WASHINGTON – Adam Frisch is ready for a shorter, six-week campaign for Democratic National Committee vice chair after spending years campaigning for Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District seat.
Frisch announced his candidacy for the position on Wednesday. He said the main reason he is running is because he brings a unique perspective to the role, having traveled and campaigned throughout rural Colorado. Frisch also said he hopes to bring change to the Democratic Party by encouraging candidates who run on hyperlocalized platforms.
“The Democratic Party, I've said for a long time, has lost a lot of support and votes from ranching, farming, rural, small town, labor,” Frisch said in an interview with The Durango Herald. “And it's frustrating to hear some of the people at the national level saying, ‘Oh, maybe we should talk to the voters,’ which I thought was kind of the whole idea in the first place.”
Throughout his campaign for CD-3, Frisch vowed his loyalty to rural Colorado. However, he said since the 1990s, support for Democrats in rural communities has declined. Frisch said he is running for the vice chair position to regain Democratic support among those communities.
“I think I can share the focus on what we should be looking for in small-town, rural America districts,” Frisch said.
One job of the DNC is to help administer the Democratic National Convention, which helps choose candidates for the Democratic primary. Frisch said he wished candidates were focused more on local issues.
“I just personally wish more people focused on the local, what the candidate is versus what party (they’re from) and that's just not where the national mood is,” Frisch said.
For example, throughout his congressional campaign, he said he strongly supported domestic energy producers because it is a top issue across the district. He said the national Democratic Party has lost touch with local issues.
“You have people producing steel and manufacturing in southern Colorado,” Frisch said. “You have ag, ranching and farming, people putting food on people's plates, that's producing. There are domestic energy producers in western Colorado and the Democratic Party has lost touch with a lot of that producer class.”
While campaigning on local issues, he said some of his ideas aligned with his Republican opponent. Even though he said his stance on issues mostly aligns with Democrats, Frisch said Democrats should not be scrutinized for having values that don’t align with the national party.
“Jeff Hurd and I had the same immigration policy on the whole,” Frisch said. “A lot of the same domestic energy, focused on ranching and farming and production and the whole time the campaign against me was, ‘You're a Denver, D.C. Democrat.’ And so I think for candidates there is this issue of how independent you can be.”
When it comes to independence, Frisch said the national party brand impacts candidates.
“The Democrats are kind of the party of institutions, and institutions have not been delivering for a lot of people lately,” Frisch said. “And that, I just couldn't outrun that national brand.”
Frisch said he is running for one of the three vice chair positions. He said the campaign consists of emailing and calling members of the DNC to garner support. He also needs 40 signatures to get on the ballot.
Maria Tedesco is an intern for The Durango Herald and The Journal in Cortez and a student at American University in Washington, D.C. She can be reached at mtedesco@durangoherald.com.
