DENVER (AP) — Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert is a well-known conservative agitator who helped define the new rights to fend off a surprisingly difficult challenge by Democratic businessmen in the luxury ski town. , may be automatically recounted in her bid. of Aspen.
The Associated Press has declared elections in Colorado’s third congressional district too close. AP waits for the results of the recount to decide the race. Almost all the votes are tallied, and incumbent Boebert leads Democrat Adam Frisch by 0.16 points, or his 551 out of about 327,000 votes.
In this race, which is gaining national attention as Republicans seek to consolidate their dominance in the House, the margins subject to automatic recounts under Colorado law are slim. Scored a narrow majority on Wednesday night.
Beaubert’s already paltry lead was halved as the county finalized unofficial results on Thursday. All but one of the district’s 27 counties had reported final results by Thursday night. Otero County plans to finalize that number on Friday.
In Colorado, a mandatory recount is triggered when the percentage of votes between the top two candidates is less than or equal to 0.5% of the top candidate’s total votes cast. Thursday night, that margin was around 0.34%.
The updated results come after a busy few days as both campaigns scrambled to “repair” the ballots. Both Republican and Democratic National Election Commissions have stepped into Colorado to support the effort.
Spokespeople for the Frisch and Boubert campaigns declined to comment.
Late Thursday, Boebert declared victory in a tweeted video of her standing in front of the US Capitol.
“Coming in January, I can be sure of two things,” said Boubert, before thanking his supporters.
Boebert has gained widespread prominence and a status in the so-called “MAGA Squad,” but the likely recount shows that the provocative style of Trump supporters has a political downside. increase. By election night, Bobert was heavily favored to win re-election after a sprawling conservative constituency became more Republican due to redistricting.
Her super-tight margins over Frisch surprised the political system as much as it did in 2020, when the Republican Party defeated a fifth-term Congressman in the primary and helped get her in office. A former owner of a gun-themed restaurant in Rifle, Colorado, her Boebert comfortably won a precinct in the 2020 general election and quickly established herself as a partisan flashpoint in Washington. .
She filmed an ad of herself strolling the streets of the capital with a pistol in hand, carried it shoved to the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives, and waged a social media battle against prominent liberal Democrats like the House of Representatives. I was. and Ilhan Omar.
A former city councilor in the luxury ski town of Aspen, Frisch sought to build a bipartisan coalition of supporters. The challenger’s strategy was to downplay his Democratic affiliation and run on a largely conservative platform. This is due to Boebert’s polarizing rhetoric and what he called her brand, “anger sentiment,” a term he frequently repeated in public and in the media, capitalizing on Republican disillusionment. It was for interview.
For Frisch, his unexpected endorsement shows that some Republicans are fed up with Beaubert’s Trump-like style. Win or lose, Frisch said earlier Thursday, “I think 99% of the story is here.”
Frisch said he expected a close match and wouldn’t be surprised if he won. But the candidate, who attended a congressional orientation for newly minted delegates in Washington, D.C. this week, added:
___
Associated Press writer Will Weissert contributed to this report from Washington, D.C.
Bedayn is a member of 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 cover hidden issues.
___
Follow AP’s election coverage at: https://apnews.com/hub/2022-midterm-elections. check out https://apnews.com/hub/explaining-the-elections Learn more about the issues and factors at stake in the 2022 midterm elections.