Two Roaring Fork Valley Democrats will run in the June 30 primary election for the 3rd Congressional District (CD3) seat in the U.S. House, which represents 27 counties in western and southern Colorado, including Garfield.
Aspen’s Alex Kelloff and Snowmass’ Dwayne Romero qualified to run for the seat, currently held by Jeff Hurd, R-Grand Junction, after receiving the requisite delegate vote at the CD3 assembly, held in Pueblo and online on Friday, March 27. The seat has not been held by a Democrat since 2011.
To qualify, each candidate needed 30% of the vote from the district’s delegates, who represent the democratic party in the district. Kelloff — a businessman and co-founder of Armada Skis who announced his campaign for the seat last April — received 51.4% of the 148-person vote, while prominent local realtor Romero, an army veteran who entered the race on March 4, received 48.6%. Fifteen of the 163 total delegates were not present for the vote.
Before the delegate vote, both candidates outlined campaign points, many of which aligned with one another.
“I will fight every day to create good jobs so that we can all live where we work and continue to keep the American Dream alive and well for our families,” Kelloff said. “I will immediately fight for universal health care, ensure that we double down on critical investments in housing, education, veterans benefits, child care, transportation and other critical infrastructure.”
He added that he will protect the district’s public lands and water, as well as stand up to corruption in congress, vowing to uphold the rule of law, condemning “illegalized actions,” unconstitutional executive orders and illegal tariffs.
“I will be the first in line to ensure that Congress gets back to fulfilling its constitutional obligation as a co-equal branch of government,” Kelloff said, “and stopping the illegal wars of choice this administration started.”
Romero also addressed the delegates before the vote, saying that he will fight for affordable housing and work to appeal the One Big Beautiful Bill “to lower health care and childcare costs and make billionaires pay for their fair share.”
“I will fight to protect our public lands, our water and our environment,” he said, echoing Kelloff. “I will fight to get the dark money out of politics and stop our politicians from insider trading. Most importantly, I will kick Jeff Hurd out of office and bring servant leadership back to Colorado.”
Kelloff and Romero are the only two Democrats running for the congressional seat through the caucus and assembly process. Candidates may run outside of the assembly process, but need 1,500 signatures supporting their candidacy to qualify for the primary. As of early-March, Kyle Doster was registered for the race outside of the assembly process, but has since withdrawn or been disqualified, according to Ballotpedia.
With family roots in Colorado dating back 130 years, Kelloff grew up in northern Virginia, where he went to public school before attending James Madison University. He said he frequented Colorado throughout his early life.
His 30-plus year career has been mostly focused on the telecommunications and technology industry, which he told The Sopris Sun has led to the production of thousands of jobs and helped “build the critical infrastructure we use every day in our lives.”
“My career was focused on building physical telecommunications infrastructure, things like laying fiber optic networks in the communities,” he said. “It was critical infrastructure, but it also created a lot of good jobs. And many of those jobs were construction type jobs, focused on trades and unions.”
He has owned a two-bedroom condo in Aspen for the past 11 years and moved to the town just over six years ago, though his parents married in Aspen in the 1960s and his grandparents lived in Carbondale in the ‘60s, ‘70s, and ‘80s. Kelloff’s campaign address is based in Old Snowmass, where he is currently building a house.
Born and raised in southeast Texas and graduating from the United States Military Academy at West Point, Romero brings with him to the campaign military experience and multiple decades of public service in Colorado and the Roaring Fork Valley. He is a combat veteran of the first Gulf War, where he earned a Bronze Star.
Romero and his family have lived in the district for the past 30 years, between Carbondale, Aspen and Snowmass Village. He currently sits on the Snowmass Water & Sanitation District board and runs Romero Group Realty, a real estate management company based out of the Roaring Fork Valley.
“It employs over 100 full-time Coloradans,” he said. “We support dozens and dozens and dozens of working class families associated with our employees.”
He has also served on Aspen City Council, as well as Aspen Fire Protection District and Aspen School District boards, and was appointed as the state’s economic development director during former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper’s first term in office.
The winner of the primary election will, on Nov. 3, face Hurd, who has been endorsed by Donald Trump. Hope Scheppelman, a candidate from southwest Colorado who had registered in the race as a Republican, announced the suspension of her campaign on March 20. Pueblo’s Heather Barton is registered to run as an unaffiliated candidate.