Barbora Hurd describes her journey to Colorado’s Western Slope after growing up under “the iron grip of communist rule” in a digital ad released Monday by her husband’s congressional campaign.

A Grand Junction attorney, Jeff Hurd is one of two Republicans challenging two-term U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert in next year’s 3rd Congressional District primary.

The ad, which clocks in at 3 minutes, 30 seconds, begins with Barbora Hurd recalling her childhood in Czechoslovakia in the 1980s.

“We lived under authoritarian government with a strict censorship and the suppression of any dissenting voices,” she says.

“Under the communism, we lived with shortages, inefficiencies, lies from our government. The communist regime was hostile to religious families like mine, discriminating against and sometimes persecuting those who practice their faith. When communism fell, my entire world changed.”

After communism fell, Barbora Hurd says she first visited the U.S. as a high school foreign exchange student. She later emigrated and eventually became a citizen “in front of my husband and children.”

“Not a day goes by without me thinking how privileged I am to live in freedom in the United States, but I know that we can’t take this freedom for granted,” she says. “America needs leaders with vision, integrity and character, especially today, or we risk the dangers of becoming the kind of country I personally know way too well.”

Noting that they’ve been married for 18 years and have five children, Barbora Hurd says of her husband: “With Jeff, what you see is what you get. He’s a loving and devoted husband and a loving and devoted father. Jeff is also one of the most hardworking people I know. If elected to Congress, Jeff will serve this district and our country with honor and integrity.”

A spokesman for Jeff Hurd’s campaign told Colorado Politics that it’s spending “five figures” to run the ad on digital platforms in the Republican-leaning district, which covers most of Western Colorado and parts of Southern Colorado, including Pueblo County and the San Luis Valley.

Boebert narrowly won reelection last year, defeating Democratic nominee Adam Frisch by just 546 votes in the closest congressional race in the country.

Boebert was first elected in 2020 after upsetting five-term Republican U.S. Rep. Scott Tipton in the GOP primary. Last year, she easily survived a primary challenge from former state Sen. Don Coram, a moderate Republican from Montrose, who endorsed Frisch in the general election.

Carbondale Republican Russ Andrews is also running for the seat.

Frisch, who is again seeking the nomination, is facing Grand Junction Mayor Anna Stout and Pueblo resident Adam Withrow in the Democratic primary.

Several third-party candidates are also running in the district, including Libertarian James Wiley, Unity Party member Gary Swing and Mark Elworth Jr., who briefly filed to run as a Libertarian but switched last month to the Legal Marijuana NOW Party ticket.