October 26, 2023 10:38 AM UTC

Former Governor Bill Owens Joins the Hurd

• 2 Comments
• by: Colorado Pols

Congressperson Lauren Boebert (R-ifle) had a nice time on Capitol Hill this week celebrating the election of her pal Mike “No T” Johnson as the new Speaker of the House.

Unfortunately for Boebert these days, good news is often followed by bad news. In this case, another big endorsement for her main Republican Primary Election challenger, the husband of Barbora Hurd.

As TIME magazine reports today:

Now, in addition to another challenge from the Democrat who came close to unseating her in 2022, Boebert may also face a competitive primary. Since the September incident, Republican challenger Jeff Hurd has caught the attention of some prominent Colorado Republicans looking for an alternative.

“I am proud to endorse Jeff Hurd for U.S. Congress for the 3rd district,” says former Colorado Governor Bill Owens, the last Republican to lead the state, in a statement provided exclusively to TIME. “Jeff is a man of character. He is a hardworking, smart and sincere leader who will deliver for the district.” [Pols emphasis]

This is big news, but we can’t in good conscience continue without first laughing a little at the fact that former Gov. Bill Owens provided this news exclusively to TIME magazine. All four of the people who live in congressional district three are going to be really surprised when their weekly edition of TIME magazine arrives in the mail (if that even still happens; we really have no idea).

Anyway, as we noted earlier this month, Republican Jeff Hurd has been doing a good job of raising money and picking up prominent Republican endorsements from some of the most notable names in Colorado Republican politics over the last couple of decades. Owens joins a list that includes the likes of former Colorado Mesa University President Tim Foster; former University of Colorado President and longtime Republican megadonor Bruce Benson; and former U.S. Senator Hank Brown.

[mantra-pullquote align=”right” textalign=”left” width=”50%”]“I think, for a number of people, that was the last straw.”

— Republican Jeff Hurd on the #Beetlebert scandal[/mantra-pullquote]

The entire story from TIME magazine is brutal for Boebert, reaffirming what we wrote in this space back on September 15 (“Why #Beetlebert Could End Lauren Boebert’s Career in Congress”). As Mini Racker continues for TIME:

The endorsement from Owens, who served from 1999 until 2007, is the most prominent of a handful of Republican officials who have recently announced their support for Hurd, with several citing Boebert’s Beetlejuice scandal as the moment that pushed them over the edge. [Pols emphasis]

“Just after the congresswoman’s issues at the theater, I just decided that we had to do something different,” says Delta County Commissioner Don Suppes, who knew of Hurd but didn’t know him personally before endorsing him this month. “So I started reaching out and trying to make sure that we had the right person in that seat for the next election.”

Suppes says many people have reached out to him to thank him for going public with his endorsement.

These Republican elected officials are also staying on message about their concerns that Boebert can’t keep CO-03 in Republican hands if she is the GOP nominee in 2024:

Fellow Mesa County Commissioner Bobbie Daniel agrees, adding that Boebert’s performance in the county last year raises questions about her ability to hold on to the seat in 2024.

“In the previous election cycle, I received over [4,000] more votes than the sitting Congressional Representative,” Daniel wrote in an email to TIME. “This showed that conservatives are voting, and thousands did not vote for the incumbent; that’s a problem.” [Pols emphasis]

Boebert’s campaign manager, Drew Sexton, made a rather silly attempt to project strength in response to the news about Owens’ endorsement:

“From leading the fight to impeach Joe Biden to the seven bills on local 3rd District issues like water and rural economic development she’s gotten passed through at least a House committee, voters know Rep. Boebert is producing results.”

As campaign slogans go, we’re not sure we’d lean heavily on this one: Lauren Boebert: Some of Her Bills Made it Through Committee!

Despite the bad news for Boebert, the TIME story is a reminder of how far Barbora’s husband still needs to go. Jeff Hurd, to this point, is almost exclusively branded as NOT Lauren Boebert; eventually he’s going to need to be more than just “Option B” for Republican Primary voters sick of Boebert’s pointless performative politics. To wit: Hurd the candidate doesn’t really appear in the TIME story until the final few paragraphs.

With that caveat aside, there is no question that Boebert is facing a serious problem in a Republican Primary Election. In order to hold off Hurd, Boebert is going to have to expend a considerable amount of resources that she would rather be be saving for a General Election against the fundraising juggernaut that is Democrat Adam Frisch. Even if Boebert can win the Republican nomination in CO-03, her campaign will be severely weakened entering the stretch run before November 2024.

The lesson here: In politics, there’s no such thing as just a “little” vaping and groping in public.