Republican Jeff Hurd wins tight reelection bid to represent Colorado’s Western Slope in Congress

Jeff Hurd has been reelected to serve a second term in Congress after narrowly pulling ahead of his opponent in a race that had been too close to call for three days.

Unofficial results from the Colorado Secretary of State’s Office show the Republican incumbent pulled ahead of his Democratic challenger, Dwayne Romero, by around 6,000 votes to win the race for Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District, which covers much of the Western Slope. The Associated Press called the race on the morning of Friday, Nov. 6.

Hurd received about 163,655 votes, or 49% of the total votes, while Romero received about 157,523 votes, or 47%.

“I’m grateful to the people of Colorado’s 3rd District for placing their trust in me again,” Hurd said in a statement. “… The election is over, but the work continues.”

Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District stretches across most of the Western Slope — including Moffat, Pitkin, Routt, Rio Blanco and Garfield counties — and extends east into Pueblo.

As a congressman and candidate, he sought to present himself as a moderate conservative who is willing to reach across the aisle to strike a deal with Democrats. Ahead of the primary, he drew criticism from President Donald Trump by voting with House Democrats to overturn tariffs on Canada, though the measure never became law. But Hurd has also voted for some of Trump’s signature policies, including the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

Romero is a 30-year Aspen-area resident who owns a real estate management company, Romero Realty. He is also a former U.S. Army Ranger who has served multiple terms on the Aspen City Council and the Aspen School District Board of Education. During the campaign, he sought to tie Hurd to the conservative policies and politics of Trump, while positioning himself as a Democrat who would push back more aggressively on the Trump administration and its cuts to healthcare, social safety nets and public lands.

Hurd, in a statement, thanked Romero for “a hard-fought campaign, his service to our country and his willingness to step forward and serve.”

While Democrats have not won an election to represent the 3rd Congressional District since 2008, national trends gave the party optimism about flipping the seat this midterm. Internal polling from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in the weeks before the election showed Romero with a slight one-percentage-point lead over Hurd.

In the end, Hurd pulled off the win with a less than two-percentage-point advantage over Romero. During the previous 2024 election, he had beaten his Democratic challenger by more than five percentage points and around 20,000 votes.

Romero in a statement said he called Hurd on Friday morning to concede. He thanked the voters and volunteers who supported his campaign and called on them to continue to remain engaged.

“We came up short,” Romero said. “But I’m proud of the race we ran and why we ran it.”

The closest Democrats have come to flipping the Republican-leaning district was in 2022, when the Democratic candidate came within 546 votes of flipping the seat from Lauren Boebert. She has since moved to represent Colorado’s 4th Congressional District on the Eastern Plains, which remains Colorado’s final congressional district to be called during the midterms. 

Boebert was losing by around 3,000 votes to Democratic challenger Eileen Lauacher on Friday morning. If Boebert loses her race, Hurd would be the lone Republican representing Colorado in Congress after Democrats flipped the state’s 5th and 8th congressional districts, unseating Reps. Jeff Crank and Gabe Evans.

Democrats recorded wins across the nation during the midterms, regaining control of both the Senate and House of Representatives from Republicans.

As news of his reelection broke on Friday, Hurd was touring the devastation brought by recent flooding in the southwest corner of his district. In a statement, he pledged to keep Coloradans’ interests front and center in his second term.

“Whether you voted for me or not, I will continue working hard for every corner of this district,” he said. “There is a lot of work ahead, and I’m ready to get back to it.”