The candidates for Colorado’s Third Congressional District, Republican Jeff Hurd and Democrat Adam Frisch, squared off in a debate hosted by Club 20 in Grand Junction on Saturday. The hour-long debate touched on topics including the economy of rural Colorado, water, energy, immigration policy, and abortion.
Frisch expressed his full support for a woman's right to make her own reproductive health care decisions. He asked Hurd how he would vote on Amendment 79, the ballot measure that would enshrine the right to abortion in Colorado’s constitution. Hurd said he believed abortion is a state's rights issue.
“I appreciate that you don't want federal politicians overriding a woman's healthcare decisions, but you're okay with the state politicians doing it?” asked Frisch.
Hurd said he was pro-life with exceptions, “but I believe this issue should generally be left to the states,” he said.
When it came to energy, Hurd criticized Democratic policies, blaming them for job losses, particularly among power plant operators and miners. The Republican emphasized the need for a balanced approach to energy that includes fossil fuels, renewables, and nuclear power.
”We need to pick the best resources that will provide reliable resource adequacy for our growing electric demand. And nuclear is key to that,” Hurd said.
Frisch also said he supports the inclusion of nuclear energy in the district's energy portfolio. “ It's really, really hard for anyone to look me straight in the face and talk about decarbonizing our country's energy sources without nuclear power being part of that conversation,” he said.
“I'm very excited, like a lot of people in Colorado, especially up in northwest Colorado, to watch what's happening with TerraPower that just broke ground for next generation small modular nuclear.”
On the issue of water, both candidates expressed similar positions. Adam Frisch argued for more storage projects and emphasized the need to protect the state’s interests in the Colorado River Compact. Jeff Hurd also argued for more water storage projects and accused California, Arizona, and Nevada of using more than their allocated water under the Colorado River Compact.
Adam Frisch criticized Jeff Hurd’s connection to former Republican Gov. Bill Owens during the debate. Owens, who supports Hurd, is involved in a project that seeks to pump water from the San Luis Valley to the Denver metro area.
When it came to debating the state of the economy, Hurd pointed to federal spending as a key driver of inflation.
I know we roll our eyes when we see how much the federal government spends and we hear those numbers,” Hurd said. “But here’s the thing, you go to Chick-fil-A nowadays, you pay $50, or you fill up your grocery cart with nothing and you're spending a hundred dollars. Why is that? Because our federal government is spending too much money.”
Frisch argued that corporate consolidation, particularly within the agricultural sector, is fueling rising prices.
“The agricultural industry, as farmers know now compared to where they were 30, 40 years ago, they have a lot fewer options of which to sell their goods,” explained Frisch.. “In 1980, the average farmer was taking home about 30 cents of every dollar that was spent. It's now down to under nine cents.”
During the debate, Adam Frisch repeatedly asserted that he was not taking corporate PAC money. He asked Jeff Hurd if he regretted accepting corporate PAC donations, prompting a heated response from the Republican.
"You take corporate money," Hurd said. "Not corporate PAC money, but he takes liberal PAC money that comes from corporations."
Colorado’s Third Congressional District is currently represented by Lauren Boebert who announced late last year that she would be moving to Colorado’s Fourth Congressional District.
Copyright 2024 RMCR.
This story was shared via Rocky Mountain Community Radio, a network of public media stations in Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, and New Mexico, including Aspen Public Radio.
