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Rep. Jeff Hurd, R-Colo., clinched the GOP nomination against a right-wing challenger Tuesday, as the freshman lawmaker seeks to hold a competitive House district Democrats are seeking to flip in November’s midterm elections.
Hurd defeated former state Rep. Ron Hanks, R-Colo., in the Republican primary for a sprawling House district covering nearly all of western and southern Colorado, according to The Associated Press.
Hurd ran with President Donald Trump’s endorsement after the president initially revoked his support, following Hurd joining Democrats in support of a largely symbolic measure terminating Trump’s Canada tariffs in February.
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Trump later re-issued his endorsement in March and asked Navy veteran Hope Scheppelman, who was challenging Hurd from the right, to suspend her campaign and join his administration. Scheppelman, a former vice chair of the state’s Republican Party and acute care nurse, now serves as a senior advisor on substance abuse in the Department of Health and Human Services.
“I will be fully supporting Jeff’s Re-Election to the House of Representatives, giving him my Complete and Total Endorsement!” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “Every true MAGA supporter and Republican, if they truly care about saving our Country, will do everything in their power to unify together, and defeat the Crazed Radical Left Democrats this November.”
Following Scheppelman’s exit, Hanks entered the Republican primary to challenge Hurd. He previously ran against Hurd in the 2024 GOP primary, where the now-incumbent lawmaker won with just over 40% of the vote.
Hanks, an Air Force veteran, has alleged, without evidence, that former President Joe Biden was “fraudulently elected.” He was also present during the Jan. 6 riots, though he said he did not enter the U.S. Capitol complex and was not criminally charged.
Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., previously represented the Republican-leaning district before moving across the state in 2024 to run for a more Republican-leaning seat in eastern Colorado.
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Businessman Alex Kelloff and Army veteran Dwayne Romero are seeking the Democratic nomination.
Democrats are hoping to unseat Hurd after he won Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District by just five points in 2024. The GOP-leaning district contains Democratic strongholds concentrated in several wealthy ski towns and Pueblo.
Hanks cast Hurd as a “fake conservative” in an interview with The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel and insufficiently loyal to the president.
Hurd has bucked Trump on tariff policy and a Russia sanctions package, but he has voted with the president on most high-profile pieces of legislation.
He also joined Boebert in a failed vote to override Trump’s veto on a water pipeline project in Colorado’s Arkansas Valley.
Hurd is a lawyer who previously served as chair of the Grand Junction Area Chamber of Commerce. He is a vice chair of the Western Caucus and is a member of the House Natural Resources and Transportation and Infrastructure Committees.
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