“She’s in it to make these outrageous comments,” suggested Fetchenhier, a Democrat who owns Fetch’s Mining & Mercantile on Greene Street in Silverton and also serves on the San Juan County commission. “Even Republicans are getting tired of the shenanigans.”

Meet Thomas Moore Jr., who voted for Boebert in 2020 and last year.

“She’s vitriolic, she’s sensationalistic, she draws attention to herself,” said Moore, a Pueblo native and loyal Republican who’d just left that county’s courthouse on a warm September afternoon after picking up collector plates for his 1986 Mercedes-Benz 420SEL. He speculated about her high-profile congressional perch: “I think it’s gotten to her head.”

Whether it’s incendiary comments Boebert has made to colleagues in Congress, her shouting at the president during a State of the Union address or her recent ejection from a musical in Denver for inappropriate behavior, plenty of residents in her district — including some who liked her in the past — have had enough.

More than three years have passed since Boebert, a handgun-toting former restaurant owner from the Rifle area, rocketed to prominence by ousting a seasoned Republican congressman in a party primary, on her way to winning the seat. The headlines and attention that initially won her fans have taken a toll.

Now Boebert, 36, has exactly one year to refurbish her image and reassure voters across her massive congressional district that she deserves their support in the Nov. 5, 2024, election. That is, if she makes it through a GOP primary next June that already has some big names lining up behind one of her opponents.

“She’s a polarizer rather than a back-bencher. She’s going to raise a lot of money and she’s going to raise a lot of money for her opponent,” said David Wasserman, a senior editor and elections analyst for the Cook Political Report, which . “Her fate rests with the voters who didn’t show up for the (2022) midterm but will show up in 2024.”

Boebert, in moments of reflection during a recent interview with The Denver Post, acknowledged the challenges she faces in her re-election bid, especially after the theater incident. But she said she doesn’t plan any drastic changes in her approach to the job.

“I didn’t come here to go along to get along, and just do things the way they’ve always been done — because they aren’t working,” she said.

The Post found no shortage of opinions about the second-term congresswoman during a recent swing through Colorado’s sprawling 3rd Congressional District, which swoops from the northwest corner of the state down through many of its southern counties. It takes in Western Slope ranching communities and ritzy ski towns before reaching Pueblo and the plains.

While some voters sounded caution about another Boebert term in Congress, others feel she is the perfect answer for a state that has turned decidedly blue, at a time when there’s a feeling that the chasm between rural and urban Colorado has only deepened.

Dan James, a staunch Republican and gun shop owner in Pagosa Springs, said Boebert has “more balls than many of the people in Congress do.”

“Sometimes her toughness shows,” James said, as he offered up a free copy of the U.S. Constitution from a stack of booklets on his front counter at PS Guns & Ammo on an early fall afternoon. “We have a government that doesn’t want the citizens to be armed. And Lauren, a little itty person, she acts like she’s 10-foot tall.”

But the same thing can rub Christina McCleary the wrong way. The La Veta Democrat doesn’t like Boebert’s sometimes undiplomatic approach to those who don’t agree with her.

“I don’t have a problem with her speaking her mind, I have a problem with the way she does it,” said McCleary, who was stopping at a liquor store after work in this Huerfano County town of fewer than a thousand people. “It does not flatter our district at all.”

The varying assessments reflect the wildly divergent effect Boebert has had on the nearly 565,000 registered voters in her district since her 2020 election.

“Lauren is polarizing, like (Donald) Trump,” said Greg Brophy, a farmer, consultant and former Republican state lawmaker from Wray who first met Boebert at her Rifle restaurant a decade ago, during his run for governor. “Either they love her or hate her.”

Testing district’s strong Republican lean

Though her largely rural district leans firmly Republican, with a in GOP affiliations over Democrats, voters nearly spurned Boebert last November for her challenger, former Aspen City Councilman Adam Frisch.

The 546-vote difference separating the two — out of more than 327,000 ballots cast — triggered an automatic recount under state law.

In pursuit of a rematch, Frisch has developed a formidable fundraising advantage over the incumbent and all other declared candidates. A poll commissioned by his campaign over the summer showed a statistical dead heat in the 3rd District, with Frisch leading by 2 percentage points.

As Boebert, a bomb-throwing member of the far-right Freedom Caucus in Congress, has made headlines for her antics and actions both on and off the House floor, Democrats have found themselves with potentially their best hope to reclaim a seat they haven’t won in 15 years.

“CD3 leans solidly Republican, so the incredibly close 2022 results showed substantial fatigue among many in the district with the drama — and a willingness to consider a moderate Democrat in the name of pragmatic legislating,” said Paul DeBell, an associate professor of political science at Fort Lewis College in Durango.

Boebert, he said, does better “when she focuses on pragmatic issues of legislation and less on churning out firebrand soundbites.”

The congresswoman publicly apologized for being thrown out of a performance of “Beetlejuice” at Denver’s Buell Theatre on Sept. 10. She’d found herself at the center of a national media firestorm as surveillance video showed her vaping, recording the performance and groping her male companion. It’s an incident that has prompted in her district.

But she told The Post she doesn’t intend to be a “wallflower” in Washington, D.C. Boebert doesn’t see her feisty and combative approach as chaotic, but rather as a necessary, if sometimes “uncomfortable,” way of forcing change in the national’s capital.

“Not one of my colleagues campaigned on continuing with the status quo. We all campaigned (by) telling our voters that Washington is broken, that we need a new way to legislate,” she said.

This year, Boebert sponsored and passed several bills out of the Republican-controlled House. She worked with Colorado’s two U.S. senators on a bill that aims to preserve hundreds of jobs in Pueblo following the closure of the U.S. Army’s Pueblo Chemical Depot. She regularly works on water, energy and inflation challenges that impact her constituents directly, she said.

“Look at my odometer in my car and see how much boots-on-the-ground time that I have in the district,” Boebert said. “I don’t see it as drama. I don’t see it as chaos. I don’t see it as dysfunctional. I’m a mother of four boys, I’m a previous restaurant owner — I know chaos and dysfunction very well.”

Primary challenge looms as “an escalating problem”

But looking ahead to 2024, several high-profile state Republicans have recently thrown their support to Grand Junction attorney Jeff Hurd, who announced in August he would challenge the incumbent in the GOP primary.

They include former Gov. Bill Owens, former U.S. Sen. Hank Brown, and John Suthers, a former Colorado attorney general and recent Colorado Springs mayor. Several county commissioners in Boebert’s district also have backed Hurd.

Former U.S. Attorney Jason Dunn, a Trump appointee who supports Hurd, that the Buell Theatre contretemps was “the straw that I think broke the camel’s back” for some party faithful. Dunn declined to elaborate when contacted by The Post.

The intraparty challenge is Boebert’s “immediate problem, and it is an escalating problem,” said Justin Gollob, a political science professor at Colorado Mesa University in Grand Junction.

“Recent endorsements of Jeff Hurd from local Republicans are not good news for her campaign and signal trouble ahead,” he said. “While this is a storm that can be weathered by her campaign, it is hard to ignore the gathering storm clouds.”

Wasserman, from the Cook Political Report, predicted a tough road ahead for Boebert in the next year, saying she has “done very little to rehabilitate her image since her close call” against Frisch. Nonetheless, he isn’t sure she will be so easily dislodged by fellow Republicans in June.

“I’m very skeptical Boebert can be beaten in a primary, given her viral following among Republicans and her primary victory in 2022,” he said, referring to her nearly 2-to-1 crushing of former state Sen. Don Coram.

And if Trump is the Republican presidential nominee next November, Brophy said, that should help her by rallying his supporters.

With next year’s race resting largely in the hands of the district’s roughly 250,000 unaffiliated voters, Boebert will have to figure out how to appeal once again to those who aren’t part of her base. And with Frisch more than capable of attracting national money in what will be one of the most closely watched races in the country, Wasserman said the congresswoman will need to be at the top of her game.

Boebert says she has beaten expectations before — no more so than during her successful quest in 2020 to defeat then-Rep. Scott Tipton in the Republican primary. Her chances were roundly dismissed outside conservative media, including by Tipton himself.

“I was elected to Congress as a fighter. I had to fight like heck to get here,” she said. “I wasn’t supposed to win my primary against a five-term incumbent. I was outspent in my general election. I had $6 million in negative ads running against me — they were raining down on me — and I still won that election.”

Hope Scheppelman, the vice chair of the state Republican Party and a resident of Bayfield, near Durango, said Boebert’s record of “standing up for her conservative principles is unmatched.” Her background, which also includes work in Garfield County’s natural gas industry as a pipeline mapper, also helps her connect with people.

“For rural Colorado, she’s one of us at the end of the day,” Scheppelman said. “She’s proud of her roots and voters can relate to her story, they feel a connection with her when she speaks and they know she’s not one of the typical politicians that we see too much of in D.C.”

Legislative record in focus

Scheppelman also suggested Boebert’s effectiveness has benefited from Republicans’ retaking of the House majority at the start of the year, giving her bills a better chance of moving forward — though Democrats still control the Senate.

“She’s been able to push bills through the process that truly benefit 3rd District voters, and that will help immensely in this upcoming cycle,” Scheppelman said. “That wasn’t something voters were aware of in 2022, which I think hurt. But we’ve seen the difference this year and that’s just one reason she will win in 2024.”

Boebert points to bread-and-butter issues that she has worked on in Congress, including gas extraction and veterans benefits, as proof she is not constantly playing for the cameras. This year, she has sponsored and passed seven bills out of committee and three bills out of the House, while attaching more than 50 amendments to legislation.

One of Boebert’s bills, which passed the House Natural Resources Committee, aims to protect four species of threatened and endangered fish. Another bill she helped craft would extend the length of oil and gas drilling permits from two to four years; it was passed by the House.

She also points to a bill, which has made it through committee, that would yield local benefits by allowing Mesa County to buy 31 acres of federal land in Clifton for economic development purposes. The deal has the backing of the Bureau of Land Management, her campaign said.

“There is a real rural and urban divide that takes place, especially in Colorado, and our rural voters are often ignored,” she said. “The policies from these urban areas are forced on Colorado’s 3rd District and the area’s surrounding rural areas. So I want to give them the voice they never had.”

But Paul Henricksen, who lives in Pueblo County and served as a U.S. Army infantry staff sergeant in both Iraq and Afghanistan, said Boebert failed veterans when she voted against the Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics (PACT) Act last year. The $325 million bill, which passed through Congress, to burn pits, Agent Orange and other toxins.

Hendricksen, who is president of the Pueblo Veterans Council, said Boebert is so partisan in how she governs that she’d rather spend her time “trolling the liberals” than helping vets.

“It’s about denying the other party any success,” he said.

Rocky Mountain Values, a progressive dark-money group, in an ad campaign against her this summer.

Scheppelman, who served as a hospital corpsman in the Navy for four years, said Boebert voted against the PACT Act because it was a poorly written bill that had “no funding mechanism” and threatened to create a backlog in getting veterans their benefits.

She pointed to four other major veterans bills Boebert voted for that “directly impacted and improved the lives of veterans in the 3rd District.” Among them were money for veterans’ benefits and of about 6% for veterans’ disability compensation that Congress passed last year.

Brophy said Boebert has been plenty busy in her district, but the public wouldn’t know it because much of the media “cannot help but blow up the more flamboyant things that she does that constitute a tiny fraction of her actual work.”

“They are as fascinated with her as Fox News is with AOC (New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez),” he said, “and for exactly the same reasons: She’s attractive, controversial and drives clicks.”

“This isn’t about one night,” Boebert says

At the top of the Boebert media-feeding frenzy is the ignominious boot she got from “Beetlejuice.” Bolstered by the security video of Boebert in a revealing dress, the story went ferociously viral. The congresswoman quickly became a point of national ridicule for everyone from comedian John Oliver to radio host Howard Stern to Saturday Night Live.

In a , Western Slope GOP state Rep. Matt Soper said he heard from Boebert shortly after the incident.

“She talked about the stresses of her divorce that was almost finalized at that time and the excitement of going on a first date for the first time in years,” he told the magazine.

Boebert told The Post: “I did mess up, plain and simple, and I’ve taken accountability for my actions and I’ve apologized directly to my voters.” And her constituents, she said, are “abundantly merciful and graceful.”

“I believe wholeheartedly that my voters know this isn’t about one night,” Boebert added. “This is about the future of our country.”

DeBell, the Fort Lewis College professor, said the news media, which “deserve some culpability for our outrageous politics,” has developed an almost co-dependent relationship with Boebert.

“Sensational coverage gets more attention, and that provides incentives for outrageous statements and behavior in order to gain political prominence and get ahead in electoral contests,” he said.

While that may work in the fast-paced national media climate, DeBell suggested that “it plays much less well here in the 3rd District — where many voters, including many in the Republican Party, do not want to be known as the home of such outrageous political drama.”

The drama began as Boebert took office. On Jan. 6, 2021, in Arizona and Pennsylvania, calling the results in Arizona a “travesty.” A few days later, she refused to turn over her bag to Capitol police after she set off metal detectors. She had vowed to carry her Glock throughout Washington, D.C. in previous days and was rebuked by the city’s police chief for saying so, given the city’s restrictive gun-carrying laws.

In late 2021, Boebert apologized after being captured on video implying that Ilhan Omar, a fellow member of Congress and a Muslim, could be a suicide bomber. The following summer, Boebert was lambasted for critiquing a cornerstone principle of the American republic.

“I’m tired of this separation of church and state junk,” she told a gathering in Basalt.

Jim Harper, whose family owns the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad and the Grand Imperial Hotel in Silverton, said in an interview that it was time to lower the temperature of the political discourse. As he threw sheets and towels into a washing machine in the basement of the 140-year-old hotel in September, the registered Republican chose his words carefully when asked about Boebert.

“National politics are national politics — we need to focus on home,” Harper said. “Maybe it’s time to focus on home and mending those fences. I’m Silverton-first, I’m Colorado-first.”

GOP challenger: “Our district is lacking the leadership it needs”

That’s precisely what prompted Hurd, one of four announced Republican challengers, to enter the district’s GOP primary in August. The 44-year-old attorney, who specializes in working with electric co-ops across the 3rd Congressional District, said voters want a “reasonable Republican.”

“I think people in the district want someone who is focused on local headlines, not national ones,” Hurd said. “I feel our district is lacking the leadership it needs.”

The “Beetlejuice” incident, he said, amounts to a character question for voters.

Dissatisfaction with Boebert goes beyond just big-name Republicans. Mesa County Commissioner Cody Davis recently switched his allegiance to Hurd. His colleague, Commissioner Bobbie Daniel, did the same.

“I have supported the congresswoman over the years, but it����ap become less about her constituents and more about her,” Davis said. “We need to elect leaders focused more on fixing the problems that ail our country, and that starts with electing a new generation of representatives.”

In neighboring Delta County, Republican commissioner Don Suppes said last month that . And on Thursday, Rio Blanco Commissioner Ty Gates became local Republican Western Slope officeholder to endorse Hurd and not Boebert.

But Wendell Koontz, who sits on the dais with Suppes in Delta County, says he’s sticking with the incumbent.

“To put it in perspective, she made a dumb move — but we’ve all made dumb moves,” he said of the “Beetlejuice” incident. “I like candidates who have suffered some of life’s hard knocks and picked themselves up and learned from them.”

But will the seemingly endless controversy swirling around Boebert impede the flow of money necessary to mount a successful campaign?

Frisch, the Democratic frontrunner among several candidates seeking that party’s nomination, has so far in the 2024 cycle. Hurd, meanwhile, raised about half of Boebert’s $800,000 third-quarter haul, despite having been in the race for only six weeks. Another notable Democratic entrant is Grand Junction Mayor Anna Stout, who’s raised just over $100,000.

“It is certainly a poor sign for Boebert, though it is difficult to determine how much this is predictive of fundraising over the next year,” Fort Lewis College’s DeBell said. “One thing is for sure, she has serious challengers in both major parties who are well-organized, working hard and focused on winning her seat.”

That will keep a bright spotlight on the race. Case in point: A small group of protesters — complete with someone dressed in a striped Beetlejuice costume — gathered at the edge of Buckley Park in downtown Durango in late September to protest Boebert, a full 13 months before the election. Rocky Mountain Values had a hand in organizing the rally.

“It feels embarrassing to live in this district,” said a sign-wielding Nikki Bauer, a 25-year-old Minnesota transplant who works at the local Unitarian Universalist Church. “She doesn’t govern — she’s just making a scene for the media.”

Nearly four hours away via winding roads and over towering mountain passes, Elizabeth Brim likes Boebert’s forward style. She flies an anti-Joe Biden flag outside her house in Gunnison, and she particularly embraces the congresswoman’s “gun stance and her opposition to the Democrats.”

“I love people with no filters,” said Brim, as she juggled kids and groceries in the doorway of her home. “I like hearing the truth, even if the truth is something I don’t want to hear.”

But if that kind of outspokenness has had a strong appeal in the political turmoil of recent years, it’s wearing thin for other voters. Joe Martinez, the owner of the stalwart business Martinez Shoe Repair in Alamosa in the San Luis Valley, said he started off open to Boebert, despite being affiliated as a Democrat.

But the headlines she has created have become too much for him.

“She started off really good, and then it fell apart,” he said.

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“This was supposed to be a slam dunk for the Republican candidate, the way the district is designed,” said Don Coram, a former state senator who unsuccessfully challenged Boebert in the GOP primary last June.

Boebert����ap near miss was emblematic of the difficulties Republicans confronted in 2022 and may face again in 2024. While former President Donald Trump holds a tight grasp on much of the GOP base, there is a notable minority of Republican voters who do not consider themselves MAGA members.

Most of them, as faithful Republicans, backed GOP candidates in 2022, AP VoteCast shows. Still, the extensive national survey finds these Republicans made up a larger percentage of those who opted not to support a candidate in House races. A sliver of them showed their opposition to Trump for a second time, backing Democrat Joe Biden for president in 2020 and Democratic House candidates in 2022.

In a political climate where competitive elections are nationalized and decided by narrow margins, neither party can take these voters for granted.

Democrat Adam Frisch said he knew there was a “fairly unique” opening for a more conservative Democrat to connect with Colorado voters who did not like Boebert����ap aggressive political style.

“I spent most of my time trying to convince people I was a safe enough choice, not just to leave the ballot blank … but actually vote for a non-Republican for the first time ever or in a really long time,” said Frisch, who has already announced he will run again in 2024.

The findings suggest Democrats, too, may need to be wary of the messaging against “MAGA Republicans,” whom Biden hammered repeatedly before the November elections and is poised to do again in a 2024 campaign. Most of those who don’t identify with the movement don’t seem to find that compelling. Voters who do may be eager to revert to a Republican candidate who represents their traditional conservative values.

Republican strategist Alex Conant suggested GOP candidates cannot count on these voters so long as Trump is involved in politics. But 2024 can be different.

“There’s no reason that the Republican nominee in 2024 can’t put together a coalition that includes Trump’s base and moderate Republicans and independents,” he said.

Conant and others pointed to examples of Republican governors — Ron DeSantis in Florida, Mike DeWine in Ohio and Brian Kemp in Georgia — who were able to do that in 2022.

In Ohio and Georgia, for example, the two governors outperformed Republican candidates for Senate who were endorsed by Trump. DeWine earned nearly 390,000 votes more than JD Vance, who won an open seat, and Kemp received 200,000-plus more votes in the general election than did Herschel Walker, who failed to unseat a Democratic incumbent in a later runoff.

According to VoteCast, 10% of Republican voters who don’t identify as “MAGA Republicans” voted for Democratic House candidates nationwide, compared with 2% of those who embrace that label.

Overall, 4% of Republicans backed Democratic candidates. That percentage swelled in competitive races for Senate and governor where far-right candidates were on the ballot, including as many as 13% of Republicans in Arizona, 16% in Colorado and 18% in Pennsylvania, and 11% in Michigan.

The Lincoln Project, a conservative group that staunchly opposes Trump, has targeted this voting bloc in elections. Co-founder Rick Wilson said it����ap a “narrow pathway, but a meaningful one” to electing pro-democracy, anti-extremist candidates, one that he thinks has expanded since 2020 because of the Supreme Court����ap decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.

Still, partisanship can be “sticky,” Wilson said, and traditional Republicans value checks and balances in Washington, driving disaffected conservative voters to support Republicans as an offset to Democrats.

VoteCast shows most Republicans voted for Republicans, even if they did so with reservations.

Republicans who don’t identify with the MAGA movement and decided to back Republican candidates mostly say they didn’t consider Trump, good or bad, when they voted. Only about half are positive in ratings of Trump himself, but most are favorable toward the party and say the GOP tends to try to do what����ap right. About two-thirds of them say they voted to show opposition to Biden.

“They’re where I am … what choice do we have?” said GOP strategist Rick Tyler. “There are many in the Republican Party who would love to not vote Republican, but they can’t vote Democrat because they don’t believe in where Democrats want to take the country.”

That may have helped some Republican candidates in Republican-leaning districts oust Democrats who were elected in the Trump era.

In November, then-state Sen. Jen Kiggans defeated two-term Democratic Rep. Elaine Luria in a district centered in Virginia Beach, Virginia, just two years after a Democratic presidential candidate carried the city for the first time since 1964. Kiggans overcame the self-proclaimed “MAGA candidate” in the Republican primary, and campaign operatives pointed to Kiggans as a “disciplined” candidate focused on kitchen table issues.

Her message also tied Luria to Biden and then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., as Luria herself campaigned on her role on the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol and called Kiggans an election denier. Kiggans shied away from explicitly repeating Trump’s false claims that the 2020 presidential election was stolen, but she refused to publicly reject them.

Non-MAGA Republicans are more likely than MAGA Republicans to say that Biden was legitimately elected president. They also are more likely to say they decided over the course of the campaign which candidate they would back, as compared with knowing all along.

Back in Colorado, Karen Davis, 58, was a lifelong Republican until a few years ago, when she changed her voter registration because of the “alarming” rhetoric of the party, particularly the far-right. Her vote for Biden in 2020 was more of a vote “against” Trump, she said.

And last year, she backed Frisch over Boebert.

“What����ap really sad is you’re not excited about any of these candidates,” said Davis, who runs a flooring business in Grand Junction, Colorado, with her husband. “If the Republicans could get a candidate I was excited about, I would absolutely vote for them.”

To her, that����ap “somebody who’s a fiscal conservative but a moderate in every other way,” Davis said. “They can’t win me back with Donald Trump.”

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In 2022, Frisch lost by only 546 votes in a district where Republicans enjoy an 11-point advantage in voter registration. The election was so close I almost won a bet with Rick Enstrom whose delicious chocolate family business is in the 3rd Congressional District. There were moments during the election night nail-biter that it appeared he would be buying me a burrito.

That����ap because Republicans and right-leaning unaffiliated voters voted for Frisch or left that part of the ballot blank, not because of the way but because of the way she acts when not voting.

Some hoped that Boebert would moderate her rhetoric after the close election. But has she? Thus far she has refrained from calling fellow representatives terrorists. Boebert did not sit with her erstwhile bestie Marjorie Taylor Greene during the recent State of the Union or heckle the president like she did the year before. Unlike Greene, however, Boebert took center stage in the weeklong Speaker vote melodrama.

Recently, she waxed eschatological by suggesting Satan will beg Jesus to return because Christians are out in such “a great force” not “hiding in caves” due to “a government lockdown.” This was not her first burst of creative theology; last year she implied that Jesus could have avoided crucifixion if he had simply had an AR-15.

On Twitter, Boebert is still quite the flibbertigibbet. What else is she supposed to do during those tedious congressional hearings, listen? One of her Twitter accounts proudly displays her support for the disgraced former president, an association that, along with her other antics, nearly cost her the election.

On the question of whether Boebert would moderate post-election, it����ap looking like not so much.  So the Frisch announcement is good news. Moderates within the GOP have time to establish a viable alternative to Boebert in the Republican primary. Potential contenders need to begin raising money and gaining visibility within the district.

State legislator Don Coram did a laudable job challenging Boebert in the 2022 primary. A serious person, Coram beat her squarely in debates but lagged in fundraising and visibility. By starting early, a challenger would overcome these challenges and have a good chance at winning the primary.

Colorado is a blue state and will be for the foreseeable future. The GOP needs to hold on to the remaining Republican congressional districts while preparing for the occasional opportunity to win a statewide election. It����ap not impossible; deep blue states like Maryland and Massachusetts elect GOP governors from time to time.

The Colorado GOP can defend the seats they have and prepare to seize new opportunities by developing a strong bench and infrastructure. The party also must resuscitate its image by elevating leaders untainted by Trump, election conspiracy theories, or other asininity. Unfortunately, thus far contenders to replace Kristi Burton Brown for the GOP chair check those boxes. The GOP needs someone like George Brauchler or Lang Sias for the thankless, ulcer-inducing job of chair.

The GOP must also think about the future of the 3rd Congressional District. Frisch’s announcement should be a wakeup call.

Krista L. Kafer is a weekly Denver Post columnist. Follow her on Twitter: @kristakafer

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A proposal that legislators will discuss in a hearing Thursday would create a $2 million pilot program to station cameras on mountaintops in high-risk locations. An artificial intelligence program developed by a private company would analyze the images from cameras with 10-mile (about 16-kilometer) radiuses with the aim of detecting something that could signal the start of a blaze.

It is part of an ongoing effort by firefighters to use new technology to become smarter about how they prepare and better position their resources. Fire lookout towers once staffed by humans have largely been replaced by cameras in remote areas, many of them in high-definition and armed with artificial intelligence to discern a smoke plume from morning fog.

There are hundreds of such cameras scattered across California, Nevada and Oregon, and even casual viewers can remotely watch wildfires in real time.

A historic drought and recent heat waves tied to climate change have made wildfires harder to fight in the American West and scientists say warming weather will continue to make fires more frequent and destructive.

Record-breaking storms that drenched California with more than 11 inches of rain in recent weeks and big snow dumps in other states have improved conditions in the short-term, but the drought persists across most of Nevada, California and Utah, and large areas of other Western states, according to a Tuesday report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The goal of the Colorado program would be for cameras and an AI algorithm to detect a plume of smoke and alert first responders who can stomp out the conflagration before it grows, said Don Coram, a former Republican Colorado state senator who first backed the idea and encouraged this year’s sponsor, Rep. Cleave Simpson, a Republican and rancher.

“Once these fires get into cresting in the tree tops, it����ap going to take a lot of resources, a lot of manpower, and a lot of good luck to knock them down,” Coram said.

Thursday’s hearing will include testimony from a AI wildfire detection company called Pano AI. The company began working with cities, including the ski resort town of Aspen, and has expanded to cities and counties in six states.

Their stations include two cameras mounted on a high vantage point, rotating at 360 degrees and connected to the company’s AI software. Each station costs roughly $50,000 every year.

Arvind Satyam, the chief commercial officer at Pano AI, said that the artificial intelligence uses a data set of over 300 million images that teaches it what is smoke billowing up from a fire and what isn’t.

Once a camera signals that there could be a fire, the photos and information are run through the company’s intelligence center for human vetting — the algorithm could’ve mistaken a tractor’s dust cloud or even geyser for a pillar of smoke — before it����ap sent along to fire agencies, he said. Satyam added that the benefits go beyond detection, allowing fire agencies to pinpoint a blaze’s location and monitor a live feed of the burn.

AI has gained notoriety for breaking into a number of fields — from creating propaganda and disinformation to writing essays or cover letters about whatever the user requests.

David Blankinship, senior technology advisor for the Western Fire Chiefs Association, said fire agencies have come to rely on this type of detection technology, especially in California where the programs have been put to wider use.

“It loops around in a 360 all the time and searching for pixel changes that the human eye might not detect,” said Blankinship, adding that “anything you can do to take time out of the response to that fire saves lives.”

Still, Blankinship noted that “these cameras, even with AI, are only one component of the actual solution that is working.”

That solution includes civilians calling in fires, other equipment such as smoke sensors, aircrafts that gather detailed information by flying over the burns, and even satellites providing broader information on a fire’s size, Blankinship said.

All those systems, including cameras fitted with AI, allow fire authorities to model a wildfire and consequently better make difficult decisions about where and when to evacuate, how many engines to dedicated to a certain fire, or if burns should be extinguished at all.

To Coram, who will be attending the hearing on Thursday, the bill “just makes too much sense not to do.”

“I look around at all the rooftops that I can see, and think, ‘My god, when this catches on fire, what are we going to do?’” said Coram.

___

Jesse Bedayn is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

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.

We beg voters in western and southern Colorado not to give Rep. Lauren Boebert their vote.

Boebert has not represented the 3rd Congressional District well. Almost exclusively, she has spent her time and efforts contributing to the toxic political environment in this nation.

The good people in this district are not angry and abrasive; they are not hateful and caustic; they do not boast of their own prowess or sling insults as entertainment. The ranchers we know working the Uncompaghre Plateau, the teachers in Durango, the steel mill workers in Pueblo, and the farmers setting down roots in the San Luis Valley keep to themselves, watch their families grow, and pray for better days.

Boebert’s unproductive approach, combined with the efforts of others, has helped erode Congress’ ability to honestly debate public policy that could help people in her district.

Adam Frisch would be a better representative for the people of the 3rd Congressional District. Yes, he is a Democrat from the affluent enclave of Aspen, a ski town that most voters consider a playground for rich out-of-towners. But Frisch, who served on Aspen City Council and whose wife is on the school board, has no desire to impose liberal policies on the people of his district.

He has a pro-oil and gas development position that promotes responsible exploration of oil and gas on public lands while requiring that companies clean up their mess when they leave.

And the oil and gas industry will leave. Mesa County has weathered the boom, bust cycle of the oil and gas industry too many times for its residents not to be wary of promises that drilling and fracking will build a steady economy.

Frisch, a business owner who worked for a time in finance both on Wall Street and internationally, can support oil and gas development in the district while also helping the Western Slope develop a less volatile industry base for companies like Leitner-Poma of America in Grand Junction, Osprey in Cortez, or the many backcountry hunting and fishing guides in Craig.

Boebert, in contrast, is unable or perhaps unwilling to articulate any policy nuance on the extraction of oil and gas owned by taxpayers from our public lands. She has opposed every effort to protect public lands in the district and failed to disclose in a timely manner that her husband made almost $1 million as a consultant for the largest drilling company in the 3rd Congressional District’s Piceance Basin.

Rather than talk about these issues, Boebert slings mud.

Her performance at the Club 20 debate against Frisch was odd, to say the least, and she spent a good chunk of her speaking time talking about Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and criticizing the moderator.

In her primary, Boebert called a man born and raised in Montrose County a groomer – a term for a person who sexually abuses children. The remark, directed at Don Coram, a conservative Republican and rancher whose son happens to be gay, is just one example of Boebert����ap casual yet crass cruelty, which she puts on display on a daily basis while in Washington, D.C.

Does she feel no remorse for this behavior? She told a joke, more than once, implying that a Muslim member of Congress was a terrorist bomber. She uses the derogatory term “jihad squad” to reference other members of Congress.

This is not what Western Colorado or Southern Colorado stands for.

Frisch’s campaign has taken the high road and not disseminated any of the many unsubstantiated rumors about Boebert that have circulated the community. Nor have we given such rumors credence in editorials.

Boebert took no such high road. Her campaign ran an ad and sent tweets accusing Frisch of giving in to blackmail and having an affair.

Frisch said these accusations are false, and he hopes voters trust him with their vote.

The closest Frisch has gotten to slinging mud in the campaign is accusing Boebert of having ties to a far-right militia group known as the “three percenters.”

Boebert has made no secret of the fact that she embraces the group’s support of her campaign, taking smiling photos with members clad in tactical gear, tweeting encouragement for events and rallies tied to members of the group. She tweeted out “I am the militia,” on June 14, 2020.

The group draws its names from the fable that only 3% of the population of the original colonies fought in the Revolutionary War and the misguided belief that this country is headed for another fight for liberation for which they must prepare to fight – often amassing weapons caches and making bombs.

Members of the group have been implicated in several violent plots – a planned bombing of a mosque in Minnesota, an FBI-foiled bombing attempt of a bank in Oklahoma, and the kidnapping plot of Michigan’s governor. And, of course, the Jan. 6, 2020, attempt to storm the U.S. Capitol and prevent Congress from seating the duly elected next president of the United States.

On Jan. 6, Boebert tweeted out: “Today is 1776.” Was it a reference to the signing of the Declaration of Independence on July 4 of that year and the hope for a peaceful transfer of power under the laws and requirements of the Constitution written in 1787, or was it a reference to the bloodshed of the Revolutionary War and hope that an attack on the Capitol could bring in a new form of government for this nation? We don’t like that we have serious doubts it was the former.

It is not too much to ask that Boebert distance herself from this group instead of making their calls for violence, including against the U.S. government, mainstream.  She has refused to address the issue.

We grieve that this is who represents our great state in Congress – a state known for our moderate positions and our policy-first approach to politics.

Rejecting all Boebert has come to represent – angry rants without offering real solutions — is important for the 3rd Congressional District, Colorado and this great nation. Frisch is a solid candidate who will stand in for the district in an honorable way.

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1st Congressional District (Denver area)

U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette held on to her seat Tuesday night as she defeated a primary challenge from Neal Walia, a Democrat and first-time candidate.

Unofficial results from the Secretary of State’s Office on Tuesday showed DeGette with 84% of the vote. DeGette, whose district covers the left-leaning Denver area, will face Republican Jennifer Qualteri in the November general election.

Qualteri was the only Republican who ran for her party’s nomination in the race.

DeGette is Colorado’s longest-serving congressperson, having been first elected to her seat in 1997.

2nd Congressional District (North Front Range)

There was little action in the 2nd Congressional District’s primary election Tuesday, with uncontested races on both the Democratic and Republican tickets.

Rep. Joe Neguse, the Democratic incumbent since 2019, will face off against Republican Marshall Dawson, a tech worker who has worked for IBM and now works for Advanced Micro Devices, in November.

The 2nd Congressional District, which includes famously liberal Boulder, has voted reliably Democratic for years. Gov. Jared Polis held Neguse’s seat for a decade before moving into the governor’s mansion.

There are nearly twice as many registered Democrats as Republicans in the district and Dawson will have an uphill battle prevailing against Neguse, who is Colorado’s first African American congressman, this fall.

3rd Congressional District (Western Slope)

U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert appears to have warded off a primary challenge from Republican state Sen. Don Coram for the sprawling Western Slope district, which also covers Pueblo.

Unofficial results from the Secretary of State’s Office showed Boebert, of Silt, with 64.52% of the vote. Boebert, who is running for a second term in Congress, appears likely to face Democratic challenger Adam Frisch in the November general election.

Frisch, a former Aspen City Council member, holds 43.76% of the vote in a three-way race. Sol Sandoval holds 40.3% and Alex Walker holds 15.94%, results at 10 p.m. show.

4th Congressional District (Eastern Plains)

Incumbent Congressman Ken Buck, a Windsor Republican, easily won the Republican nomination for what could be his fifth term, having first taken office in 2015.

The former Weld County district attorney received 75% of the vote, according to unofficial results Tuesday night, while his Republican opponent Robert Lewis received 25%. Lewis has been active in Republican politics in Elbert County and owns a brokerage. He was nominated for the seat by the Colorado GOP at its assembly and convention where he received 62% of the vote.

Buck will now face Democrat Isaac McCorkle in the 4th Congressional District race in November for a seat that is firmly Republican. The district covers most of the Eastern Plains, some of Douglas County, and cities between Greeley and Fort Collins.

5th Congressional District (Colorado Springs area)

U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn has fended off challengers from his right to win the GOP nomination for his seat. The Associated Press called the race for Lamborn, who is seeking his ninth term in Congress, just before 8 p.m. Unofficial results show Lamborn with 49.15% of the vote.

He faced a crowded primary that included state Rep. Dave Williams, Andrew Heaton and Rebecca Keltie. Lamborn will face either Michael Colombe or David Torres in November. As of 10 p.m., Torres held 54.40% of the vote.

The district, which covers the Colorado Springs area, is heavily Republican.

Lamborn was one of two Colorado members of Congress to object to certifying President Joe Biden’s election, the other being U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert. Nonetheless, Williams positioned himself to the right of Lamborn, with aims of being a “wrecking ball” in Washington, D.C., according to Colorado Public Radio.

6th Congressional District (Aurora and south Denver metro)

Colorado’s 6th district was a quiet affair Tuesday, with both the Republican and Democratic slates featuring uncontested races.

Rep. Jason Crow, the Democratic incumbent, will face off against Steven Monahan, a 20-year Naval aviator who serves in the Navy reserves, in November.

Crow, himself a former Army Ranger who served three tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan, has represented the 6th Congressional District for 3 1/2 years. He defeated Republican Mike Coffman, who now serves as Aurora’s mayor, in 2018 after Coffman held the seat for a decade.

7th Congressional District (Jefferson and Broomfield counties into central Colorado)

Erik Aadland was leading a field of three for the Republican nomination for this congressional district centered on Jefferson County. As of 10 p.m., Aadland had 48% of the vote, to Tim Reichert’s 36% and Laurel Imer’s 16%.

The winner will face state Sen. Brittany Pettersen, a Democrat. This is an open seat to replace retiring U.S. Rep. Ed Perlmutter, a Democrat. JOHN

8th Congressional District (Commerce City and Thornton into Greeley)

State Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer won Tuesday night in the fight for the Republican nomination in Colorado’s first new congressional district in 20 years — Congressional District 8.

Kirkmeyer, a long-time fixture in Weld County politics, had nearly 41% of the vote to 23% for her next closest rival, Thornton Mayor Jan Kulmann. Weld County Commissioner Lori Saine had about 20% of the vote while former Army Special Forces Green Beret Tyler Allcorn had nearly 17% as of 10 p.m.

The Associated Press called her the winner shortly after 8 p.m. Kirkmeyer will face state Rep. Yadira Caraveo, a Democrat, in November. Caraveo was unchallenged in the Democratic primary.

Congressional District 8 is Colorado’s newest, created last year to account for the state’s population growth over the last decade. It stretches from the Adams County suburbs north of Denver to Greeley in Weld County, with a little sliver of Larimer County inside its borders as well.

As of 9:33 p.m. on Tuesday, unofficial results showed Boebert, of Silt, with 64.52% of the vote to Coram’s 35.48%. The Associated Press affirmed at 7:37 p.m. that Boebert had won the race.

Not only did Boebert raise more money for her campaign but she spent more and enjoyed the endorsement of former President Donald Trump. Despite any controversies surrounding the congresswoman — and there were many — she maintained a strong hold on her district.

Coram entered the race relatively late and as a long shot. He couldn’t compete with Boebert’s reach on social media and his grassroots campaign strategy apparently failed to materialize.

Boebert leaned heavily into her conservative credentials during the relatively low-key campaign. All the while, Coram attacked her for failing to pass a single piece of legislation in Congress and said he would more readily work with Democrats.

The incumbent congresswoman also successfully fended off attempts to smear her campaign with anonymously sourced rumors from the same group that helped defeat first-term U.S. Rep. Madison Cawthorn, a like-minded, far-right Republican from North Carolina.

But the political action committee publishing those rumors, American Muckrakers, shows no signs of slowing as Boebert looks to enter the general election. If the results hold, she’ll square off against Democratic candidate Adam Frisch, who appears to have defeated Sol Sandoval and Alex Walker, early results show.

Each of the Democratic candidates touted their ability to unite the sprawling district, which covers Colorado’s Western Slope, much of the southern border and on up to Pueblo. Each lambasted Boebert over her incendiary — and sometimes racist — comments in person and on social media.

Frisch, a former Aspen City Council member, held 43.76% of the vote, early results show. Sol Sandoval, a community activist from Pueblo, held 40.3% of the vote and Alex Walker, an engineer living in Eagle, took home 15.94% of the vote.

During an online forum earlier this month, Frisch especially took aim at Boebert’s unwillingness to work with Democrats during her first term and called her a leader in the “anger entertainment industry.”

Boebert, who owns a gun-themed restaurant in Rifle called Shooters Bar and Grill, has made firearms a mainstay of her platform, regularly pushing back against any new regulations. Instead, she said after the , which left 19 students and two teachers dead, that more guns would make schools a safer place.

Frisch said this month he supports responsible gun ownership but also red flag laws and background checks.

Looking toward the November general election, Justin Gollob, a political science professor at Colorado Mesa University, said he’ll keep an eye on money from the national parties to determine how well Frisch might fare.

“If the Democrats spend big, that will tell us something,” Gollob said. “If they hold back, that will also tell us something.”

Here’s what you need to know for the June 28 primary election.

How can I get a 2022 primary election ballot?

If you’re registered to vote as a Republican, Democrat or unaffiliated with a party — which covers 98% of Colorado voters — and your address is up to date, you should have received your ballot in the mail already. If you haven’t check with your county clerk.

Not registered? Good news: Unregistered voters can go to an in-person voter service and polling center and register up until 7 p.m. on June 28. Colorado is a same-day registration state, meaning you can register and vote on the same day. Go to your county clerk’s website or to find those voter service centers and ballot drop box locations.

Not happy with your voter registration, because, say, you want to disaffiliate with a party and vote in another’s primary? Bad news, as that deadline has already passed. However, if you’re an unaffiliated voter who marked a preferred party for primary voting, and want to vote in the other primary election, you can still do that. You will have to go to a voter service and polling center for a new ballot, though.

How to return your Colorado primary election ballot

You can return your ballot anytime between now and 7 p.m. Tuesday. Just don’t put it in the mail, since delivery delays might keep it from getting there on time.

However, Secretary of State Jenna Griswold notes that most Coloradans “overwhelmingly” prefer to deliver their ballots to drop boxes. GoVoteColorado.gov features a link . Many in-person voting locations should be open throughout the state.

Before you drop it off, make sure the ovals are completely filled in with blue or black ink and that you’ve signed the outside of the ballot. GoVoteColorado.gov features links in the process of being counted and information on the for signature verification, if that’s an issue you face.

If you’re an unaffiliated voter who received ballots for Democratic and Republican primary elections, it’s also important that you only vote and return one ballot. If you return both, neither will count.

Who is running in the 2022 Colorado primary election?

While ballots are different based on where you live, and what offices are up, only the Republican ticket has choices among the statewide offices. Democrats hold all the constitutional offices and the U.S. Senate seats, and all those incumbents are unchallenged.

For a more thorough breakdown of top races and races to watch, go to

U.S. Senate: State Rep. Ron Hanks is facing construction company CEO Joe O’Dea for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate. The winner will face incumbent U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet, a Democrat.

Governor: University of Colorado Regent Heidi Ganahl is facing former Parker Mayor Greg Lopez for the Republican nomination for governor. The winner will face incumbent Gov. Jared Polis, a Democrat.

Secretary of State: Former Colorado County Clerks Association Director Pam Anderson, businessman Mike O’Donnell and Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters are facing off for the Republican nomination for Secretary of State. The winner will face incumbent Secretary of State Jena Griswold, a Democrat.

1st Congressional District (Denver area): Incumbent U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette faces Neal Walia for the Democratic nomination. The winner will face Republican Jennifer Qualteri.

2nd Congressional District (North Front Range): No contested primary races.

3rd Congressional District (Western Slope): Incumbent U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert and state Sen. Don Coram face off for the Republican nomination. Adam Frisch, Sol Sandoval and Alex Walker are facing off for the Democratic nomination.

4th Congressional District (Eastern Plains): Incumbent U.S. Rep. Ken Buck faces Robert Lewis for the Republican nomination. The winner will face Democrat Ike McCorkle.

5th Congressional District (Colorado Springs area): Andrew Heaton, Rebecca Keltie, incumbent U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn and state Rep. Dave Williams face off for the Republican nomination. Michael Colombe and David Torres face off for the Democratic nomination.

6th Congressional District (Aurora and south Denver metro): No contested primary races.

7th Congressional District (Jefferson and Broomfield counties into central Colorado): Erik Aadland, Laurel Imer, and Tim Reichert face off for the Republican nomination. The winner will face state Sen. Brittany Pettersen, a Democrat. This is an open seat to replace retiring U.S. Rep. Ed Perlmutter, a Democrat.

8th Congressional District (Commerce City and Thornton into Greeley): Tyler Allcorn, state Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer, Thornton Mayor Jan Kulmann and Weld County Commissioner Lori Saine face off for the Republican nomination. The winner will face state Rep. Yadira Caraveo, a Democrat. This is a new congressional district and an open seat.

In total, O’Dea reported raising about $384,000 in the final regular federal financial disclosure before the June 28 primary. That is in addition to the $500,000 loan he made to his campaign in the last two months. He reported about $1 million on hand going into the final stretch of the primary campaign. The report covers April 1 through June 8.

Hanks, meanwhile, reports having raised a fraction of O’Dea’s haul — just shy of $90,000 in total contributions throughout his entire campaign, and another about $35,000 loaned to his campaign. He entered the final weeks with about $20,400 in cash on hand.

But the campaign finance reports don’t tell the whole story in a race recently marked by outside, anonymous funding to boost Hanks and a Democrat-aligned super PAC spending close to $1 million warning voters in the conservative party’s primary how conservative he is.

And, as Hanks proudly notes, the race winnowed to two when he ignited the party faithful at the state assembly and cleared all other challengers from the primary with a speech where he baselessly declared former President Donald Trump the winner of the 2020 election. Meanwhile, O’Dea’s campaign gathering signatures to make the ballot and he’s aimed for a more economics-driven message that ties the Democratic incumbent to President Joe Biden.

They are each hoping to take on U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet, a Democrat, this November. Despite facing no primary challenger in his bid for a third full term, Bennet outraised them both with nearly $1.9 million in net contributions. He starts the summer with nearly $7 million in the bank.

Here’s a round up of fundraising in other federal races from the most recent filings:

1st Congressional District

Diana DeGette (D, Inc.):

• About $105,000 raised this period; $804,000 through the cycle
• About $391,000 cash on hand

Neal Walia (D):

• About $23,000 raised this period; $188,000 through the cycle
• About $14,000 cash on hand

Republican Jennifer Qualteri did not have any FEC filings available Friday.

2nd Congressional District

Joe Neguse (D, Inc.):

• About $194,000 raised this period; $1.6 million through the cycle
• About $1.6 million cash on hand

Republican Marshall Dawson did not have any FEC filings available Friday.

3rd Congressional District

Lauren Boebert (R, Inc.):

• About $598,000 raised this period; $4.8 million through the cycle
• About $2 million cash on hand

Don Coram (R):

• About $137,000 raised this period; $226,000 through the cycle
• About $112,000 cash on hand

Adam Frisch (D):

• About $102,000 raised this period; $333,000 through the cycle
• Loaned $700,000 to campaign
• About $628,000 cash on hand

Sol Sandoval (D):

• About $102,000 raised this period; $899,000 through the cycle
• About $30,000 cash on hand

Alex Walker (D):

• About $120,000 raised this period; $249,000 through the cycle
• About $24,000 cash on hand

4th Congressional District

Ken Buck (R, Inc.):

• About $188,000 raised this period; $1.1 million through the cycle
• About $604,000 cash on hand

Bob Lewis (R):

• About $34,000 raised this period; $34,000 through the cycle
• About $1 cash on hand

Ike McCorkle (D):

• About $42,000 raised this period; $141,000 through the cycle
• About $185,000 cash on hand

5th Congressional District

Doug Lamborn (R, Inc.):

• About $44,000 raised this period; $358,000 through the cycle
• About $292,000 cash on hand

Andrew Heaton (R):

• About $6,700 raised this period; $15,000 through the cycle
• About $800 cash on hand

Rebecca Keltie (R):

• About $600 raised this period; $6,000 through the cycle
• About $4,000 cash on hand

Dave Williams (R):

• About $21,000 raised this period; $100,000 through the cycle
• About $60,000 cash on hand

Michael Colombe (D):

• About $3,000 raised this period; $21,000 through the cycle
• About $19,000 cash on hand

6th Congressional District

Jason Crow (D, Inc.):

• About $209,000 raised this period; $1.7 million through the cycle
• About $1.9 million cash on hand

Steven Monahan (R):

• About $42,000 raised this period; $42,000 through the cycle
• About $27,000 cash on hand

7th Congressional District

Erik Aadland (R):

• About $96,000 raised this period; $338,000 through the cycle
• About $39,000 cash on hand

Laurel Imer (R):

• About $14,000 raised this period; $87,000 through the cycle
• About $6,000 cash on hand

Tim Reichert (R):

• About $161,000 raised this period; $500,000 through the cycle
• About $410,000 cash on hand

Brittany Pettersen (D):

• About $350,000 raised this period; $1.1 million through the cycle
• About $649,000 cash on hand

8th Congressional District

Tyler Allcorn (R):

• About $44,000 raised this period; $180,000 through the cycle
• About $189,000 cash on hand

Barbara Kirkmeyer (R):

• About $84,000 raised this period; $328,000 through the cycle
• Loaned $5,000 to campaign
• About $62,000 cash on hand

Jan Kulmann (R):

• About $78,000 raised this period; $47,000 through the cycle
• About $189,000 cash on hand

Lori Saine (R):

• About $36,000 raised this period; $199,000 through the cycle
• About $114,000 cash on hand

Yadira Caraveo (D):

• About $285,000 raised this period; $839,000 through the cycle
• About $428,000 cash on hand