Earlier this month the Associated Press called California’s 13th district for Republican John Duarte. That left just one House seat in the entire country where the race hadn’t been officially called. That race was the one in Colorado’s 3rd district between Lauren Boebert and Adam Frisch.

Frisch actually conceded that race weeks ago but because the two candidates were only separated by about 500 votes an automatic recount kicked in. I’ve been watching the individual counties work through that recount and, as expected, there was little change in the final tally. For instance, in Pueblo County, Frisch saw a net gain of 2 votes after he gained four and Boebert gained two. In Montrose County, both candidates lost one vote for a net change of zero votes.

Today was the deadline for the recount so we’ve finally got a new total. Not surprisingly, Boebert won.

Ms. Boebert, 35, staved off a fierce challenge from Adam Frisch, a Democratic businessman and former Aspen, Colo., city councilman, in the state’s Republican-leaning Third District.

Mr. Frisch, who faced a deficit of roughly 500 votes out of more than 327,000 cast, gained just two votes in the automatic recount. In the end, Ms. Boebert won with 50.06 percent of the vote, to Mr. Frisch’s 49.89 percent.

And that means that the AP can finally call the race and make it official. The GOP will have 222 seats in the next congress.

An automatic recount has confirmed that Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert has won her reelection bid against Democrat Adam Frisch in Colorado. https://t.co/d3mNHO4BhY

— The Associated Press (@AP) December 13, 2022

Frisch tweeted out a statement thanking his volunteers and adding “we defied incredible odds with the closeness of this race.”

The CO Secretary of State just certified our election. Just as we expected, the vote total didn’t shift by more than a few votes.

I want to thank the volunteers for their efforts during this state-mandated recount. We are all proud of Colorado’s safe and secure elections. 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/3nLDBnxeYf

— Adam Frisch for CD-3 (@AdamForColorado) December 13, 2022

Boebert tweeted a video a couple of days ago. In it, she promised to “be a good listener” and “help take the temperature down in DC.”

All of the counties completed their recounts, and confirmed we've won this race.

Republicans have been entrusted with the majority and we must now prove we can take the temperature down in DC by leading not only with strength but grace. pic.twitter.com/EH80Egq9UH

— Lauren Boebert (@laurenboebert) December 12, 2022

Frisch ran his race as a moderate who was gun friendly, concerned about the border and not a Pelosi supporter. And it very nearly worked for him. This race turned out to be the closest House race in the country despite the fact that Boebert raised nearly double the amount of money Frisch raised. The Colorado Sun did an analysis of the voting in CO-3 and found that Boebert underperformed compared to other Republicans who lost their statewide races.

The Sun compared the votes cast in Boebert’s race with the results of five major statewide contests in 26 of the 27 counties in the 3rd District, which spans the Western Slope into Pueblo and southeast Colorado…

In the 26 counties whose election results were analyzed by The Sun, Boebert beat her Democratic challenger, former Aspen City Councilman Adam Frisch, by 2,375 votes, or 0.7 percentage points. The only Republican candidate for major statewide office who fared worse than Boebert in those counties was Heidi Ganahl, who lost to Democratic Gov. Jared Polis by 1.62 percentage points, or roughly 5,000 votes…

While Ganahl may have fared worse in the 3rd District than Boebert, every other GOP candidate won by a larger margin than the congresswoman in the district, even as they all went on to lose their races statewide by double digits.

This looks similar to what we saw in Georgia where Gov. Brian Kemp won his race easily while Senate candidate Herschel Walker did much less well (and ultimately lost) with the same set of voters. People were making decisions about individual candidates not just voting a straight party line. My guess is Boebert knows that which is why she’s now talking about being a good listener and bringing down the temperature in DC.