The race between incumbent Republican Lauren Boebert and her Democratic opponent Adam Frisch continued to tighten, with the congresswoman trailing by a razor-thin margin as of early Thursday morning, KTLA sister station KDVR reports.
About 98% of ballots cast in the 3rd Congressional District were counted as of around 6 a.m. Thursday, according to the Associated Press. Frisch had 156,746 votes to Boebert’s 156,682.
The distance between the vote counts has narrowed by the thousands since election night.
“We like where we are, we think we’re in a really good place, we are waiting for what we think are the last batch of numbers that should work out okay for us, but I’m certainly not gonna — I’m a fairly humble guy and I’m not gonna, again, get over my skis, and so we’re gonna be patient,” Frisch said in an interview with The Hill.
Boebert’s campaign expressed optimism as well, with a spokesperson telling The Hill, “There’s certainly a path to victory.”
The race has centered largely on Boebert herself. The former restaurateur has been a consistent firebrand since her 2020 election. She has maintained a fierce devotion to former President Donald Trump, his positions and his brand of politics, including denying the legitimacy of President Joe Biden’s election.
Boebert has been the center of several controversies, including using campaign funds to pay for personal expenses, trying to bring a firearm into the U.S. Capitol, referring to her Republican primary opponent Don Coram as a “groomer” and referring to Rep. Ilhan Omar as a member of the “jihad squad.” She also made headlines by heckling Biden during the State of the Union speech.
Locally, she has embraced conservative positions on crime, education, economy and immigration. She supports the development of oil and gas on Colorado public lands. She wants to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education and prohibit critical race theory in school curricula. A staunch gun rights activist, she opposed the passage of so-called red flag laws in Colorado that give police the ability to take firearms from citizens under certain circumstances.
Frisch, a former Aspen city councilman, campaigned as an antidote to divisive Trump-style politics. In advertisements, he referred to himself as a “conservative” and downplayed his Democratic Party affiliation.
While he is a supporter of abortion rights, Frisch has campaigned to favor private industry for solutions to problems such as health care and debt. He opposed Biden’s plan to forgive federal student loans and wants health care to become more affordable through private marketplaces rather than government intervention.