Republican Jeff Hurd wins endorsements from Scott Gessler, Walker Stapleton in Colorado’s 3rd CD
Republican Jeff Hurd’s bid to represent Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District has been endorsed by two former Republican statewide officeholders, his campaign said.
Former Secretary of State Scott Gessler and former State Treasurer Walker Stapleton this week threw their support behind the first-time candidate, calling the Grand Junction attorney a tireless worker and true conservative.
Hurd faces a crowded primary in the Republican-leaning district, which covers most of the Western Slope and Southern Colorado. Hurd was U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert’s leading primary challenger before she announced at the end of last year that she was moving across the state to replace retiring fellow Republican Ken Buck in the more conservative 4th Congressional District.
“I’ve known Jeff Hurd and his family for nearly two decades; he is a true conservative, with the moral compass to do the right thing,” said Gessler in a statement released by Hurd’s campaign. “He’ll be a tireless fighter for hardworking families — NOT for Washington, D.C., power brokers!”
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Gessler, an election law attorney, served as secretary of state for one term, from 2011 to 2015. He was on the legal team that successfully defended against an attempt by a group of Republican and unaffiliated voters to prevent former President Donald Trump from appearing on Colorado’s 2024 ballot under a constitutional provision that bans certain insurrectionists from holding federal office.
Stapleton, the two-term state treasurer from 2011 to 2019, said Hurd knows the challenges faced by rural Coloradans.
“From energy to water to wolves, rural Colorado is under threat,” Stapleton said in a statement. “No candidate for the 3rd Congressional District knows this better than Jeff Hurd, and no candidate will work harder for western and southern Colorado families and small businesses than him.”
Added Stapleton: “Jeff knows Colorado values because that’s where he was raised. He will also be an extremely effective Republican leader for our state. I am proud to endorse him.”
Gessler and Stapleton both made unsuccessful runs for governor — Gessler in 2014, when he lost in a four-way primary, and Stapleton in 2018, when he won the GOP nomination but lost in November to Democrat Jared Polis.
Hurd has also been endorsed by the two Republicans who represented the district before Boebert, former U.S. Reps. Scott Tipton and Scott McInnis. Other prominent Colorado Republicans in Hurd’s corner include former U.S. Sen. Hank Brown, former Gov. Bill Owens, former Lt. Gov. Jane Norton, former Mesa State University President Tim Foster, and former Colorado Springs Mayor John Suthers, a former state attorney general.
Nearly a dozen Republicans are vying for the nomination in the sprawling district. Among Hurd’s fellow primary candidates are former state Rep. Ron Hanks, R-Cañon City, who lost a bid for the U.S. Senate in 2022; self-funder Russ Andrews, a Carbondale financial advisor; State Board of Education member Stephen Varela of Pueblo; former Libertarian gubernatorial and congressional candidate Robin Heid; and first-time candidates Curtis McCrackin, Lew Webb, Joe Granado, Austin O’Connell and David Karpas.
National election forecasters at the Cook Political Report ranked the seat as a toss-up before Boebert jumped to Buck’s former district but have since revised its standing to “leans Republican.”
The presumptive Democratic nominee is former Aspen City Councilman Adam Frisch, who came within fewer than 600 votes of unseating Boebert in 2022 in the closest House race in the country.
Libertarian James Wiley and a handful of other third-party and independent candidates are also running for the seat.
Colorado’s Republican and Democratic primaries are on June 25.
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