Republican Jeff Hurd defeated Democrat Adam Frisch in Tuesday’s election in Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District, the GOP-leaning seat that U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert left after Frisch came close to defeating her two years ago.

Hurd led Frisch by about 13,500 votes, for a margin of about 3.5 points, as of Thursday night in partial, unofficial returns. Libertarian nominee James Wiley had 2.5%, and another third-party candidate trailed with about 0.5%.

Frisch conceded the race on Wednesday and congratulated Hurd.

In a statement, Hurd said it would be an “honor and privilege to represent the district where I was raised.”

“I got into this race to ensure that our rural communities are not forgotten, and that western and southern Colorado thrive,” he said. 

Hurd thanked Frisch for running a campaign that engaged voters across the district, adding, “Our democracy thrives because of spirited, respectful elections like this one.”

Making his second run in the sprawling, largely rural district, the well-funded Frisch faced Hurd, a Grand Junction attorney and first-time candidate, after Boebert decided mid-campaign to move across the state to a safer seat.

On the heels of falling just 546 votes short of unseating Boebert — in what turned out to be the closest congressional race in the country last cycle — Frisch almost immediately declared he wanted a rematch against the incumbent, whose confrontational brand of politics he derided as “angertainment.”

Campaigning on a promise to “end the circus” and pitching himself as the Democrat who almost beat the outspoken Boebert, Frisch hauled in unprecedented fundraising totals all last year, outraising the GOP incumbent by millions of dollars while campaigning virtually nonstop across the vast district. In a statement conceding the race, Frisch noted that he logged more than 75,000 miles in his run.

“While we were not victorious, I believe that this campaign was part of an important movement that seeks to turn the political temperature down and start focusing on the real challenges that face communities like the ones in CD3,” Frisch said, adding that most voters want both parties to “stop the petty arguments and political grandstanding and start working together to help make everyone’s lives better.”

Boebert announced at the end of last year that she was moving to the solidly Republican 4th Congressional District, which unexpectedly became an open seat when five-term U.S. Rep. Ken Buck announced months earlier that he wouldn’t seek reelection.

Covering most of the Western Slope and parts of Southern Colorado, including Pueblo County and the San Luis Valley, the district has leaned to the right and been represented by Republicans since 2011. National election forecasters called the district a tossup when Boebert was in the seat but moved it back into the Republican column after she departed.

Describing himself as a traditional Republican, Hurd challenged Boebert in the primary before she switched districts, steadily amassing endorsements from dozens of prominent Colorado Republicans, including a former governor, a former U.S. senator and the two GOP congressmen who represented the 3rd CD before Boebert.