Democrat Alex Walker on Thursday became the first candidate hoping to challenge Republican U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert to submit nominating petitions for the June primary to the Colorado Secretary of State’s Office.

Walker, who turned heads when he officially launched his campaign last week with an online video that depicts flying feces, told Colorado Politics he turned in 2,650 signatures, well over the 1,500 needed for congressional candidates.

“Folks are inspired by our message and want to see change!” he said in a text message.

Seven other Democrats are circulating petitions in hopes of making the primary ballot in the 3rd Congressional District, which covers most of the Western Slope, the San Luis Valley and Pueblo County. Boebert faces two Republican challengers who are also attempting to petition into the primary.

Walker, a 31-year-old Eagle County resident and self-described “gay, moderate Democrat,” said Friday that his launch video has racked up more than half a million views across multiple platforms. He added that the “vast majority” of campaign contributions he’s received are from first-time donors to any campaign, suggesting that his unconventional approach is engaging people who had tuned out on politics.

“Moderates and liberals need to wake up,” Walker said in a video posted to social media sites on Tuesday. “We need to start playing by the rules of the new game instead of sobbing over the rulebook. And if we don’t start playing smart, the GOP will continue to roll back the civil rights of disenfranchised communities for generations to come.”

Boebert, a freshman lawmaker from Silt, unseated five-term U.S. Rep. Scott Tipton in the 2020 Republican primary and went on to win her seat by about 6 points. Under new boundaries approved last fall by the state’s independent redistricting commission, the 3rd CD leans more heavily toward Republicans.

She drew national attention and rebukes from Democrats this week for twice interrupting President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address – first when she and Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene started chanting, “Build the wall! Build the wall!” during a passage on immigration on the southern border, and a second time when Biden began to talk about how his son Beau died of brain cancer after exposure to toxic smoke from military burn pits.

“A cancer that put them in a flag-draped coffin,” Biden said, when Boebert yelled, “You put them in – 13 of them!” in a reference to the 13 American service members killed during the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan last summer.

Petitioners have until March 15 to submit signatures to the Secretary of State’s Office, which processes petitions in the order they’re received.

Candidates who turn in their petitions ahead of their primary rivals have an advantage because a voter can only sign one candidate’s petition for the same office. Once a voter’s signature has been ruled valid for one candidate, the same voter can’t be counted on a petition submitted later by a potential primary opponent.

Candidates can also pursue a spot in the June 28 primary by winning support from at least 30% of the delegates to party assemblies, which begin this weekend and continue through state assemblies in early April.

A record 69 candidates have pulled petitions for federal and state-level offices in Colorado this year.

Walker is only the sixth candidate to turn his petitions in. Election officials on Wednesday announced that petitions submitted by Republican U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn were sufficient, making him the first candidate to qualify for the primary ballot.