October 18, 2023 11:27 AM UTC

Jeff Hurd is Not Lauren Boebert, But Who is He?

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• by: Colorado Pols

Jeff Hurd is not Lauren Boebert.

That’s been the crux of the Grand Junction Republican’s campaign for Congress in CO-03 thus far, and it’s not an ineffective message given Boebert’s uncanny ability to do and say the wrong thing at virtually every opportunity. The August #Beetlebert scandal, in which Boebert was kicked out of a Denver theater for vaping, groping, and generally being a pain in the ass to everyone around her, seems to have been the last straw for many Republican elected officials in the third congressional district.

Because he is a Republican and is not Boebert, Hurd has been picking up some quality Republican endorsements of late, winning the support of two Mesa County Commissioners and Delta County Commissioner Don Suppes. The public endorsement from Suppes, as reported by the Montrose Press, included a particularly interesting tidbit that we noted at the time: Hurd admitted that he hadn’t talked to Suppes about an endorsement and only learned about the support after being contacted by a reporter for comment.

In his first fundraising quarter, Hurd reported a strong $412,000 haul punctuated by some well-known Republican donors that have long been standard contributors for well-connected GOP candidates in Colorado. Money flowed into Hurd’s campaign account from the likes of former Colorado Mesa University President Tim Foster; former Colorado Springs Mayor John Suthers; former University of Denver Chancellor Daniel Ritchie; former University of Colorado President and longtime Republican megadonor Bruce Benson; and former U.S. Senator Hank Brown.

This week, Hurd’s campaign released its first narrative-setting media piece, a well-produced, three-and-a-half minute online video that tells the compelling life story of…Jeff’s wife, Barbora Hurd. The video details Barbora’s journey to the United States from the country formerly known as Czechoslovakia after the fall of communism. It is, admittedly, a good story.

But we don’t even see Jeff Hurd until about the 1:45 mark, and the first mention of his name doesn’t come until there is less than one minute left. The video concludes with Barbora speaking to the camera with the cryptic message, “Stay tuned for Jeff.”

But Who is Jeff Hurd?

There is an extensive bio of Hurd on his campaign website that includes lots of family photos and plenty of conservative buzzphrases such as “limited government,” and “free markets.” The personal stuff features a pretty standard small town story of a guy who was raised in Grand Junction and ultimately returned to the Western Slope after a few years working at a law firm in New York City.

What you don’t get from reading the bio is any real sense of Hurd as an actual human being or what makes him qualified to be a good candidate for Congress. This paragraph seems to be the highlight of his “political” experience in Colorado:

In 2018, he co-authored a key legal brief on behalf of various rural governments and stakeholders to support Amendment 71, which requires any individual or group trying to amend Colorado’s Constitution to show support from all parts of the state.

Very exciting stuff. We’re not cherrypicking from Hurd’s bio; this is the main thing listed as an example of his political involvement. There’s no way the person who wrote this bio didn’t fall asleep at their keyboard at least once.

And who, exactly, is doing the yeoman’s work of trying to make Hurd interesting? Hurd’s first campaign finance report doesn’t provide much information in the expenditures column. There is a payment to Strategic Compliance of Denver, an entity connected to the ubiquitous Katie Kennedy, a Republican whose name regularly appears as the “registered agent” for just about everything produced by a Republican in Colorado. There are two payments to Julie Herrmann for “fundraising and campaign consulting. The largest total expenditures — more than $25,000 — are for Cor Solutions of Chino Hills, California, for “campaign consulting,” text messaging, digital advertising, and the printing of “palm cards.”

Hurd does apparently have a spokesperson, which is nice. Again, the messaging strategy is pretty clear: “Jeff Hurd is not Lauren Boebert.”

Seriously, Who in the Hell is Jeff Hurd?

Jeff Hurd does appear to be a real, live, human being with the ability to speak for himself. Admittedly, the only example we’ve seen thus far comes from a late-September interview with KREX News, when Hurd sat down with a reporter/anchor named Michael Logerwell who may or may not be 12 years old:

In the KREX News story featuring Hurd — hilariously titled, “Meet one man trying to win CO-3’s GOP Nomination” — the Grand Junction attorney displays most of the characteristics of a living person. The conversation, however, would be completely monotone if Logerwell didn’t occasionally cut in with transitions like, “Hurd claims that the Western Slope has some of the cleanest natural gas molecules in the world!”

When asked to talk about his priorities should he be elected to Congress in 2024, Hurd displays all the charisma of your typical Department of Motor Vehicles desk jockey:

“Well, the first thing I would think of is hiring a well-regarded veteran here in the district as a community outreach coordinator to make sure that our veterans are getting the care that they need in the district.”

Again, this is part of the “Jeff Hurd is not Lauren Boebert” narrative, since Boebert has regularly voted against funding for veterans. But still…that’s the first thing you would do if elected? Really?

Hurd continues by recalling some key words and phrases that he has been taught to repeat:

“More generally, the economy and making life better for working families here is a priority for me. Water, agriculture, and also energy development.”

Words, words, and also other words. If Jeff Hurd were a restaurant, the only thing on the menu would be a bread sandwich.

Well, Jeff Hurd is Not Lauren Boebert

In case you missed it, Jeff Hurd is not Lauren Boebert. This isn’t a particularly bold strategy, Cotton, but can it be enough for Republicans to rid themselves of Colorado’s most irritating pimple before Democrat Adam Frisch pops it in November 2024?

If history and experience is any guide…probably not.

There is clearly a growing anti-Boebert sentiment among Republicans in the third congressional district. In announcing his support of Hurd, Delta County Commissioner Don Suppes called on Boebert to resign because of his fear that Republicans will lose her seat to Frisch in a General Election.

There’s also no question that plenty of district residents would like to have a representative in Congress who actually represents them in Congress, rather than someone who regularly wanders off in directions that are not particularly important to people in rural Colorado.

But even if Hurd can continue to raise money and rack up endorsements, he’s still going to have to show that he is more than just “not Lauren Boebert” ahead of the June 2024 Republican Primary Election. Maybe that part of Hurd exists and we just haven’t seen it yet. Maybe Hurd is more than just a conservative talking point robot and his campaign staff merely needs to change out his batteries.

Or perhaps we’ll all find out together if you can win a high-profile election simply by being the other option on the ballot.

Stay tuned for Jeff!