WASHINGTON DC–National Democrats are now telling themselves a story in which they flip all four of Colorado’s Republican-held congressional seats this November, even if they do seem to be taking a fair amount of creative license with the script.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) announced last Wednesday it’s adding Colorado’s 3rd and 4th Congressional Districts to its list of “Districts in Play” for 2026, joining the 5th and 8th districts already on the target list.
That means every GOP-held seat in Colorado is now a DCCC priority, while the party’s four existing US House seats are considered safely in Democrat hands.
Democrat ambitions
The “Districts in Play” label comes with candidate guidance and messaging support from the DCCC, but not necessarily campaign cash, at least not yet. But the committee’s press releases made clear it sees both races as winnable.
In CD4, DCCC Chair Suzan DelBene said incumbent Lauren Boebert “is more interested in her own political self-promotion and chasing national attention than actually delivering for Colorado families,” adding that “Coloradans want a representative focused on lowering costs, not someone who treats public service like a self-serving media tour.” She used nearly identical language with Jeff Hurd in CD3, calling him “a weak freshman known for kowtowing to Republican leadership and billionaires” who has delivered “broken promises and a cost-hiking agenda.”
Both press releases leaned on the same evidence: Democratic “overperformance” in special elections nationwide this cycle, which the DCCC frames as proof of “a path to victory” in districts that were once considered off the map entirely.
CD3 — which runs from the Western Slope through Pueblo and into southeastern Colorado — is where Democrats see their clearest opening. Hurd’s challenger, former Aspen City Councilman Dwayne Romero, is making the case that rising costs and DC dysfunction have caught up with the freshman congressman. Hurd first won the seat in 2024, beating Democrat Adam Frisch (also a former Aspen city councilman) by five points, a closer finish than Republicans would like in a district long considered reliably red.
The financial picture looks different in CD4. Retired Navy Rear Adm. Eileen Laubacher, the political newcomer challenging Boebert, had raised roughly $10.3 million through the end of June and still had $3.6 million on hand heading into July after spending about $6.6 million. Boebert, by contrast, had just $250,000 in her account at the same point.
Wishful thinking
Still, the 4th remains the most Republican-friendly seat in the state. Boebert beat Democrat Trisha Calvarese by nearly 12 points in 2024, and Democrats haven’t held the seat since Betsy Markey served one term from 2009 to 2011.
Democrats are hanging their hopes on Boebert’s underperformance relative to previous GOP incumbent Ken Buck, who won his 2022 race by more than 24 points. That gap, combined with Douglas County’s ongoing drift from red to purple, is the crux of the DCCC’s bet that Laubacher has a shot.
Republicans aren’t buying the narrative. NRCC spokesman Zach Bannon defended both incumbents, calling Boebert “a fighter for eastern Colorado” with “a proven track record of advancing common sense conservative principles,” and describing Hurd as a “commonsense leader” delivering results for rural and southern Colorado. He predicted voters in both districts would reject what he called the “radical far-left liberal agenda.”
Nonpartisan political handicappers aren’t nearly as bullish as the DCCC’s press shop. The Cook Political Report still rates both the 3rd and 4th as “Solid Republican,” with the 5th as “Likely Republican.” The University of Virginia’s Center for Politics rates the 3rd, 4th and 5th as “Likely Republican.” Both groups tag the GOP-held CD8 as a toss-up.
Notably, the DCCC didn’t lift a finger in the 4th in 2024, and offered only limited help to Frisch in the 3rd. Even some Democratic strategists concede that forcing national Republicans to spend money defending Boebert and Hurd would count as a win in itself, money the GOP would otherwise spend defending seats elsewhere in the country.
