Democratic challenger Adam Frisch hauled in more than five times as much campaign cash as U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert in the final quarter of 2023, before the Republican incumbent announced she was moving across the state to run in another congressional district.

As he did all last year, Frisch, the former Aspen City Council member who nearly unseated Boebert in 2022, dominated fundraising reports filed at the end of January by Colorado’s candidates for the U.S. House of Representatives, posting nearly $3 million in contributions for three months ending on Dec. 31.

The Democrat raised nearly as much during the quarter as all the state’s other congressional hopefuls combined.

After shattering state fundraising records in quarter after quarter last year, Frisch finished the off-year with more in contributions than any other House candidate from Colorado has raised in an entire election cycle.

Still, Boebert, who reported more than $50,000 in contributions, started the year with a significant cash advantage in a crowded field of Republicans seeking the nomination in her new district.

In the race for the state’s most competitive seat, Democratic U.S. Rep. Yadira Caraveo raised more than $600,000 in the 8th Congressional District, nearly triple the total raised by the three Republicans who had launched campaigns before the end of the quarter.

Congressional candidates had to file campaign finance reports covering the last three months of the year with the Federal Election Commission by Jan. 31.

Boebert announced late last year that she would seek a third term in Congress from the heavily Republican 4th Congressional District, which covers Colorado’s Eastern Plains, rather than risk defeat in the less favorable Western Slope-based 3rd Congressional District she’s represented since 2021.

The 4th CD seat is currently held by five-term Republican U.S. Rep. Ken Buck, who said in November that he isn’t running for reelection, drawing a flood of candidates into the race, including Boebert.

Colorado’s other Republican-held seat, the El Paso County-based 5th Congressional District, is also up for grabs this year, following nine-term Republican U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn’s announcement in early January that he plans to retire after his current term. While the GOP primary in that district has grown crowded, none of the candidates got in the race before the end of the year, so they won’t file their initial campaign finance reports until mid-April.

In the 3rd CD, Frisch reported raising $2.98 million for the quarter, bringing his total contributions since the last election to more than $11.6 million. He finished the period with more than $5.1 million cash on hand.

That figure dwarfs the funds raised by the Republicans, both first-time candidates, who had been challenging Boebert in the primary before she jumped ship.

Grand Junction attorney Jeff Hurd raised $262,000 for the quarter and had $471,000 in the bank. Carbondale financial advisor Russ Andrews raised $31,000 and finished with $238,000 on hand, including more than $250,000 in loans to his own campaign.

Two other prominent Republicans who joined the primary after Boebert announced her move – former state Rep. Ron Hanks, R-Cañon City, and State Board of Education member Stephen Varela – won’t report their first fundraising totals until April.

Frisch’s lone Democratic rival, Grand Junction Mayor Anna Stout, dropped out of the primary about an hour before posting her quarterly report, which showed she raised $61,000 for the quarter and had $32,000 on hand, with about $4,600 in campaign debt.

It remains to be seen whether Frisch’s fundraising juggernaut – fueled by a constant stream of emailed appeals calling for an end to Boebert’s “angertainment” approach to politics – will survive the incumbent’s departure to another district, but he starts the year with an unprecedented edge over his potential general election opponents.

Since losing his reliable foil, Frisch has been taking credit for “running Lauren Boebert out of the 3rd Congressional District” and pitching the possibility of flipping the seat, which has been in Republican hands since 2011.

“After Adam Frisch built the trust and confidence of independents, Republicans, and Democrats in the 3rd CD, Lauren Boebert saw the writing on the wall, abandoned her campaign for the 3rd Congressional District, and carpetbagged to the other side of the state,” Frisch’s campaign said after she abandoned ship.

In the quarter’s final four days, after Boebert’s announcement, Frisch pulled in more than $100,000 in contributions, his campaign said, suggesting that that her exit didn’t immediately close the spigot. He’s built up a formidable stable of small dollar donors, with more than 180,000 individual donations logged in the second half of the year via ActBlue, the Democrats’ leading fundraising portal, with an average donation of $22.88, according to the site’s year-end report.

While Boebert’s fundraising slipped in the fourth quarter, the $540,000 she raised was more than three times as much as any other Repubican running in the 4th CD, and her nearly $1.3 million cash on hand at the end of the year was far more than her rivals reported.

“Thanks to small-dollar donors who believe in and support Congresswoman Boebert’s proven conservative record of defending our values in Congress, our campaign enters February 2024 with a significant financial advantage over our Republican opponents,” Boebert campaign manager Drew Sexton said in statement. “Matched with the Congresswoman’s tenacious approach to grassroots campaigning, we are in great position to build on our strong start in January and continue winning over conservative voters across the 4th District.”

Douglas County filmmaker Deborah Flora, the former talk radio host who ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate in 2022, had the next-best fundraising period among GOP candidates in the 4th CD, raising $173,000 and reporting $133,000 on hand. She was followed closely by former state Sen. Jerry Sonnenberg, a Logan County commissioner, who raised $154,000 and finished with $150,000 at the end of the quarter.

Peter Yu, a former congressional nominee in a neighboring district and, like Flora, an unsuccessful 2022 U.S. Senate candidate, raised just $4,000 after getting in the primary days before the end of the quarter, but he loaned his campaign $250,000 and so reported $254,000 in the bank after spending almost nothing for the reporting period.

Among the other Republicans hoping to replace Buck, House Minority Whip Richard Holtorf, R-Akron, raised $71,000 for the quarter and reported almost $103,000 on hand, including a $38,000 loan from the candidate. Former state Sen. Ted Harvey, R-Highlands Ranch, raised $41,000 and had $39,000 left to spend.

The 4th CD GOP primary also features candidates who got in after the end of the reporting period, including former House Minority Leader Mike Lynch, R-Wellington, and former congressional staffer Chris Phelen, whose initial fundraising reports are due in April.

On the Democratic side, Ike McCorkle, running his third campaign for the seat after losing the last two elections to Buck, raised $180,000 for the quarter and reported $311,000 on hand. First-time candidate John Padora raised $38,000 and had $28,000 on hand.

Caraveo, the first-term Democrat who represents the 8th CD – the state’s newest and most closely divided seat, stretching from Adams County suburbs north of Denver up to Greeley – reported raising $610,000 for the quarter and had more than $1.3 million in the bank.

That compares to $170,000 raised by her leading Republican challenger, state Rep. Gabe Evans, R-Fort Lupton, who started the year with $186,000 on hand. His primary rivals trailed, with Weld County Commissioner Scott James posting just $40,000 in contributions and $23,000 on hand, and first-time candidate Joe Andujo bringing in just over $4,000 on top of the $216,000 he loaned his campaign, leaving $203,000 left to spend. Another Republican seeking the nomination in the district, former state Rep. Janak Joshi, R-Colorado Springs, threw his hat in the ring in late January, so he won’t report fundraising until after the end of the current quarter.

In the state’s four remaining House districts – all held by Democrats – the incumbents each topped six figures for the quarter, bolstering already sizable campaign coffers. While each has drawn at least one opponent, none of their challengers reported more than minimal fundraising last quarter.

U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette, the longest-serving member of Colorado’s delegation at 14 terms, raised $135,000 in the Denver-based 1st Congressional District and had $335,000 on hand.

In the 2nd Congressional District, which covers most of Boulder and Larimer counties and stretches west into the mountains, three-term U.S. Rep. Joe Neguse raised $194,000 for the quarter and reported $1.9 million in the bank.

Three-term U.S. Rep. Jason Crow, who represents the Aurora-based 6th Congressional District, brought in $179,000 and nearly $1.5 million on hand.

Seeking her second term, U.S. Rep. Brittany Pettersen raised $255,000 in the 7th Congressional District, which stretches from Jefferson County south past Cañon City, and had $592,000 in the bank.