Republican Ron Hanks, a former state lawmaker and an ardent supporter of former President Donald Trump, announced late Friday that he’s seeking the GOP nomination in Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District just days after its incumbent, Republican U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert, switched to run for another term in a different district.

Hanks faces a primary against Grand Junction attorney Jeff Hurd, a first-time candidate endorsed by numerous current and former elected Republicans. Hurd mounted a primary challenge earlier this year against Boebert, who narrowly won reelection to a second term last year in the closest congressional race in the country.

Democrat Adam Frisch, who trailed Boebert by just 546 votes last year, is seeking a rematch. The former Aspen City Council member had raised more than three times as much as the incumbent before Boebert declared this week that she’s jumping to the 4th Congressional District, which is represented by retiring Republican U.S. Rep. Ken Buck.

Calling the GOP-leaning, Western Slope-based 3rd CD “vital to the Republican majority in the U.S. House,” Hanks said in a written statement that he’s running to keep the seat in conservative hands, adding, “Not moderate, establishment, or RINO,” using a derisive acronym for Republicans in name only.

“HOW the newly elected representative votes will make the difference between an obstructionist RINO congress working against President Trump’s next term, or a task-oriented congress that reverses the rot of the Biden Regime,” Hanks said.

Added Hanks: “The danger is real, and it revived the enlisted man in me: I cannot sit idly by when a threat alarm sounds. I’ve stood in the line of fire of an unhinged leftist media and their puppet masters in the Democrat Party before, and I will stand in the fight for CD3 and our common conservative values.”

Hanks ran last year for Colorado’s U.S. Senate seat but lost the primary to wealthy construction company owner Joe O’Dea. He later endorsed the Libertarian nominee, calling O’Dea a “fake Republican, a pay-to-play opportunist with no conservative values or agenda.”

While Hanks trailed O’Dea by about 9 percentage points statewide, the Fremont County legislator beat O’Dea in the 3rd CD.

Declaring himself a “pro-Trump warrior,” Hanks launched his 2022 Senate bid with a video that depicted the former career Air Force intelligence officer firing a rifle at a photocopier loaded with target explosive and labeled “Dominion Voting Machine.”

Hanks, who attended the rally outside the White House on Jan. 6, 2021, but didn’t enter the Capitol, made his unfounded belief that the 2020 election was stolen from Trump central to his campaign.

“I fully expected Donald Trump to win in 2020 – and he did,” Hanks told delegates to the GOP’s 2022 state assembly, where he became the only candidate to win a spot on the primary ballot.

O’Dea, who petitioned into the primary, went on to lose to U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet, the Democratic incumbent, by a wide margin last November

National Democrats spent more than $5 million in the primary in an attempt to steer the nomination toward Hanks, calling him “too conservative” for Colorado in an attempt to yield a less competitive challenger to Bennet in an increasingly Democratic-leaning state.

In keeping with the “re-secure America” theme Hanks campaigned on in the last election, he said Friday that his top concerns are unchanged.

“As a career intelligence specialist, I know National Security,” Hanks said. “I firmly maintain Border Security, Election Security, and Energy Independence are vital national security issues.”

Election forecasters moved the 3rd CD from a toss-up race to “lean Republican” after Boebert changed races, suggesting that without the conservative firebrand on the ticket, its voters ought to revert to their habit of electing Republicans.

Colorado Republican Party Chairman Dave Williams told Colorado Politics that he expects Hanks will be a formidable candidate in the primary.

“Ron Hanks won CD3 during the 2022 senate primary last cycle so he will be a tough competitor to beat, especially since he is a proven grassroots conservative warrior who cares about the people he serves,” Williams said in a text message, adding, “This primary won’t be boring.”

Williams’ counterpart across the aisle, state Democratic chair Shad Murib, denounced Hanks and his candidacy in a statement to Colorado Politics.

“Ron Hanks says that women should be forced to carry pregnancies caused by rape or incest. Ron Hanks participated in January 6th. Ron Hanks gives Putin a pass on Ukraine,” said Murib.

“Dave Williams and the GOP should be ashamed of themselves for embracing this loser and welcoming his candidacy for CD3, and we can’t wait for this fight.”