Polls and politicos said far-right incumbent U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert was supposed to have as much as a . Now, all that����ap gone as Colorado and the rest of the country watch a neck-and-neck, back-and-forth race unfold. Boebert’s only leading Democratic challenger Adam Frisch by a fraction of a percentage point.

Frisch, a former Aspen City Councilman, held the country’s attention for much of the week, forcing even the most skeptical observers to wonder if he could beat the incumbent congresswoman, of Silt.

Ultimately, Boebert jumped ahead in the vote count Thursday and held the advantage into Friday. Her lead sits a few hundred votes outside of Colorado’s automatic-recount threshold and Frisch’s only hope of a comeback rests with the scattered and undetermined number of ballots flowing in from out-of-state. Those votes aren’t expected to be counted and reported until later next week.

No matter who wins in the end, Democrats and Republicans alike are studying the race, trying to figure out how it wound up like this.

“Did he over-perform or did she underperform?” Justin Gollob, a political scientist with Colorado Mesa University, asked. “It����ap hard to ignore the argument that this was an anti-Boebert election.”

Even before Boebert won the office away from then-incumbent U.S. Rep. Scott Tipton in the 2020 primary election and then Democrat Diane Mitsch Bush in the general election, Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District was considered a relatively safe Republican seat.

The district is the largest in the state and covers the Western Slope and much of southern Colorado, reaching as far north as Pueblo, its largest city. Congressional redistricting, finalized last year, deepened the seat����ap Republican bent.

Not only did that redistricting benefit Boebert����ap party generally but she also held the power of incumbency, a strong advantage anywhere in the country. Plus she had deep pockets full of cash, a strong fundraising system in place and a louder voice on social media than most politicians.

But the congresswoman was not without her disadvantages, even if they weren’t immediately apparent, according to Casey Burgat, a legislative affairs program director at George Washington University.

While Boebert is widely considered to be a star of the far-right, her constant tweeting and confrontational demeanor pushed voters away as much as it garnered attention. The congresswoman’s first term in office has been marred by controversy far more than it benefitted from policy successes.

Boebert on Thursday on low enthusiasm for up-ticket Republican candidates.

Republicans underperformed both in Colorado and across much of the rest of the country. And turnout in Boebert����ap district , nearly matching the under Tipton, who was far less successful in exciting the Republican base than Boebert.

Still, Burgat said Boebert����ap own behavior is likely the biggest factor in the CD3 race.

America saw a similar effect in the 2020 presidential election when then-President Donald Trump lost ground with some traditional Republican voters, Burgat said.

Boebert has not only embraced Trump’s style of governing but also the former president himself, along with his penchant to spread conspiracy theories and attack political opponents.

Voters shifting away from the congresswoman can be seen as a direct repudiation of her behavior, Burgat said. And, to a lesser extent, Trump.

“Voters sometimes get tired of defending the actions of their representatives,” Burgat, a Colorado native, said. “They get tired of explaining ‘I agree with her on policy but, man, I’m so tired of how she’s representing that policy.’”

Perhaps one sign of the trouble ahead for Boebert was a primary challenge from state Sen. Don Coram. While she beat him in a landslide (65% to his 35%), that still meant a sizeable chunk of Republicans in the district were moving to oust the congresswoman.

Enter Frisch, who began watching Boebert early in her first term and figured she was much more vulnerable than her contemporaries in Congress like Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Matt Gaetz and Jim Jordan.

Frisch said after the June primary that he believed he could grab some of the Republicans that supported Coram and like-minded independent voters. So he hit the district broadcasting an even-keeled message and continually lambasting Boebert����ap position in what he calls the “anger-tainment” industry.

“I knew I could earn the trust of some Republicans and a lot of independents and build a coalition,” Frisch told The Denver Post Tuesday night. “Now people are listening with a little more seriousness.”

“She was acting like she had a 75% win margin like Marjorie Taylor Greene but she never bothered to look and nobody bothered to let her know that she only won by five points in 2020,” Frisch added.

Eventually Frisch gained steam, landed spots in the national media and even began raising more money than Boebert. But he had outside help.

Among the most prominent anti-Boebert campaigners was David Wheeler, head of the American Muckrakers political action committee, which helped unseat the similarly controversial in his North Carolina primary bid earlier this year.

Wheeler amplified stories – some of dubious origin – highlighting Boebert����ap negative traits and uplifted Frisch’s positive traits.

Among the most impactful stories, Wheeler said, were those surrounding several dogs shot and killed on Boebert����ap property (she didn’t shoot them) and a recording of a 911 call after Boebert����ap husband confronted neighbors during an argument.

In the end, Gollob said Frisch’s strongest argument for voters on the fence was probably just that he wasn’t Boebert.

Plus, the congresswoman committed a few unforced errors, Wheeler said. She spent a lot of time outside of her district when she should have been courting votes. He called it “Campaign 101 malpractice.”

“Look where she spent her time in the last month,” Wheeler said. “Florida, Tennessee. She was in North Carolina on Sept. 23. That is un-freakin’-heard-of.”

Little reason existed on paper for the congresswoman to change course, Gollob noted. Most political experts considered Frisch to be such a longshot that there wasn’t much polling done in the district. The few polls published showed Boebert with a sizable lead, but Frisch argued he was still within striking distance of the congresswoman.

In the meantime, Frisch kept his head down and stuck with campaign fundamentals, Wheeler said. Ultimately, all the factors combined against Boebert.

“It����ap the cumulative effect of all the bulls—,” Wheeler said.

Boebert lost ground in many of her district����ap most populous counties. She received a this year in Alamosa, La Plata, Mesa, Moffat and Pueblo counties than she did in 2020. She also lost in her home territory of Garfield County by over 13%, more than twice her losing margin there in 2020.

Boebert����ap race against Frisch isn’t yet finished. Even if either candidate wins with enough votes to avoid an automatic recount, they can still request one themselves, so long as they’re willing to pay for it.

Out-of-state ballots can continue to be counted as long as they arrive by Wednesday and votes needing additional signature verification can be fixed until then too. In a race this close, those scattered votes could make all the difference.

Frisch has a little more than three months to close that 7% gap before the Nov. 8 general election. His campaign said in a release that the poll results represent an opportunity for the former Aspen city councilman’s Congressional aspirations, adding that voters in the district “are quickly growing tired of Boebert.”

The poll from asked 550 likely voters for whom they would vote, 49% said Boebert and 42% said Frisch. Pollsters reached voters by phone and said the margin of error for the results was 4.2% in either direction. A rating of pollsters from analysts at FiveThirtyEight gave Keating Research a B/C grade last year.

The silver lining for Frisch, though, is that the poll shows the challenger leading among unaffiliated voters with 49% of the vote to Boebert����ap 41%. And he’s far ahead with unaffiliated women with 54% in support of Boebert����ap 33%. Candidates for Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District have repeatedly noted that the , who make up about a third of the electorate.

“The voters who know Adam Frisch like him,” Frisch campaign spokeswoman Madeleine Schmidt said in a release. “At this early stage of the campaign, roughly two-thirds of voters in the 3rd Congressional District have yet to learn about Frisch — giving him a major opening to grow support in the coming months.”

Boebert on the other hand, Schmidt said, is alienating voters within the district and 44% of them view her unfavorably.

However, polling data can only illuminate so much about a given race.

Heading into Colorado’s 2020 general election the polls showed , former state Rep. Diane Mitsch Bush. Boebert beat Mitsch Bush by about 6%.

For that race Boebert, of Silt, raised nearly $3 million to Mitsch Bush’s $5 million. This time around the tables have turned and the incumbent has raised $5.4 million to Frisch’s $2.6 million, filed at the end of June indicate.

Plus, since she was first elected Boebert����ap national profile — and social media presence — has only grown. She’s a regular on national news programs and has been endorsed by former President Donald Trump.

Despite multiple controversies during her first term, Boebert has repeatedly proved able to hold on to a sizable chunk of voters in her district.

Frisch’s profile is also on the rise since he won the Democratic nomination in June. He has repeatedly taken aim at Boebert’s constant — and often negative — presence on social media and her apparent unwillingness to work with Democrats.

Donovan tweeted this week that she won’t accept donations for now because the proposed map for the 3rd Congressional District, which Boebert represents, doesn’t include Donovan’s hometown of Vail or her ranch in neighboring Wolcott.

The map submitted to Colorado’s Supreme Court for approval places Donovan in the 2nd District, which is represented by Democratic U.S. Rep. Joe Neguse. It also changes 3rd District lines to more heavily favor Republicans, based on recent election results, as part of a redistricting process that creates a new eighth district for Colorado.

Federal law requires members of Congress to live in the state they represent, but they aren’t required to live in a district they wish to represent — meaning Donovan can still seek Boebert����ap seat without a residence in the 3rd District, The Grand Junction Sentinel reports.

However, congressional candidates who do so almost always face harsh criticism for being from outside the districts during their campaigns.

Donovan, who is term-limited, has raised about $1.2 million for her campaign. Boebert is seeking a second term representing a district that covers much of western and southern Colorado and has raised about $1.8 million so far.

Donovan complained that the proposed map would make the 3rd District less competitive and that the statewide redrawing could produce a delegation that����ap split 4-4 between Democrats and Republicans even though Colorado has trended Democratic in recent years.

Democrat Joe Biden won last year’s presidential election by 13 percentage points, and Democrats control the statehouse, the governorship and nearly all statewide offices. Democrats currently hold four of Colorado’s seven congressional seats.

The proposed redistricting creates a new, competitive eighth district north of Denver.

“This new map, if finalized, ignores the will of the voters and makes the district less competitive than it was, and I can’t in good conscience continue to raise money from hardworking Americans for a campaign that lacks, for the moment at least, a clear path forward,” Donovan said.

She added: “Regardless of what happens in the next few weeks, please know that I’m not going anywhere, and I will keep fighting with everything I’ve got for the people of Colorado.”

In an interview Wednesday, Donovan emphasized she isn’t abandoning her campaign but is suspending acceptance of donations, noting she has received more than 60,000 individual contributions in a “grass-roots” campaign not accepting corporate political action committee support. She said she will closely monitor what the Supreme Court decides before deciding her next steps.

The redistricting panel of four Democrats, four Republicans and four unaffiliated voters, none of them officeholders, approved the map last week. The panel’s criteria for making its redistricting decisions included race competitiveness and goals such as keeping communities of interest together and ensuring that minority voting rights take precedence.

Boebert defeated five-term Rep. Scott Tipton in the 2020 Republican primary and defeated Democrat Diane Mitsch Bush by a 6.2% margin.

She has closely aligned herself with former President Donald Trump and is a vocal critic of the Biden administration and congressional Democrats.

Boebert, a freshman Republican from Silt, raised more than $700,000 last quarter, according to her campaign. In a statement, Boebert said it’s critical “for freedom-loving Republicans to take back the House” and to lessen the power of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

“It����ap time to stop Pelosi’s liberal train wreck from shutting down our businesses, shutting down our schools and wrapping and stacking thousands of foreign kids in foil like baked potatoes,” she said, referring to an influx of migrants that have overwhelmed detention centers at the U.S.-Mexico border.

Democratic state Sen. Kerry Donovan from Vail has raised more than $630,000 since entering the 3rd District race in early February, according to her campaign.

“Each person who chipped in is fed up with Lauren Boebert����ap conspiracy theories, division and selfish, ideological agenda and are ready for real leadership that will deliver results to get the doors of main street businesses open, reduce the cost of health care, and keep public lands in public hands,” she said in a statement.

Donovan is one of six Democrats running in the 3rd District and the first to publicize her first-quarter fundraising. Candidates have until April 15 to file reports with the Federal Election Commission.

With the 2022 election still 19 months away, Boebert and Donovan’s fundraising claims signal a long and expensive contest to represent the 3rd District, which is a massive, Republican-leaning swath of western and southern Colorado. The district’s lines will be reconfigured during the redistricting process later this year.

The 2020 race attracted about $8 million in fundraising (not to mention spending by political action committees). Democratic challenger Diane Mitsch Bush raised roughly $5 million, and Boebert about $3 million, though Boebert won by 6 percentage points.

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In a small, dwindling number of hours, 2020 will end. Nothing can be said of it that has not already been said of roaches, rotten eggs and root canals, so let’s leave it at that and dive right in: Here is the best, worst, dumbest and weirdest of Colorado politics in that no good, very bad year, as compiled by reporter Justin Wingerter in consultation with several political observers.

Best federal campaign: Lauren Boebert

When you’re a millennial high school dropout with no political experience and little money who manages to beat a five-term incumbent congressman by 10 percentage points, you’ve earned this superlative. No contest.

“Lauren Boebert accomplished something no Colorado candidate had done since 1972, unseating an incumbent member of Congress in a primary election,” said Dick Wadhams, a former chair of the Colorado Republican Party. “Even though Trump endorsed five-term Congressman Scott Tipton, she convinced Third District primary voters she was the real Trump candidate.”

With a potent Trumpian mix of social media bombast, ultra-conservative platitudes and an unfailing ability to bring attention to herself, Boebert shocked Tipton on June 30. Then she won a general election contest against the far more politically experienced Diane Mitsch Bush on Nov. 3, making her a rising Republican star in Colorado — albeit one who since winning her election has made the biggest wave by backing outgoing President Donald Trump’s attempts to cast doubt on his loss.

Worst campaign: Scott Tipton

When you’re a five-term incumbent congressman who lost to a millennial high school dropout with no political experience and little money by 10 percentage points, you’ve earned this superlative. No contest.

“It would be inaccurate to say that Scott Tipton and his campaign team fell asleep; they were in a coma,” says Jason Bane of Colorado Pols, a Democratic blog.

Aside from sending a few mailers bashing Boebert, Tipton never seemed to acknowledge he had a primary challenger. He skipped forums and did not run TV or radio ads. Then he lost. Badly. There’s not much more to say about Tipton’s campaign because, well, there wasn’t much of a Tipton campaign.

Scott Tipton's primary campaign in :

— J. Miles Coleman (@JMilesColeman)

Best legislative campaign: Kevin Priola

The state senator, a Republican from Henderson, continues to defy expectations, demographics and his party’s decline in the state. How? By combining with a centrist, bipartisan record. The result was in an otherwise Democratic .

Both parties poured massive amounts of money into the legislative race, and Democrats attacked Priola on several fronts. But just as in 2016, when Priola first ran and won, the Republican held on, sketching out a blueprint for how Republicans can be victorious in Colorado’s moderately Democratic areas.

“He went door-to-door in the middle of a pandemic and made the case for reelection despite a brutal barrage from progressive interests and a real lack of quality air support from right-wing outside groups,” said Ian Silverii, executive director of Progress Now Colorado. “Priola is a household name in Adams County to be sure, and that gave him a good head start, but running against that many headwinds and still eking out a victory deserves recognition.”

Best local government campaign: Alexis King

Since 2004, district attorneys in the 1st Judicial District (Jefferson and Gilpin counties) have been Republican. Four years ago, Republican Pete Weir won by a solid seven percentage points. Four years before that, Democrats didn’t even nominate a candidate.

Skip ahead to November. Alexis King, a reform-minded Democrat, faced Matthew Durkin, a Republican with decades of experience and the endorsement of The Post. She won by nearly 10 points, a 17-point party swing from 2016, and will be the first woman to hold the position of top prosecutor in the 1st Judicial District.

Best ad: Andrew Romanoff, “”

This mid-June ad from the Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate was eye-catching, memorable, and accurate. It used former Gov. John Hickenlooper’s famous 2010 shower ad to brutal effect and encapsulated the Senate contender’s awful June in a punchy 30 seconds.

So much so that Colorado’s Democratic establishment rushed to Hickenlooper’s aid. Angrier than mosquitoes in a mannequin factory, they issued statement after sanctimonious statement, decrying the attack ad as too mean.

Worst ad: Giffords, “”

This August spot from the gun control group features a man we are told is Republican U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner but who looks more like an overweight Jeff Daniels. Setting aside the fact that guns were not a top issue for voters (this was August 2020), the supposed purpose of the ad — to criticize Gardner for opposing background checks — is lost in strange imagery, like chest hair coming through MAGA pajamas.

Worst political blunder (tie): Hancock’s travel

Denver Mayor Michael Hancock’s decision to travel for Thanksgiving, after telling Denverites and city staff not to, was immediately criticized by public health officials and politicians in both major political parties. Democrats distanced themselves while Republicans and anti-shutdown conservatives had a field day with it — for weeks.

Today's cover: Democrat hypocrites are undermining COVID with ‘do as I say, not as I do’ attitude

— New York Post (@nypost)

Worst political blunder (tie): Hick’s contempt

In a slew of unforced errors just weeks before his June primary election, John Hickenlooper refused to appear at a virtual hearing of the Independent Ethics Commission, fought a subpoena in court, lost in court, still refused to comply with the subpoena, and was held in contempt, all because he didn’t like virtual hearings.

His decisions, and those of his lawyers, generated weeks of bad headlines and Republican ad material while accomplishing absolutely nothing. In the end, Hickenlooper still had to testify about his multiple gift ban violations. The virtual format he wasted time and taxpayer money fighting worked just fine after all.

“Because of Hick’s own arrogance, resources national Democrats could have deployed elsewhere were instead poured into the primary to rescue his campaign,” says Kyle Kohli with Compass Colorado, a conservative group.

Despite himself, Hickenlooper pulled off wins against Romanoff and then Gardner.

Greatest sacrifice for a campaign: Teddy Hickenlooper

Look, no teenager playing hoops in the driveway wants to go up for a fadeaway only to be blocked by his or her 68-year-old dad. Much respect to Teddy Hickenlooper for enduring that indignity in aid of his father’s U.S. Senate campaign.

In May, the Hickenlooper campaign posted a video of its candidate swatting Teddy’s shot, walking over to a camera and vowing to “block Mitch McConnell from the chokehold he has on the U.S. Senate.” The video was mocked by some — including Texas Sen. Ted Cruz — but proved popular, racking up hundreds of thousands of views.

This man embarrassed his son for a campaign ad and I’m crying

— Anthony Raia (@anthonyraia_)

Need more 2020 politics?

Here’s our list of the top 10 political stories of the year.

As always, forward this newsletter to your colleagues and encourage them to . And to support the important journalism we do, you can become a Denver Post subscriber .

Jeff Small, current senior adviser to Interior Secretary David Bernhardt, will be Boebert����ap chief of staff, the Daily Sentinel reported Wednesday.

Paige Agostin will be Boebert’s legislative director. She is currently associate director of domestic policy in Vice President Mike Pence’s office. Clarice Navarro, who was appointed by the Trump administration to be Colorado executive director for the Department of Agriculture’s Farm Service Agency, has been selected as Boebert����ap district director.

Ben Goldey, who is currently press secretary for the Interior Department, will serve as Boebert’s communications director.

Cathy Garcia will serve as Boebert’s southern Colorado regional director. She has held the same position with Gardner since 2015.

Boebert will represent the state’s 3rd Congressional District after beating incumbent Scott Tipton in the Republican primaries and Democrat Diane Mitsch Bush in November.

At a time when congressional Republicans from Colorado are and remaining mum on election results — neither acknowledging President-elect Joe Biden’s victory nor endorsing Trump’s accusations — Boebert has unabashedly claimed that America’s presidential election was fraudulent.

“There is no way that anyone can call the 2020 presidential election fair. We have to make this right,” her massive social media following Sunday.

During a brief interview Monday afternoon, conducted during a break in Boebert����ap freshman orientation, the congresswoman-elect was asked whether she is convinced Trump beat Biden. She stopped short of making that claim.

“This is a contested election. I’m convinced that President Trump should not stop fighting to prove the results to be fair and just and legal,” she replied.

“This isn’t a radical position to take, to question whether all legal votes are accounted for, and we should always want that. So, I think we should be going through every measure possible to make sure that we get there,” she added.

Boebert, a 33-year-old Rifle Republican, will take office in early January and represent much of Colorado’s western half, along with large swaths of southern Colorado. She defeated Diane Mitsch Bush, a Democrat, by about 27,000 votes, or 6 percentage points. Boebert says her own election was fair and accurate.

“I said from the onset that Colorado has a better history of mail-in security. You could recount my election results all day long and I’d win,” she said. “But I think it����ap fair game to allow the president to exhaust his legal means to challenge election results, especially when you consider he performed at historic levels.”

On Saturday and again Monday, Boebert that Joe Biden received more votes than former President Barack Obama received in 2008, echoing a popular theory among Trump supporters. , because there were 25 million more eligible voters this year than in 2008, and because turnout was higher this year than in 2008 — or in any other election .

On Monday, Boebert also questioned how Biden could have received a record 80 million votes — she refers to them as “his alleged 80 million votes” — in a year when Republicans gained seats in the U.S. House. But House results do not always mirror presidential results; Republicans won the presidency in 2000 and 2016, but Democrats gained congressional seats those years, for example.

Trump, meanwhile, has failed to provide evidence of widespread voter fraud, losing repeatedly in courts across the country. Election officials from both major political parties have certified election results in nearly all key battleground states and the Electoral College is scheduled to certify Biden’s victory in two weeks, on Dec. 14.

David Pourshoushtari, a spokesman for the Colorado Democratic Party, accused Boebert of peddling conspiracy theories and said she should instead focus on crafting legislation for the next Congress.

“It’s an embarrassment and a disservice to the people of Congressional District 3,” he said of her election fraud claims.

Refresh this page for updated results from Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District race as they become available. Mobile users, .

Republican Lauren Boebert declared victory late Tuesday night over Democrat Diane Mitsch Bush in the race for Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District.

The Associated Press, which The Denver Post relies on to determine winners, called the race for Boebert at 7:20 a.m. Wednesday. She held a strong lead with 90% of votes counted at midnight and Mitsch Bush conceded. Boebert had 51.1% of the vote and Mitsch Bush had 45.6% of the vote.

“It is an incredible honor and privilege to win this election and have the opportunity to be the first mom to serve Colorado’s Third Congressional District,” Boebert said in a statement.

She thanked supporters in a Facebook Live video.

In her own statement, Mitsch Bush said, “The voters have spoken. I did not get enough votes to win.”

Boebert will be the first woman to represent the district.

It was the only competitive race among Colorado’s seven U.S. House seats. It was also the only one not featuring an incumbent, meaning the district will now have a new representative for the first time in a decade; Boebert unseated longtime Rep. Scott Tipton this summer.

The district is red-leaning, and it covers nearly half of Colorado’s land mass, including western and southern Colorado, and 29 of the state’s 64 counties. It’s also diverse, with wealthy ski towns like Aspen, giant swaths of agricultural land and public lands, and middle-class cities like Grand Junction and Pueblo.

Boebert, 33, is from Rifle. She is the owner of the restaurant Shooters Grill, where staff carry guns. In 2019, she drove across the state to attend a Beto O’Rourke presidential rally in Aurora. Open-carrying a gun and standing in a sea of Democrats, she challenged the candidate’s position on gun safety.

Boebert entered the Republican primary race with some name recognition, but it was still a shock to the political world when she beat incumbent Tipton by nine points. Tipton is the co-chair of Trump’s reelection campaign in Colorado and he had Trump’s endorsement, but the president and Boebert have forged an alliance since the primary, and she wears a Trump hat to nearly every event she holds.

Mitsch Bush, 70, held only virtual events during the pandemic, citing public health concerns. Boebert, by contrast, held lots of in-person events and greeted voters without a mask.

Though Democrats have long eyed this district as a potential flip, they felt this is their best chance in years. Both candidates spent significantly on television advertising, and from July to September.

As of late afternoon, voters had submitted 2.77 million ballots — nearly 97% of the total cast by Coloradans in the 2016 election,  according to ballot-return figures from the Colorado secretary of state’s office.

Turnout rates had already reached 66% of registered voters and 73% of active voters. Both figures trailed the comparable 2016 rates by greater margins than the raw-vote comparison, though, because the state’s population and voter rolls have grown since then.

Ballots must be received by county elections offices or placed in drop boxes by 7 p.m. Tuesday, when polls close.

As Colorado Democrats nudged voters, a phone-banking session was kicked off Monday by retired Olympic medalist and World Cup champion soccer player Abby Wambach, who appeared on the remote video call.

About three dozen volunteers were getting ready to dial up voters on the Western Slope and in Pueblo. Their focus was on building support for Democrat Diane Mitsch Bush in her tight 3rd Congressional District race against Republican Lauren Boebert.

“What you all are doing right now today is far more important than any single game that I’ve ever played in,”  Wambach told them. “I really mean that. You are actually capable of changing the world in much bigger and more important ways than I could have ever done on the soccer field.”

In the final hours of the race, Democrats were focusing on supporting down-ballot candidates through phone-banking, rallies on busy street corners and remote news conferences highlighting key issues as recent polls showed Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden leading President Donald Trump by a wide margin in Colorado. U.S. Senate challenger John Hickenlooper, the former governor, also had comfortable polling leads over Sen. Cory Gardner.

But Colorado Republicans said their turnout operation also was in full swing, and they were fighting for every vote.

They appeared to have the tougher lift in the final hours. Ballot-return statistics showed that even though voters affiliated as Republicans had submitted slightly more ballots by Monday afternoon than they had on election eve in 2016, they still were trailing registered Democrats and unaffiliated voters significantly.

Four years ago, Republicans slightly edged out Democrats in returns by that point and were well ahead of unaffiliated voters. But the latter two groups went on to vote heavily on Election Day. This time, political observers have speculated that Trump’s critical comments about mail voting could reverse that turnout dynamic in Colorado.

“We have our team still going full blast on phone banking and door-knocking across the state,” said Joe Jackson, a state party spokesman.

Gardner spent Monday campaigning with Boebert at events on the Western Slope, he said.

Republicans plan to have poll watchers in place in all 64 counties on Tuesday as part of the party’s Election Day operation, Jackson said.

Along with the potential for record turnout, the election has heightened anxieties among partisans and sparked concerns of heated demonstrations in coming days. On Monday, some downtown-area businesses were boarding up their windows in response to warnings about potential unrest from Denver city officials, who were standing up a police command center as a precaution.