When Rene McCullough was approached by Aspen Public Radio and asked to give her thoughts on the job President Trump is doing, she cringed before the question was even finished.
“Oh God,” she said, turning her head away. “What a disaster. What an absolute disaster.”
On Wednesday, McCullough sat with a friend and a dog on the patio at Townline Trucks, a food truck court in downtown Carbondale, where Dwayne Romero, a Democrat running for Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District, was making his pitch to voters ahead of the November midterm election. Romero is trying to unseat Republican Rep. Jeff Hurd, who was first elected to CD3 two years ago.
History has not been kind to Democrats in CD3. The district — which covers a massive area of land from Western to Southern Colorado, including the Roaring Fork and Colorado River Valleys — has not elected a Democrat to Congress in 18 years.
But Democrats nationally and here in Colorado are hopeful that a national Blue Wave — one that political observers say could upend races that were once seen as safe for Republicans — will help carry Romero to Congress. And they believe that President Trump’s dismal approval ratings will weigh heavily on Hurd’s reelection efforts.
“[Hurd has] voted for most of Trump's terrible legislation,” said Bernard Grauer, a longtime Basalt resident and former town council member. He’s known Romero for nearly three decades and supports his candidacy.
“He’s just gonna feed the monster, feed the ego,” Grauer said. “Hurd seems to be a nice guy, but that won’t cut it anymore. You gotta vote for somebody who will stand up to Trump's tyrannical destruction of our constitution and our liberties and our free speech.”
But in an interview with Aspen Public Radio that took place prior to Wednesday’s Romero event, Hurd said he’s taken tough votes in Congress, sometimes bucking his own party in doing so. He mentioned Democrats he’s worked with on bipartisan legislation more than he talked about the president.
“I have one of the most geographically diverse, but also politically diverse districts in the country,” Hurd said. “Being the congressman here is definitely a district of contrasts. And so, I have a number of constituents that feel like I'm way too liberal, and then I have a number of constituents that feel that I'm way too conservative. I tend to think of myself as a legislator that works to be effective and deliver results.”
“And I will tell you if you want to get lasting, durable policy results, we have to work across the aisle,” Hurd said. “And that's something I've been proud to do.”
A Blue Wave?
Several polls leading up to the November midterms show a president with a dismal job approval rating and many Republican candidates across the country in jeopardy of losing their seats in Congress.
Results from a New York Times/Siena University poll of likely voters released Wednesday puts Trump’s approval rating at just 36 percent, “his lowest approval rating recorded in any Times/Siena poll,” according to the newspaper. The poll also shows that likely voters favor Democratic candidates over Republicans by 11 percentage points. Other reputable polls report similar — or even worse — numbers for the president and his party.
Political experts say the numbers point to a potential Blue Wave on Nov. 3, one that could sweep Democrats into control of the House and even the Senate.
“In this environment, if the Kansas Senate seat is in play, and the Ohio Senate seat and Alaska seat is in play, and on down the list, then there's very few seats that are safe,” said Eric Sondermann, a longtime independent Colorado political commentator.
And that gives Romero supporters and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee hope.
“People are struggling across the country and absolutely here in the 3rd District,” said Rep. Suzan DelBene (D-WA), who chairs the DCCC. She stumped with Romero in Carbondale Wednesday.
“Costs have been skyrocketing directly because of policies put in place by this administration,” DelBene said. “Policies supported by Republicans in Congress, including Jeff Hurd, that have been hurting communities.”
But to win, Romero must overcome history.
Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District last elected a Democrat in 2008, when voters backed John Salazar in the same year Barack Obama won Colorado and the presidency. Prior to that, you have to go back to 1990, when Ben Nighthorse-Campbell won reelection as a Democrat. Campbell would end up switching parties later, as a Senator.
But the makeup of the district has evolved in recent years, due both to changing demographics and redistricting, producing tight races of late. Four years ago, Rep. Lauren Boebert fought off a tough challenge from Aspen’s Adam Frisch, prevailing by just 546 votes.
After Boebert left the district to run for a different congressional seat, Hurd won the open seat in 2022 by five percentage points over his Democratic challenger.
Romero believes this race will be even closer, one in which he will prevail.
“There's two frustrations [from CD3 voters]: Their representative [Hurd] is not listening to them, not taking any of their inputs and the president is of the same ilk,” Romero said. “ … So, there's anger, there's frustration — I'm going to use the word, they're pissed off.”
‘Not a MAGA type’
During a September 3 tele-town hall, Rep. Hurd touted some of his accomplishments over the last two years, including House passage of the Stop Insider Trading Act, which received the support of 13 House Democrats. His Made in America Jobs Act was co-sponsored by a Democrat. And Hurd talked about his shepherding of six bipartisan bills to unleash geothermal energy efforts.
In his interview with Aspen Public Radio, Hurd brought up names like Sens. John Hickenlooper and Michael Bennet and the work they did in helping him secure $40 million in federal funding for the Colorado River District, preserving the historic Shoshone Water Rights in Glenwood Canyon.
And he talked about his work with Democratic Rep. Joe Neguse to protect funding for the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder.
In fact, Trump’s name only came up when Hurd was asked if the president’s unpopularity is hurting his reelection efforts.
“I think some voters are certainly motivated by it; Just as in any election, what's coming out of Washington D.C.,” he said.
But Hurd is confident that the voters who have been following his work in Congress will see him as an independent voice, “who's not afraid to take a tough vote, even if it risks himself getting on the other side of the president.”
Hurd was the only Republican on the House Natural Resources Committee to vote against a GOP effort to open up more public lands to development. And his opposition to Trump's Canadian tariffs left him in the doghouse with the president. That led to a public clash with Hurd, where Trump withdrew his endorsement of Hurd in the CD3 race before changing his mind and backing him again.
Those efforts are not lost on David “DJ” Johnson, an independent voter from Redstone who has lived in the valley for 35 years.
“I think he’s far from perfect, but I think the left’s attempts to paint him as a puppet of Trump are inaccurate,” Johnson said of Hurd. “He’s crossed the aisle multiple times, especially on water issues.”
Johnson also said he was impressed by Hurd’s legislation that would require Congress to vote on the entire congressional budget each year, rather than on individual appropriations bills that only cover a fraction of spending.
Commentator Sondermann also took note of Hurd’s policy positions and work across the aisle.
“Hurd is not a MAGA type,” he said. “He’s closer to an old-style Colorado Republican — and that's a species that's hard to recognize these days.”
During the same Aspen Public Radio interview, Hurd was asked what he would say to the president if Trump offered to campaign in CD3 for him.
“I would say, ‘Mr. President, this is a great opportunity for you to meet some of the people in this district, talk about our energy policies, talk about the need for permitting reform,’” Hurd responded.
“If there's a way that we can turn this into a win for Colorado's 3rd District, to unlock additional funding for the disasters that we've had here, whether it's getting additional funding for infrastructure projects for fixing I-70, I would welcome a visit from any member of the administration,” Hurd said.
A ‘rubber stamp’ for Trump
But some folks just don’t buy Hurd’s statements on bipartisanship and being an independent voice in Congress.
“I think he talks out of both sides of his mouth,” said Lori Brandon, co-founder of Mountain Action Indivisible, a Carbondale-based nonprofit “committed to holding our elected officials accountable for serving everyday Americans.”
“I think he likes to point to the few cases — and you gotta give him credit for bucking up against his party — but he’s only done that a couple times,” Brandon said.
Supporters of Romero urge voters not to forget Hurd’s backing of other, more controversial Trump policies, including the unpopular war in Iran and the so-called One Big Beautiful Bill, which brought sweeping cuts to Medicaid and ended subsidies for the Affordable Care Act.
Rene McCullough said she confronted Hurd at a recent event, where she told him about how her disabled son receives care from a Garfield County facility that relies on Medicaid funding. She worries what will happen to his care once more cuts arrive in 2027.
“So, how can (Hurd) sit there and say we don't want to hurt these people and smile and nod and then go ahead and sign off on something that’s going to hurt them?” she said. Hurd told her he’d work to strengthen Medicaid for those who need it most, like her son.
But Romero believes Hurd would continue to be “a rubber stamp” for the Trump Administration if reelected.
“That bill passed the House by one vote,” he said of the One Big Beautiful Bill. “[Hurd] could have… stood firm and tried to protect some of the interests of our district and yet chose to 100% endorse it.”
Even though Romero is running at an opportune time for Democrats, Sondermann said the political winds will have to be blowing fairly strong to topple Hurd in this Republican-leaning district.
Still, Sondermann can't help thinking of how the often quoted line, that “all politics are local,” now seems archaic.
“I actually think that's been turned on its head,” he said. “Now, all politics is national and has revolved around Donald Trump for the last 10 to 12 years.”
As for David Johnson, the independent voter who had some nice things to say about Hurd, he said he’s still not voting for him. He attended Romero’s event in Carbondale to hear what the Democratic candidate had to say, but walked away unimpressed.
“I’m sick and tired of being spoon-fed regurgitation from both parties,” he said. “The average working class American has been screwed by both parties and I’ve been saying that for 20 years.”
Johnson said he’ll be voting for a write-in candidate in the CD3 race — himself.
Find more information about the upcoming election in Aspen Public Radio’s 2026 Midterm Election Guide.
