A razor-thin margin separates Republican U.S. Rep. Jeff Hurd of Grand Junction and Democratic challenger Dwayne Romero in Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District as election officials across the Western Slope and Southern Colorado work to process remaining ballots. As Colorado Newsline reported, Romero held an early narrow lead before Hurd pulled slightly ahead on Wednesday morning while county clerks continued their counts.
By 7 a.m. Wednesday, official tallies showed Hurd leading by roughly 1,200 votes across the expansive district. The freshman representative held 48.63 percent of the vote compared to 48.23 percent for Romero, leaving the outcome unconfirmed as late ballot returns were tabulated.
The 3rd Congressional District represents Colorado’s largest geographic seat, stretching from the Pueblo area through the San Luis Valley and across vast stretches of the Western Slope. Should Romero overcome the slim gap, he would become the first Democrat elected to represent the district since former Rep. John Salazar of the San Luis Valley lost his seat in 2010 after serving three terms.
Hurd, an attorney, first entered the congressional arena in 2023 when he mounted a primary challenge against incumbent Rep. Lauren Boebert. At the time, Boebert was facing scrutiny after coming within 600 votes of losing the district to Democratic challenger Adam Frisch in 2022. Boebert subsequently relocated to eastern Colorado to run in the heavily Republican 4th Congressional District. Hurd went on to win the Republican nomination in the 3rd District primary and secured the seat in the 2024 general election by defeating Frisch by 5 percentage points.
Romero, a military veteran and small business owner, joined the 2026 race later in the election cycle. He earned the Democratic nomination after defeating financial executive Alex Kelloff in a head-to-head primary election.
Throughout the campaign, national political trends influenced the local contest. Polling indicated that midterm voters expressed growing concern over elevated living costs, the military conflict in Iran, and broader economic policies associated with President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans. Facing those headwinds, Hurd pitched himself as a independent voice to district voters, pointing to specific instances where he broke ranks with the administration.
Among those differences, Hurd cited his opposition to decisions surrounding disaster assistance funding and a February vote against several proposed tariffs. That tariff vote briefly prompted Trump to withdraw his political endorsement of Hurd and express support for a primary challenger, though Trump reversed his decision a month later to endorse Hurd once again.
Local Democrats, however, pushed back against Hurd's independent branding, arguing that his occasional policy departures were overshadowed by his overall voting record. Campaign opponents highlighted Hurd’s support for the major 2025 federal tax and spending legislation passed by congressional Republicans. Democrats criticized that law for implementing major spending reductions to Medicaid, food assistance programs, and other social safety net services. They also emphasized his alignment with the administration's military actions in Iran and the core elements of the federal domestic and foreign policy agenda.
Financial backing also played a critical role in shaping the final weeks of the campaign. For much of the race, Hurd and supporting national Republican political action committees maintained a significant spending advantage over Romero and Democratic organizers. That dynamic shifted in late October when the House Majority Project, the primary Democratic super PAC focused on House races, directed a late wave of $2.5 million in outside expenditure into the 3rd District on Romero’s behalf.
As clerks in Mesa County and across the 3rd District finish processing mail-in and provisional ballots over the coming days, local residents await final returns to determine whether Hurd will retain his seat or if Romero will turn the seat blue for the first time in sixteen years.
