It appears that Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) will retain her U.S. House seat.
The Washington Examiner reports that Adam Frisch, Boebert’s Democratic opponent in the race for Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District, has conceded, seemingly giving Boebert the victory.
Election forecasters, however, still have yet to officially call the race for either candidate.
Down to the wire!
This race is an extremely tight one, one that could have gone either way.
According to the latest figures, there were a little over 327,000 votes in the race, and Boebert’s margin of victory is a little over 500 votes, or .16 percentage points: Boebert received 163,832 votes compared to Frisch’s 163,278 votes, which is 50.08% to 49.92%.
These number are so tight that an automatic recount is triggered, and this is why forecasters are holding off on calling the race for Boebert.
Neither candidate, however, appears interested in a recount.
Frisch concedes
On Friday, after the latest vote tallies, two things happened: Boebert claimed victory and Frisch conceeded.
Neither candidate believes that the recount will make any difference to the outcome. In fact, Frisch made it clear that he doesn’t even want a recount.
Frisch said:
The voters have spoken, and while we show great progress, I remain down by a few hundred votes. This small margin triggers an automatic recount in Colorado’s election system. We are not asking for this recount. . . .The likelihood of this recount changing more than a handful of votes is very small – very, very small. It would be disingenuous and unethical for us or any other group to continue to raise false hope and encourage fundraising for a recount.
Looking forward
Assuming that Boebert does go on to be named the winner of the race, Boebert will be the 219th Republican representative, which is one more than Republicans need to have a majority in the House in the next congress.
Boebert has immediately turned her attention to what Republicans could do with this majority, saying, “we can focus on the issues that actually matter most, including getting inflation under control, increasing our domestic energy supply, securing the southern border, and being a strong check on the White House.”