Colorado — 3rd District

In the race for Colorado’s largest congressional district, a Republican’s reelection bid could hinge as much on his ability to tout policy wins as his capacity to distance himself from his own party.

Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District, which stretches from northwest Moffat County throughout most of the Western Slope and east to Pueblo, “is one of the most politically diverse districts in the country as well as one of the most economically diverse,” said Rep. Jeff Hurd, a Grand Junction attorney who has held the seat since January 2025.

“I try to put my district first,” Hurd, 47, said. “… I am willing to stand up and be independent, including when it’s not popular within my party or when it’s going against the grain of leadership.”

That sentiment could be put to the test in November’s midterm elections, as Hurd’s Democratic challenger, former Aspen City Council member and Army veteran Dwayne Romero, seeks to tie Hurd to GOP policies that Romero believes are deeply unpopular.

Also hanging over Hurd and other Republican candidates is President Donald Trump, whose low approval ratings could jeopardize the party’s chances of holding onto power in Congress.

“The common theme is frustration and this growing distrust of the [Trump] administration itself and our representative and how he’s behaved,” said Romero, 61, recalling what he heard during a recent town hall he held in Grand Junction.

Still, the race will be an uphill battle for Romero, as Democrats haven’t held the seat since 2011. Hurd won the district in 2024 by a comfortable five-percentage-point margin, while Trump won it by 10 points.

Hurd also maintains a major money advantage, with over $3.5 million raised and more than $1.7 million in cash on hand for his reelection compared to Romero’s $716,000 raised and $84,000 in cash on hand , according to the most recent campaign finance reports.

Hurd: I disagree in a way that ‘stands up for my district’

Since being elected to Congress, Hurd has positioned himself as a moderate conservative willing to work across the aisle — a stark departure from his firebrand predecessor, Rep. Lauren Boebert, whose right-wing views and near-total loyalty to Trump made her a face of the Make America Great Again movement.

Hurd was thrust into the national spotlight earlier this year, when the president pulled his endorsement after the congressman voted with House Democrats to overturn Trump’s tariffs on Canada, though the measure never became law.

“Congressman Hurd is one of a small number of legislators who have let me and our country down,” Trump wrote in a Feb. 21 post on Truth Social . Roughly a month later, Trump re-endorsed Hurd at the urging of House Republican leadership, though Hurd’s team said they had no involvement with seeking the president’s support.

“Where I can work with the [Trump] administration, which is on the majority of issues, we work well together, and where we disagree, I do so in a way that stands up for my district,” said Hurd, who voted against Trump’s tariff policy over concerns that it was hurting industries on the Western Slope.

It wasn’t the first time the congressman broke with his party. He was among a handful of House Republicans who voted in January to restore subsidies for the Affordable Care Act in a bid to prevent health insurance premiums from skyrocketing. The measure never made it out of the Republican-controlled Senate, though Hurd said he is open to working with Democrats again on a temporary revival of the subsidies.

“I am willing to work with either party and even disagree with my own, when necessary, to keep healthcare affordable and accessible,” he said.

Hurd is also a co-sponsor, with Democratic Sens. Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper, of a sweeping conservation bill for western Colorado, which his more conservative primary challenger criticized as a land grab by the federal government.

But Hurd’s Democratic opponent, Romero, said those positions run counter to the majority of Hurd’s record in Congress, adding that Hurd has “said one thing and done another.” Romero points to Hurd’s vote in July 2025 to pass the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, the Republican megabill that enacted the bulk of Trump’s second-term domestic policy agenda, as the clearest example.

Public lands, Medicaid and the Big Beautiful Bill

Hurd has praised the core of the megabill’s policy, an extension and expansion of tax cuts, which the Tax Foundation, a free-market-focused think tank, estimated saved the average U.S. taxpayer around $2,300 this year .

But Romero criticized the domestic policy law’s impact on federal lands and social safety net programs.

Though Hurd opposed provisions in the bill that would have forced the sale of millions of acres of public lands in the West, which were eventually stripped out, he supported other parts of the bill that opened more federal acres to oil and gas leasing, something Romero opposes.

“Our position — and I think this resonates very, very well with folks in the district — is not to sell off or lease off one more square foot of public land,” Romero said.

The megabill is also projected to cut Medicaid funding by upwards of $1 trillion and reduce federal spending on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, anywhere from $187 billion to $287 billion , according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.

Western Slope counties have raised concerns about their ability to implement many of the megabill’s Medicaid changes next year, including new work requirements, and healthcare providers worry that eligible recipients will lose coverage as a result.

Hurd, whose district has the most Medicaid recipients in Colorado, said Congress should address local governments’ concerns with the megabill’s implementation. But he stood by the Medicaid changes, which he called “common sense” reforms that will ensure vulnerable populations continue to receive health coverage while reining in government spending.

“The solution to Medicaid isn’t to simply spend endless amounts of money on Medicaid; the solution is to spend the dollars that we have more effectively on the populations that need it the most,” Hurd said.

Romero said one of his top priorities in Congress would be reversing the megabill’s social safety net cuts. But he did not say if he supported the sweeping overhaul of the country’s healthcare system that has been pushed by more progressive Democrats, who’ve rallied for universal government-sponsored coverage.

“I’m going to be fighting for access to affordable healthcare in the here and now,” Romero said. “I don’t think that our district can afford or is interested in five-, 10-, 20-year-type of solutions.”

Romero said he would want to build consensus among Democrats in Congress on a longer-term healthcare policy while adding that restoring Medicaid funding is an “urgent, red-light emergency.”

On some issues, Hurd and Romero have overlap.

They both want to ban members of Congress from trading and owning stocks, something Hurd said he hears about from voters who are frustrated by what they see as a lack of government integrity.

Romero, too, said he hears about the lack of government accountability while talking to voters, and while he listed stock trading as an example, he also accused the White House of “blatant corruption,” which he said the Republican-controlled Congress has enabled.

Another key issue for Romero is deficit reduction. The national debt hit $40 trillion in August, an issue both parties have contributed to. The megabill passed by Republicans last year is projected to add $4.5 trillion to the deficit over the next 10 years.

Romero said the issue is “not getting the airtime it deserves,” adding that he would focus on areas where government spending can be cut while also increasing revenue.

Hurd said creating more jobs in his district and lowering the cost of living are among his top priorities for a second term, issues he said won’t be solved with “another government program.” Hurd emphasized the need for more affordable energy, which he has pushed for with bills to expand domestic energy production, from oil to geothermal, and expedite government permitting of energy projects.

Do Democrats have a shot at flipping the district?

Despite the 3rd District’s red shade, national trends have given Democrats reason to think the seat is in play this year.

Democrats’ congressional campaign arm recently added the district to its targeted list of seats to flip, along with Colorado’s three other Republican-held House seats. In July, Romero’s campaign released a poll conducted by a Democratic-aligned firm showing Romero trailing Hurd by just one point.

Hurd said he’s unfazed, hoping voters will see him as an effective legislator who is focused on getting results for Colorado. That includes successfully lobbying the Trump administration to unfreeze $40 million in federal funding to help Western Slope communities secure a set of water rights and passing seven bills out of the House, a tally Hurd called “pretty good” for a freshman lawmaker.

“When voters look at me, they will say, ‘Here’s a guy I may not agree with on 100% of things, but he’s willing to stand up, he’s willing to show independence and he’s willing to fight,” he said.

Romero said he believes voters will recognize his decades of experience, which include serving on his local school, fire and water boards, as well as stints as the state’s economic development director and as a member of the Colorado Economic Development Commission.

But to break Democrats’ losing streak, Romero must appeal to a broad range of voters. While the district leans Republican, half of its registered voters are unaffiliated, and many are concentrated in purple cities like Pueblo that could decide the election.

The closest Democrats came to flipping the seat in recent years was in 2022, when former Aspen City Council member Adam Frisch came within 546 votes of unseating Boebert. Frisch ran again in 2024, but lost to Hurd by nearly 20,000 votes.

Asked what makes Romero, also a former Aspen City Council member, the right candidate for the district’s rural communities, he said, “Because I am one of them.” Romero said he has a working-class background — being raised on food stamps by a single mother in Texas and serving 11 years in the military — that resonates with voters. Along with decades of service in local elected office, Romero also owns a property management business, Romero Realty.

“People say, ‘You come from Aspen.’ I showed up in Aspen with negative net worth — student loans,” Romero said. “That makes a difference. It gives me a chance to start to build a conversation that leads to confidence and trust.”

Election Day is Nov. 3. Ballots will begin to be mailed to registered Colorado voters on Oct. 2.