The Democrat who has been running for nearly a year to unseat Republican U.S. Rep. Jeff Hurd in Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District got some company in the primary this week.

Dwayne Romero, a Snowmass Village business owner and decorated Army combat veteran, announced his candidacy on Tuesday, the same day precinct caucuses kicked off the nominating process. He joins first-time candidate Alex Kelloff, an Old Snowmass resident and co-founder of Armada Skis, who launched his campaign in April.

They’re vying to take on Hurd, a Grand Junction attorney who was elected to the seat in 2024 after its incumbent, Republican U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert, moved across the state to seek reelection in a more solidly Republican district. Hurd is facing a primary challenge from Hope Scheppelman, a former vice chair of the Colorado GOP, who won President Donald Trump’s endorsement last month.

The district, which covers most of western and southern Colorado, is listed as a “likely Republican” seat by the nonpartisan Cook Political Report. Hurd isn’t targeted by national Democrats this year, but Romero’s campaign contends that the Democrat can put it on the map.

“I know what it means to come from nothing and give your life in service to your country and community,” Romero said in his announcement. “That’s why I can’t stand by as Washington politicians threaten our freedoms and make life more expensive for Coloradans.”

Romero charged Hurd with “consistently (voting) to make life more expensive for Coloradans,” citing the Republican’s votes last year for the GOP’s signature tax and budget package.

“Instead of fighting for Colorado families, Jeff Hurd is taking orders from DC party bosses and rubber-stamping reckless policies that raise our costs.” Romero said. “Coloradans deserve a strong leader, not a weak lawyer representing us in Congress.”

Hurd’s campaign didn’t respond to a request for comment about Romero’s 11th-hour entry in the race. Neither did Scheppelman.

In a campaign video, Romero described growing up in a family led by a single mom who made minimum wage and relied on food stamps.

Saying he was motivated to run because “Jeff Hurd and Donald Trump have taken too much,” Romero added: “I sure as hell didn’t risk my life in Iraq so Trump and Hurd could sow chaos and trample our freedoms.”

A graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and Harvard Business School, Romero served for seven years in the Army Corps of Engineers and was awarded a Bronze Star for valor for his service as a combat engineer during the Persian Gulf War. After being stationed at Fort Carson, Romero and his family moved in 1997 to the Roaring Fork Valley, where he worked for a developer and now runs a property management company that employs more than 100 people.

He’s held numerous local offices — on the Aspen City Council, the Aspen School District board, the Aspen Fire Protection District and the Roaring Fork Transit Authority — and served as executive director of the state Office of Economic Development and International Trade under then-Gov. John Hickenlooper. Romero currently sits on the elected Snowmass Village Water and Sanitation Board.

Romero’s campaign launched with an endorsement and fundraising assistance from Adam Frisch, his former next-door neighbor and the Democratic nominee in the district in the last two election cycles.

“While Jeff Hurd seemed like a decent guy at the time, he has been a disappointing congressman, a complete lemming to Trump’s chaos,” wrote Frisch, who has been working since his loss to Hurd with a political action committee that aims to recruit centrist Democrats to run in districts carried by Trump, in a fundraising email.

Noting that he’s interviewed more than 80 potential House candidates, Frisch said Romero was “one of the very best of the bunch.”

After falling just over 500 votes short of defeating Boebert in 2022, Frisch smashed all previous fundraising records held by Colorado congressional candidates in 2024, though he lost to Hurd by a more convincing 5 percentage points.

Stressing his family’s long history in the district — stretching back four generations — Kelloff said in a statement that he’s put in the work and is positioned to take on Hurd in November.

Kelloff pointed to the more than 10 months he’s spent campaigning across the district’s 27 counties, raising over $1 million and winning numerous endorsements, including from former U.S. Rep. John Salazar, the last Democrat to represent the seat.

“I respect anyone who chooses to run for public office. But we as Democrats need to be serious about flipping this seat on Nov. 3 to stop Trump’s reckless presidency and, therefore, we must be honest about what hasn’t worked in the past in CD-3 — entering the race at the very last moment, not having done the work won’t cut it,” Kelloff said in a statement.

“The path forward is clear: support the candidate who has been doing the hard work, building trust, raising the resources, and listening to the people of this district from day one,” he added.

Kelloff and Romero are both pursuing spots on the June 30 primary ballot through the caucus and assembly process, which requires winning the support of at least 30% of the delegates elected at this week’s precinct caucuses and upcoming county assemblies. The district’s nominating assembly is scheduled for March 27, the day before Democrats hold their state assembly in Pueblo on March 28.