Editor’s note: Much of this story was originally published from primary election coverage in June.

When former Aspen City Councilman Adam Frisch won the Democratic nomination to challenge Republican U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert in Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District, he saw a path to denying Boebert a second term.

The 54-year-old Frisch, who said in June he drove nearly 2,000 miles across the vast district that covers most of the Western Slope and southern Colorado in the week before ballots were due, told Colorado Politics that he welcomed the support of primary rival Sol Sandoval and other Democrats who sought the nomination in order to build what he called a “pro-normal, bipartisan coalition” to take on the incumbent.

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On Wednesday, Frisch held a slight lead over Boebert with more ballots to be counted. As of 1:13 p.m. Wednesday, the Democrat leads the incumbent by 151,570 votes to 149,216, a 2,354-vote margin.

“Voters are looking for someone who’s going to take the job seriously and focus on their district, not on their Twitter feed and what I call the anger-tainment industry,” Frisch said over the summer, referring to Boebert’s reputation for producing a steady stream of vilification aimed at Democrats and some Republicans. 

“A lot of people want the circus to stop and want their member of Congress to focus on district needs, not be judged by how many cable news appearance they can book,” Frisch added.

The owner of a gun-themed restaurant in Rifle, Boebert upset five-term U.S. Rep. Scott Tipton in the GOP primary two years ago and quickly rose to celebrity status among supporters of former President Donald Trump. 

She won election in 2020 by about 6 points over former state Rep. Diane Mitsch Bush, a Steamboat Springs Democrat, and in June easily won the nomination to seek a second term, fending off a challenge from state Sen. Don Coram of Montrose, who trailed the incumbent by more than 30 points.

Frisch said at the time that those numbers were warning signs that his opponent was more vulnerable than many assumed, adding that other brash, young Republican House members aligned with Boebert won their districts by overwhelming margins.

“None of the other extremists are so electorally weak as Lauren Boebert,” Frisch said, noting that Boebert won the 2020 election with 51% of the vote, compared to the 75% share claimed by Georgia’s Marjorie Taylor Greene, the 70% received by Arizona’s Paul Gosar and the 65% received by Florida’s Matt Gaetz. “And at the end of the day, 55% of the people who voted in the primary did not vote for Lauren Boebert.”

Frisch added that while he understood his challenge to Boebert would draw national attention, he intends to keep his campaign’s focus on the needs of the largely rural district.

“My plan is to focus on water and natural resources and the conservation aspects that have to happen to make sure we have a healthy economy and a healthy planet,” he said. “My issues are not going to be about national stuff. I’ll be talking to voters about what is in the best interest of CD3, regardless whether they voted for me in the primary or whether they’ll vote for me in the general.”