Widgetized Section
Go to Admin » Appearance » Widgets » and move Gabfire Widget: Social into that MastheadOverlay zone
Hurd hammered from left, right for OBBB vote, opposing J6 pardons by Trump
Alex Kelloff courtesy photo.
Democrats say freshman Republican Congressman Jeff Hurd, a Grand Junction lawyer, is now caught between a rock and hard-right place after his vote in favor of President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act and the recent emergence of a MAGA primary challenger in 2026.
“Jeff Hurd cast the deciding vote on a bill that guts Medicaid, directly harming thousands of people in our district,” Democratic 3rd Congressional District challenger Alex Kelloff wrote in an email. “The bill’s sweeping cuts to healthcare, food assistance, and energy affordability hit rural communities the hardest — undermining essential lifelines without delivering meaningful benefits. These are not just numbers — they are families, farmers, seniors, and veterans who will pay the price. This bill must be exposed for what it is: a bad deal for Colorado.”
The OBBB Act passed in the House on May 22 by a one-vote margin (215-214) and is now being worked on in the Senate. All four Republican members of Colorado’s congressional delegation, including Hurd, voted in favor of the bill, which nonpartisan analysts say will lead to massive Medicaid cuts and dramatically increase the number of uninsured Coloradans. A recent poll found nearly 80% of Colorado voters oppose cuts to Medicaid.
Nearly 30% of Hurd’s constituents in CD3, a massive district that includes the vast majority of the state’s rural Western Slope, are on Medicaid. Kelloff, an entrepreneur with a finance background who lives in Snowmass, said he welcomes the emergence of MAGA challenger Hope Scheppelman to take on Hurd in next year’s primary election.
“It’s a long overdue reckoning for a congressman who says one thing and votes another,” Kelloff emailed. “The primary challenge he now faces is evidence even Republicans see through his double-talk. Now, he’s trapped between trying to please MAGA extremists who call him a traitor and moderate voters who trusted his promises of pragmatism. His vote on the One Big Beautiful Bill proves he’s willing to abandon his promises to voters for political expediency. He’s continuingLauren Boebert’s extremist legacy as a rubber stamp for Trump.”
CD3 was represented by far-right Trump-backer Boebert until she nearly lost to Democrat Adam Frisch by a 546-vote margin in 2022 and moved to Windsor on the Front Range to win a much safer Republican district. Boebert also voted in favor of Trump’s OBBB Act.
Scheppelman, a Navy veteran and longtime healthcare worker from Bayfield, is also an election conspiracy theorist who served as vice chair of the Colorado Republican Party under the disastrous regime of former Chair Dave Williams.
“Jeff Hurd and his fake conservative puppet masters at ‘Americans for Chinese Prosperity’, the so-called AFP, tricked and lied to CD3 voters last year but they can’t deceive us any longer now that he’s exposed himself as just another liberal elitist who is dead set against President Trump and the millions of MAGA citizens like me who demand that Congress does the will of voters,” Scheppelman wrote in a press release Monday announcing her CD3 candidacy.
A Hurd spokesman did not respond to multiple emails and calls requesting comment. His campaign did provide a comment to the Colorado Sun:
“Congressman Hurd is focused on delivering for the third congressional district, Colorado and America. He is proud to have played a role with President Trump in helping secure our border, unleash Colorado energy, and extend the Tax Cuts and Jobs act.”
Frisch, an Aspen resident who lost to Hurd by five percentage points last year, said he may not be done running in the district.
“I’m not saying, ‘Over my dead body, I’m not going to run ever again,’ but I’m not planning on running,” Frisch said in a phone interview Thursday. “I’m trying to focus on [The Welcome Party]. If a year from now, or months from now, there’s like 7% inflation and 7% unemployment and all these rural hospitals are being shut down, which all could happen, and there happens to be no traction from the other people that are running, I’m not opposed.
“But I don’t think those conditions are going be there, so I’m just focusing on my stuff. I’ve had an hour conversation with Alex, and he reached out to me, and I’ve talked to him and I’ve said you know the pros and cons, but living in this valley [the Roaring Fork Valley that includes Aspen and Snowmass] is definitely on the con side,” Frisch added.
Kelloff is a co-founder of Armada Skis, but he sees himself as the authentic choice in the mountain district where the largest cities are Grand Junction and Pueblo.
“This election is a stark choice: authentic leadership versus political opportunism,” Kelloff wrote. “People are scared,businesses are struggling, and chaos reigns with Donald Trump and Jeff Hurd at the helm. I’m a commonsense pragmatic individual who makes decisions based on facts and science. I’m committed to creating better jobs, lowering the cost ofliving, and protecting Medicaid, our hospitals, schools, public lands, and water rights. I’m running on our mountainvalues to restore integrity, mutual respect, and the rule of law — and to tell it like it is.”
Hurd has opposed Trump’s pardoning of Jan. 6 rioters and initially seemed ready to vote against the OBBB Act. He joined a letter in April asking House leadership to preserve the social safety net for low-income and disabled Americans, but then voted in lockstep with Speaker of the House Mike Johnson to pass the bill by one vote.
“Jeff Hurd made two key mistakes. First, he committed a Republican sin by opposing Trump’s pardons of criminals who attacked police officers on January 6th,” Colorado Democratic Party Chair Shad Murib wrote in an statement on Tuesday. “Then, he voted to strip Coloradans of healthcare funding and food assistance to fund tax cuts for billionaires, and he even introduced a bill to sell off Colorado’s public lands. Jeff Hurd stands for no one but Jeff Hurd. It’s surprising to think there’s someone out there who looks at his record and says, ‘I can do worse.’”
The sale of public lands to pay for the OBBB extension of tax breaks was stripped out of the House version but is now back on the table in the Senate. Colorado Republican Party Chair Brita Horn did not return an email requesting comment on the CD3 race.
Editor’s note: This story first appeared on the Colorado Times Recorder website.
David O. Williams
