Congressional candidate Alex Walker, one of eight Democrats hoping to challenge Republican U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert in Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District, has qualified for the June primary ballot, the secretary of state’s office said late Friday in a statement declaring Walker submitted enough valid signatures on his nominating petitions.

The 31-year-old Eagle County resident and first-time candidate is so far the only candidate to have made the ballot for the Republican-leaning seat, which covers the Western Slope, the San Luis Valley and Pueblo County.

“The fact that we accomplished this within weeks of announcing tells me that people are ready to win and we are the ones to beat Lauren Boebert,” Walker told Colorado Politics. “I couldn’t be more happy.”

Out of the 2,659 signatures Walker’s campaign turned in a week earlier, election officials said 1,713 were valid – well over the 1,500 signatures required for Colorado congressional candidates to advance to the June 28 primary.

Walker, who announced his candidacy in late February with a sensational online video that depicts flying feces, said his campaign is concentrating on reaching more young and undecided voters in innovative ways, including posting policy discussions and updates from the campaign trail on social media.

“When you launch with a video like I launched with, it catches attention but people are naturally a bit skeptical,” he said. “When I introduce myself as a thoughtful, queer moderate who is tired of the bull— and think we can and must do something about it, people reach out in droves and say, ‘You’ve got my vote, thank you for explaining these things in a way I can understand, in a way that gives me hope.'”

Added Walker: “It’s clear that people who are normally ambivalent about politics are ready to listen up because we’ve figured out a way to speak to them that resonates.”

Candidates can get on Colorado’s primary ballot by gathering petition signatures, by going through the parties’ caucuses and assemblies, or by taking both routes.

Petitioners have until 5 p.m. Tuesday 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 those submitted by their primary rivals have an advantage because state law allows voters to sign just 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.

Walker is only the third Colorado congressional or state-level candidate to qualify for the primary by petition. He joins eight-term Republican U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn, who learned last week that he qualified by petition, and Thornton Mayor Jan Kulmann, a Republican running in the state’s newly created 8th Congressional District, who was notified she had qualified on Friday.

While nearly all of the Democrats and Republicans running against Boebert are circulating petitions, only one of them – Democrat Adam Frisch – had turned in petitions through Friday.

The other Democrats seeking a spot in the 3rd CD primary are Debby Burnett, Kellie Rhodes, Sol Sandoval, state Rep. Donald Valdez, Colin Wilhelm and Scott Yates. The Republicans challenging Boebert are Marina Zimmerman and state Sen. Don Coram.