State Sen. Barb Kirkmeyer jumped out to an early lead over ministry leader Victor Marx and state lawmaker Scott Bottoms in Colorado’s Republican gubernatorial primary as initial returns posted Tuesday night.

In returns posted shortly after polls closed, Kirkmeyer secured 44%, Marx got 37.5% and Bottoms had 18.5%. The margin tightened as the night wore on, but Kirkmeyer stayed in the lead even as the race remained too close to call. At 9 p.m., she was only just over 8,000 votes, or 1 percentage point, ahead of Marx, with Bottoms trailing.

The three Republicans running for the office held by term-limited Democratic Gov. Jared Polis argue that it’s time to break the opposition party’s grip on the state after eight years of Democratic rule, despite Colorado voters having elected only a single GOP governor in the last 50 years.

Whichever Republican prevails will face Attorney General Phil Weiser, who won the Democratic primary over U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet.

The GOP primary has played out as a battle between insiders and outsiders for control of a party that hasn’t enjoyed a statewide win in the last decade.

Kirkmeyer, who has held public office off and on since the 1990s, is in her second term in the legislature, representing a district centered on Brighton. She previously served as a Weld County commissioner and oversaw a state agency under Republican Gov. Bill Owens in the early years of the century.

Endorsed by U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert, the state’s senior Republican elected official, Marx burst on the scene last fall and has cut an unconventional path since. Following a childhood marked by abuse and instability, Marx enlisted in the Marine Corps and later founded Colorado Springs-based All Things Possible Ministries, which has raised millions of dollars to pursue international humanitarian missions.

Bottoms, a state representative from Colorado Springs, is a pastor at an Assemblies of God church and vowed to be an “uncompromising conservative,” echoing his record in the legislature.

Heading into the primary, both Kirkmeyer and Bottoms said they wouldn’t support Marx if he won the nomination, calling him unfit for office and a “con man,” respectively. Marx, for his part, has said he will back either of his opponents if they emerge to the general election.