Dwayne Romero, an Aspen-area resident and Army veteran with decades of local political experience, won the Democratic nomination for Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District seat in Tuesday’s primary election.

The Associated Press called the race for Romero around 8 p.m. on Tuesday. Preliminary results as of Wednesday morning from the Colorado Secretary of State’s Office show Romero beating his Democratic opponent, businessman and Armada Skis co-founder Alex Kelloff, by a 10-percentage-point margin. Romero was winning just under 55% of the vote, while Kelloff held onto 45%.

On the Republican side, incumbent Rep. Jeff Hurd, a first-term congressman, beat his primary challenger, former state lawmaker Ron Hanks.

Romero’s win comes despite his late entrance into the Democratic primary. While Kelloff had been campaigning since last year, Romero jumped into the race in March shortly before the deadline for candidates to file.

“We deserve a fighter in Congress who actually knows what it’s like to struggle with the cost of living or to worry about keeping a business afloat,” Romero said in a text message statement shared through his campaign’s spokesperson. “Time and time again, Jeff Hurd has chosen his political bosses over families in Colorado. He has voted to cut their healthcare and prolong Trump’s reckless wars, even as gas prices keep rising out of control. I am ready to take down Jeff Hurd and make sure the voices of Coloradans are heard in Congress.”

Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District, which stretches from the northwestern corner of Colorado throughout most of the Western Slope and also swings east to include Pueblo, favors Republicans and hasn’t been represented by a Democrat since 2011. 

Democrats came close to flipping the seat in 2022, when then-incumbent Rep. Lauren Boebert, a Republican, won reelection by just 546 votes against former Aspen City Council member Adam Frisch. Those margins widened, however, in 2024 after Boebert switched districts. Hurd beat Frisch, who launched a second campaign that year, by nearly 20,000 votes. 

But Romero believes this election will be different, hoping that growing discontent with President Donald Trump will help him flip the seat. 

If elected, Romero has pledged to reverse cuts to Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, that were passed last year as part of Trump and congressional Republicans’ One Big Beautiful Bill Act. 

He said he wants to protect public lands from being sold and that he would help reassert Congress’ role as a coequal branch of government that can serve as a check on the Trump administration. 

Romero’s career in local and state politics spans three decades and includes stints on the Aspen City Council, Aspen School District Board of Education, his local fire district board and his local water and sanitation board, on which Romero currently serves. 

Additionally, he worked for several months as economic development director under former Gov. John Hickenlooper, sat on the state’s economic development commission for three years and served 11 years in the U.S. military. He also currently runs a real estate business, Romero Realty. 

Romero raised over $338,000, with $350,000 in loans for his campaign, while Kelloff raised over $661,000, with $550,000 in loans, according to the most recent campaign finance reports. Romero spent over $317,000, while Kelloff spent over $996,000.