Former U.S. Rep. Bob Beauprez on Tuesday added his name to a lengthy list of Colorado Republicans endorsing first-time candidate Jeff Hurd in the GOP primary for the seat currently held by U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert.

Beauprez, a former chairman of the state GOP and two-time gubernatorial candidate, called Hurd “a man of integrity and a lifelong Republican” in a statement shared first with Colorado Politics.

“Jeff Hurd epitomizes the heart and dedication of a true conservative, a commitment he has demonstrated throughout his life,” Beauprez said. “His profound understanding of the issues that matter most to Coloradans, from securing our borders to ensuring economic prosperity through responsible energy use, showcases his readiness to lead and instills confidence in his ability to do so effectively.”

He added, “Jeff is not only good-hearted but deeply committed to the values we hold dear. He will serve Colorado with the seriousness and the principled leadership it deserves.”

Hurd, a Grand Junction attorney, is one of six Republicans vying for the nomination in the battleground 3rd Congressional District, which covers most of the Western Slope and parts of Southern Colorado. Before Boebert announced at the end of last year that she was moving across the state to run in the more reliably Republican 4th Congressional District, Hurd was the two-term lawmaker’s leading primary challenger.

The winner of the June 25 primary will face Democrat Adam Frisch, the former Aspen city councilman and fundraising powerhouse who nearly unseated Boebert in 2022, in the closest congressional race in the country.

Beauprez, a Jackson County bison rancher, won the country’s closest congressional race two decades earlier, when he was elected to the first of two terms representing the suburban 7th Congressional District. He gave up the seat in 2006 to run for governor but lost to Democrat Bill Ritter. Beauprez ran for governor again in 2014 but lost to Democrat John Hickenlooper.

The Cook Political Report ranked the 3rd CD as a toss-up ahead of the 2024 election but shifted the race’s rating to “leans Republican” after Boebert moved and made it an open seat.

Hurd’s primary rivals dismissed Beauprez’s endorsement, saying it shows their opponent is stuck in the GOP’s past.

“Good work, Jeff!” said former state Rep. Ron Hanks in a text message to Colorado Politics. “Another Establishment endorsement tells the voters EXACTLY what they need: Not MAGA, anti-Trump, NOT Conservative!”

Hurd refuses to say whether he voted for Donald Trump in 2016 and 2020 and won’t say whether he’ll vote for the former president and presumptive Republican nominee this fall. However, he has said he shares Trump’s top priorities, including securing the border and attaining U.S. energy independence.

That isn’t good enough for State Board of Education member Stephen Varela, whose spokesman texted Colorado Politics that Hurd’s “anti-Trump rhetoric is dividing the Republican Party.”

Added Alan Philp, Varela’s campaign manager: “Stephen Varela is the battle-tested conservative working to unite the party and win the endorsement of the people who count: the western and southern Colorado voters who reside in the Third Congressional District.”

Russ Andrews, a financial advisor from Carbondale who is largely self-funding his campaign, said in a text message that the backing from Beauprez demonstrates that Hurd is out of touch with the district’s voters.

“Jeff continues to seek endorsements from old, tired, establishment politicians, while I focus on representing the hard-working people of CD-3,” Andrews said, adding: “Ron Hanks likens Jeff’s campaign to Joe Biden’s in 2020 wherein Biden hid in his basement, and I agree with Hanks on that observation.”

Since announcing his candidacy last summer, Hurd has won endorsements from a host of the state’s prominent former GOP office-holders, including the two Republicans who represented the 3rd CD before Robert, former U.S. Reps. Scott Tipton and Scott McInnis. Others in Hurd’s corner include former Gov. Bill Owens, former U.S. Sen. Hank Brown, former Lt. Gov. Jane Norton, former Colorado Springs Mayor and state Attorney General John Suthers, former State Treasurers Walker Stapleton and Mark Hillman, and former Secretary of State Scott Gessler.

First-time candidates Curtis McCrackin and Lew Webb are also on the Republican congressional primary ballot, which goes in the mail to voters the first week of June.