By admin 
Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District, represented by Republicans since 2011, is looking increasingly competitive this year, with national Democrats on Monday adding it to the top tier of their 2026 targets and a super PAC tied to President Donald Trump pumping hundreds of thousands of dollars into the district to protect its GOP incumbent.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, or DCCC, put the race on its so-called red-to-blue list.
That designation is reserved by the DCCC for the candidates and districts it thinks are most likely to flip. The list is used to direct other Democratic groups on funding.
Republican U.S. Rep. Jeff Hurd of Grand Junction is running to secure his second term in the 3rd District against Democrat Dwayne Romero, a former Aspen city councilman and Army veteran.
“Dwayne Romero is the leader Coloradans deserve,” DCCC Chair Suzan DelBene, a Democratic U.S. representative from Washington state, said in a written statement.
The No Going Back PAC, a group tied to Trump, reported spending more than $300,000 on the race between Hurd and Romero through Friday. The PAC began its spending in the district, which spans 27 counties across the Western Slope into Pueblo and southeastern Colorado, in mid-September.
Democratic groups have so far been on the sidelines in the district, focusing their efforts elsewhere in Colorado. (The 5th and 8th districts are also on the DCCC’s red-to-blue list.)
The DCCC designation and the No Going Back PAC spending are the latest sign of how competitive the midterms are expected to be in Colorado. Democrats think they have a shot at flipping all four Republican-held U.S. House seats in the state and Republicans are playing defense in all of those districts.
The 4th Congressional District, where Republican U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Windsor, is running for reelection, is the only GOP-held district in Colorado where the No Going Back PAC isn’t spending money. But Boebert has benefited from spending by the Congressional Freedom Caucus in her defense.
Both parties expected the 8th and 5th districts to be competitive this year, but not the seats held by Hurd and Boebert.
While the red-to-blue designation for the 3rd District doesn’t necessarily come with direct spending from the DCCC, it means Romero will have access to other DCCC resources, like training, staff and fundraising contacts.
Romero released an internal poll over the summer showing him down just 1 percentage point to Hurd with 9% of the electorate undecided. The survey by Keating Research, a respected Democratic pollster, was conducted from July 21 to 23 among 500 likely November 2026 voters. It had a 4.4 percentage point margin of error, indicating the race is effectively tied.
Hurd beat Democrat Adam Frisch, also a former Aspen city councilman, by 5 percentage points in 2024.
The last Democrat to represent the 3rd District was John Salazar, who held the seat for three terms before losing his 2010 reelection bid to Republican Scott Tipton.
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