Republican congressional candidate Tim Reichert has qualified for the primary ballot in Colorado’s 5th Congressional District, the secretary of state’s office said Thursday after determining the Jefferson County economist and business owner submitted a sufficient number of valid signatures on his nominating petitions.

Reichert, one of four Republicans running for the seat held by retiring eight-term Democratic U.S. Rep. Ed Perlmutter, is the first candidate to qualify for the the district’s primary.

Out of the 3,889 signatures Reichert’s campaign submitted, officials said 2,361 were ruled valid – far more than the 1,500 required for Colorado congressional candidates to win a spot on the June 28 primary ballot.

“The secretary of state’s determination that I am the first candidate to make the ballot puts us one step closer to ensuring the people of Colorado’s 7th District are finally represented by someone who shares their values,” Reichert told Colorado Poltics.

Saying his background as an economist and plan to restore the middle class are resonating with voters, Reichert added: “I look forward to continuing to campaign hard and be the nominee who will stop partisan state legislator Brittany Pettersen from taking her record of hurting Colorado families to our nation’s capital.”

Pettersen, a state senator from Lakewood, is the presumptive Democratic nominee for the seat, which leans toward Democrats by about 7 points but has been ranked among the country’s most competitive districts by both national parties’ congressional campaign committees. 

Two of Reichert’s potential GOP primary rivals – Carl E. Anderson and Brad Dempsey – submitted petitions before last week’s deadline and are awaiting word from the secretary of state.

Candidates who get their petitions in first have an advantage over primary rivals because voters are just allowed to sign one petition for the same office – so even if they’ve signed multiple petitions, only the first signature checked by election officials will count. The secretary of state’s office processes petitions in the order they’re received.

Republican Erik Aadland also turned in petitions but fell 46 signatures short of the total required. Aadland announced earlier this week that he’s asking a judge to rule that some of the signatures he submitted should have been accepted.

Former legislative candidate Laurel Imer is the only 7th CD Republican who didn’t submit petitions. She’s going through the party’s April 8 district assembly, where it takes the votes of more than 30% of delegates to win a berth in the primary. Aadland is also going the assembly route.

Following last year’s redistricting process, the 7th CD was redrawn to include almost all of Jefferson County and Broomfield, along with six mountain counties, Park, Lake, Chaffee, Teller, Fremont and Custer and tiny slivers of a few other counties. Previously, the district encompassed the more densely populated suburbs in central and northern Jefferson County and western Adams County.

Also on Thursday, the secretary of state’s office said Republican Tyler Allcorn, running in the state’s newly created 8th Congressional District, qualified by petition.