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2026 Election

Trump Re-endorses Jeff Hurd and Gets His Primary Challenger Out of the Race

The president is offering an administration job to Hurd’s primary challenger, whom he previously backed after withdrawing his support for the incumbent.

Jeff Hurd AP-25023022535770

Rep. Jeff Hurd is running for reelection to Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District. Francis Chung/POLITICO via AP Images

By Christa Dutton

March 20, 2026 12:35 PM

President Donald Trump on Friday re-endorsed Rep. Jeff Hurd and said he’d offered his primary challenger a role in his administration, avoiding a primary battle in the Republican-leaning district that Democrats hope to flip.

Trump posted on Truth Social that he met with Hope Scheppelman, who was seeking to unseat Hurd, and her husband, Steven Scheppelman, to discuss “opportunities to serve our Country” other than running for Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District.

“[T]hey will be leaving the Campaign trail in order to join my Administration, in a capacity to be determined,” Trump wrote.

It’s unclear which roles Scheppelman, a Navy veteran who worked as a critical-care nurse, anher husband may be offered.

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“Together with them, we decided that Congressman Jeff Hurd, of Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District, should in no way, shape, or form, be impeded from winning the District in that the Democrat alternative is a DISASTER for our Country,” Trump wrote.

Hurd thanked Trump for the endorsement in a statement on X.

“I’m grateful for President Trump’s support and appreciate his efforts to unify Republicans in Colorado’s Third District,” Hurd wrote.

Scheppelman called Hurd anti-MAGA in her campaign, and the president previously backed her candidacy after withdrawing his support from Hurd.

Trump in February said that he would no longer support Hurd because he opposed the president’s tariffs. Hurd was one of six Republicans to join House Democrats in voting to rescind tariffs on Canada in a rebuke of the president’s agenda and Republican leadership.

Speaker Mike Johnson advocated vigorously for Hurd with Trump and believes he has been a great colleague and member of the House Republican Conference, a source with knowledge of the matter told NOTUS.

Hurd will now run unopposed in the Republican primary scheduled for June 30. His Democratic opponent will be either Alex Kelloff or Dwayne Romero. Unaffiliated candidate Heather Barton also filed to run.