Democrat Adam Frisch has raised 3 times more than Lauren Boebert so far this year

In the first six months of 2023, Adam Frisch has raised nearly as much money as he did the entirety of his campaign for Congress in 2022.

Frisch, a Democrat from Aspen running against incumbent U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert to represent Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District, has raised nearly $4.4 million this year. Boebert has brought in slightly more than $1.4 million.

According to the latest campaign finance reports filed with the Federal Election Commission, Frisch raised $2.6 million in the second quarter of 2023 and Boebert raised nearly $750,000.

Since January, Frisch has raised three times as much as Boebert. Frisch’s campaign has been spending more than Boebert’s operation but has over $1 million more cash on hand than Boebert's does.

How Frisch, Boebert campaigns have been raising and spending money

Although the general election is still nearly 16 months away, the campaigns have already been raising and spending millions of dollars.

Boebert raised approximately $620,000 so far this year from donors giving less than $200 and $637,000 from donors who gave more than $200.

Frisch has collected $2.8 million from small donations and $1.6 million from large contributors.

A geographic breakdown of campaign donations was not immediately available on the FEC website, but during the first quarter of this year, Coloradans were the top contributors of large donations to Boebert’s and Frisch’s campaigns.

Boebert also received a significant support from other states such as Texas, Florida and California, while Frisch got tens of thousands of dollars in large donations from New York, California and Massachusetts.

Frisch has been spending big on digital ads and consulting. In the last three months, filings and a ProPublica tool show he spent $580,000 on list acquisition and digital ads, $284,000 on direct mail production and $159,000 on digital consulting.

Boebert’s largest spending category in the last quarter was direct mail, in which she spent $117,500. She also spent $64,000 on fundraising consulting and $28,000 on travel.

So far in 2023, Boebert has raised less compared with the first two quarters of 2021 right after she was elected for her first term. Boebert raised $1.68 million from January through July 2021, approximately $267,000 more than the first six months of this year.

What Frisch thinks about the numbers

Frisch was unavailable to comment before the Chieftain’s deadline Tuesday because he was spending time with family but expressed thanks for his supporters in a previous press release.

“Boebert continues to vote against the interests of her constituents while devoting her time to ‘angertainment’ antics that do nothing to help CO-3. We can do better than Boebert, and thanks to our generous supporters, we will defeat her in 2024,” Frisch said.

Madeleine Schmidt, a spokesperson for the Frisch campaign, said in a statement that Frisch will continue to build momentum.

"Adam has now driven over 30,000 miles across the district and held hundreds of events to meet with voters and hear their concerns," Schmidt said. "Our momentum will continue to grow throughout this election cycle because Adam is putting in the work while Boebert continues to be an absentee representative, and rural Coloradans are sick and tired of her antics.”

Frisch raised more than all of the other 3rd District candidates combined, including three other Democrats running in the primary and one Republican who has filed to run against Boebert.

Debby Burnett, a Democratic veterinarian from Gunnison, brought in nearly $40,000 of contributions and has spent about $11,000 since she filed to run in February. David Karpas, another Democrat, has recorded $6,000 from himself but no other contributions.

Adam Withrow of Pueblo filed so recently that he does not yet need to report campaign spending.

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Russ Andrews is the only Republican who has filed so far to run against Boebert. The financial adviser from Carbondale has raised over $12,000 and has loaned his campaign $10,255.

Boebert said she’s focused on legislating

Boebert told the Chieftain on July 8 — at which point Frisch’s campaign had released its fundraising totals but Boebert's campaign’s numbers were not yet published — that she took Frisch’s numbers “rather lightly” and said she was the “number one target” of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

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“The Democrat party is going to try to throw everything they can at this race. This is the most contested race in America, within the House of Representatives, and the Democrats will try to buy this seat (to) every extent,” Boebert said.

She added that she wasn’t focused on campaigning and raising money but her “number one priority” was legislating for the district.

“It's about the effective legislation that's coming out of my office to impact the hardworking Americans that I represent to lower inflation, to secure the southern border and make sure that they can still live in the greatest nation that has ever existed — in America — and be free,” Boebert said.

Drew Sexton, Boebert’s campaign manager, told the Chieftain on Tuesday that Frisch can’t win the race with money and said Boebert’s accomplishments legislating will help decide the race.

“This race is going to be decided and won on her accomplishments in the district — what she’s doing to produce results. It’s not going to be won or decided by a finance report,” Sexton said. He also mentioned Boebert’s work passing a bill for Pueblo through the House via an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act.

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The primaries for Colorado’s congressional campaigns will be held in June 2024, and the general election will coincide with the presidential election in November 2024.

Anna Lynn Winfrey covers politics for the Pueblo Chieftain. She can be reached at awinfrey@gannett.com or on Twitter, @annalynnfrey.

This article originally appeared on The Pueblo Chieftain: In Colorado's CD3, Frisch has raised 3 times more than Boebert