Democrat Adam Frisch built his longshot 2022 campaign in Colorado’s Republican-leaning 3rd Congressional District on a simple message: His opponent, U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert, was too extreme.
It almost worked.
But as Frisch runs again in the 3rd District, he’s no longer facing Boebert, who fled to safer political territory on the other side of Colorado. And Frisch’s attempts to elevate a similarly controversial Republican candidate in the district’s GOP primary this year failed.
So Frisch is turning to abortion to try to win in November against Republican Jeff Hurd, a mild-mannered Grand Junction attorney who is a first-time candidate preaching pragmatism over showmanship.
An hour after it became clear in last month’s primaries that Frisch would be facing Hurd in November, Frisch issued a statement claiming Hurd supports a federal abortion ban — which isn’t true — and accusing Hurd of not “trusting the women of CD3 to have the freedom to make their own health care choices.”
It’s a tactic that may be risky. The 3rd District, which spans the Western Slope into Pueblo and southeastern Colorado, has been reliably Republican for more than a decade and Hurd is more moderate on abortion than many in the GOP.
“It’s as if he’s running against the candidate he wishes he had, rather than the one he’s facing,” Hurd said.
Still, abortion has been a winning issue in recent years for Democrats in traditionally Republican parts of the country. Since the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, the 1973 precedent protecting the right to an abortion without excessive government restriction, Ohio voters passed a constitutional amendment guaranteeing abortion access and Kansans rejected an initiative that would let the legislature restrict or even ban the procedure.
But abortion’s track record for the left is less clear when it comes to candidate campaigns in Republican-leaning districts like the 3rd, said Joshua Wilson, a political science professor at the University of Denver who specializes in abortion and conservative politics.
It wasn’t until Donald Trump was elected in 2016 that abortion became a top issue for progressive and moderate voters as it was for conservatives, Wilson said. Roe being overturned, and states like Texas, Florida and Idaho imposing new restrictions on abortion as a result, just moved it further up the list.
“Abortion became a much more important, salient issue for a much broader range of voters,” he said. “The big test is really coming up still (in) races like this, where it’s being made into a central issue.”
Frisch is confident abortion is a winning issue for his campaign, especially given that there’s a measure on the November ballot that would amend the state constitution to enshrine Colorado’s already nearly unfettered access to abortion.
“I don’t think anyone from either side of this would say that it’s not going to be a net positive for someone in my situation,” he said. “Because there are going to be people who are going to be voting one way on presidents and another way on some other candidates. There’s enough people going to be voting pro-choice, pro-freedom, pro-health care that we could build a coalition.”
But previous election results paint a murkier picture in the district.
In 2020, voters in the 3rd District narrowly rejected a ballot measure that would have banned abortions in Colorado at 22 weeks of gestation, except in cases where a mother’s life was at risk.
A Colorado Sun analysis shows the measure lost by just over 2,200 votes — or 0.5 percentage points — in the 26 counties that are entirely in the 3rd District. Statewide, Proposition 115 failed by a margin of roughly 570,000 votes, or 18 percentage points.
(A sliver of Eagle County is also in the district, but it’s impossible to parse out how the initiative fared among the group of a few thousand 3rd District voters who live in that portion.)
Additionally, an unscientific survey of hundreds of voters in the 3rd District conducted by The Sun and other Colorado media outlets found that many issues rank higher for them than abortion, including good governance, the economy, the environment and immigration.
Frisch believes the government should never be involved in abortion.
“I appreciate (that) anything past the first trimester gets to be a more challenging conversation for a lot of people, for the religious or nonreligious. I fully respect that,” the former Aspen city councilman said. “Having said that, I still don’t see a situation — ever — where the government should be infringing on the freedom of a woman and her health care provider to make a better decision.”
He said as a congressman he would vote to codify Roe v. Wade. He also said he plans to vote in November for the Colorado ballot measure that would enshrine abortion access in the state constitution.
Frisch’s position on abortion is informed by how his father is an obstetrician gynecologist, and so is his sister. Growing up in Minnesota, Frisch said his family received death threats because his father performed abortions.
“There needs to be a lot of humility and a lot of understanding in times of medical crises,” he said.
Frisch said he thinks abortion can be a winning issue in the 3rd District because he views the conversation around abortion access as being more about individual liberty than partisan politics.
“I think that the freedom to allow women to do what they want to do with their doctors and not having politicians get involved resonates with a lot of people,” he said.
Frisch didn’t make abortion a centerpiece of his 2022 campaign against Boebert, which he lost by just 546 votes. And it didn’t appear to be a central focus this time around until his initial preferred campaign playbook became untenable.
Frisch spent more than $100,000 on TV ads boosting one of Hurd’s opponents, former state Rep. Ron Hanks, in the six-way GOP primary in the 3rd District. Frisch saw Hanks, a firebrand election denier, as having vulnerabilities similar to Boebert’s and thus easier to beat than Hurd.
When Hurd won the primary, Frisch needed an angle of attack. He quickly invoked abortion in campaign statements and fundraising solicitations, along with water and immigration. But abortion has been a recurring theme in Frisch’s recent missives.
“I am willing to talk all day about the fringe view that the government should be dictating women’s medical decisions,” Frisch said in a recent fundraising email.
In an interview, Frisch said the one positive about Boebert switching districts is that “we try to tell people why people should be voting for us, as opposed to against” his Republican challenger. And he has the money to do it — nearly $4 million in campaign cash at the end of June.
Kiera Hatton Sena, the organizing and political director at Cobalt, the Colorado abortion-rights group behind the constitutional measure on the November ballot, thinks abortion can help Frisch break through.
“I do think you can absolutely win focusing on abortion rights in CD3,” said Hatton Sena, who lives in the Pueblo County town of Rye, which is in the district. “There’s something fundamental about rural voters, including myself, that we like to be able to make our individual decisions. We like personal privacy, and we really appreciate not letting the government tell us what to do.”
She said there are Democrats running for statehouse seats in the 3rd District who also have abortion-centric campaign platforms. Hatton Sena pointed to Rep. Matthew Martinez, D-Monte Vista, in House District 62, and Rep. Elizabeth Velasco, D-Glenwood Springs, in House District 57.
“I think it’s a smart bet,” she said.
Hurd said his position on abortion is rooted in legal theory.
“As a constitutional conservative, I believe abortion is an issue that should generally be left to the states,” he said, “and I would not vote for a federal abortion ban.”
Hurd said he also wouldn’t vote for a bill codifying Roe v. Wade since it would take power away from states.
He describes himself as “pro-life,” but said abortion should be allowed in cases of rape and incest, as well as when a mother’s life is at risk.
“If you were to press me on where I would see this issue on the state level, I think I would advocate for a more mainstream approach,” he said. “I’m not sure I’d have a specific week number in mind.”
Hurd said he couldn’t remember how he voted on Proposition 115 in 2020, when he was a private citizen, but the fact that it didn’t include exceptions for pregnancies caused by rape or incest gave him pause. However, he called the number of weeks prescribed in the measure — 22 weeks of gestation — as “pragmatic.”
Hurd supports access to contraception and in vitro fertilization. A campaign spokesman said Hurd has close friends and colleagues who have conceived children through IVF and that Hurd wouldn’t support any federal attempt to limit the procedure.
Hurd said he doesn’t think abortion will be a winning issue for Frisch and that Frisch’s focus on the issue is a sign that he doesn’t know the district.
“It just doesn’t seem to me consistent with what the voters in this district have told me that they care about,” he said. “And, if anything, I think he’s out of step with where most voters are in the district on this issue.”
The 3rd District isn’t the only competitive congressional district in Colorado where Democrats are trying to tap support for abortion access in the wake of the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade.
In the toss-up 8th Congressional District, which spans the northeastern Denver suburbs into Greeley, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee highlighted Republican state Rep. Gabe Evans’ position on abortion in an email blast sent out minutes after Evans won the district’s GOP primary on June 25.
The email, titled “the case against Gabe Evans,” called him an “anti-abortion … extremist.”
Evans says he is pro-life and is opposed to abortion. But, based on his experience as a police officer and given his own family’s experience with multiple miscarriages, he believes there should be exceptions in cases of rape and incest or when a mother’s life is at risk. He also opposes a national abortion ban.
“I think that this issue now firmly rests at the state level for the states to be able to figure out how best to protect all life, born and unborn,” Evans said at a debate earlier this year.
But Evans said he’s not sure at what point in gestation abortion should be banned.
“We can’t paint ourselves into a corner with too-strict laws,” he said, adding that he couldn’t remember how he voted when he was a private citizen in 2020 on Proposition 115, the Colorado ballot measure that would have banned abortion after 22 weeks of gestation.
Evans supported the overturning of Roe v. Wade and said he would support a bill in Congress that would make permanent a prohibition on federal funds being used for abortion, except in cases of rape, incest or a mother’s life is at risk. The measure would also prohibit private insurance offered through the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, from covering abortions if the plans are subsidized by the government.
Meanwhile, U.S. Rep. Yadira Caraveo, the Democratic incumbent in the 8th District, is a cosponsor of the Women’s Health Protection Act, which would establish a federal statutory right to abortion access nationwide. It would offer more protection for abortion access than Roe v. Wade did, prohibiting waiting periods and mandatory ultrasounds, and it would give people the legal right to travel out of state to get an abortion.
“As a doctor, I have stood beside young women facing the solemn decision of whether to have an abortion. Having stood in those rooms, I know it’s a decision that is never made lightly. It’s one of the biggest, most difficult, life-changing decisions a woman can make, which is why I firmly believe it’s a decision that must remain in the exam room,” said Caraveo, a pediatrician and who is a member of the congressional Pro-Choice Caucus.
As a state representative, Caraveo also voted for a bill that was passed and signed into law that confirmed nearly unfettered abortion access in Colorado. Abortion rights groups are asking voters in November to make that change in the state constitution, too, so it’s harder to unwind.
Andrew Baumann, a pollster with Global Strategies Group, a Democratic firm that conducted surveys on behalf of Caraveo’s campaign, said the congresswoman’s narrow 2022 victory was because of her position on abortion. (Caraveo beat Republican state Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer, who said abortion should be banned except when a mother’s life is at risk, by about 1,600 votes.)
“Caraveo would not have overcome the district’s inherent GOP tilt in 2022 without the issue,” he posted on social media.
