamed by CNN Friday morning, including several contests in California and the race for the At-Large District of Alaska, which will likely be decided by the state’s new ranked-choice voting system. next week.
This story and title have been updated with additional developments.
Cnn
