An Aspen Democrat tried and failed twice in the last two elections to represent the 3rd Congressional District in the U.S. House.

Now, a different Democrat from Aspen hopes he’ll have better luck in 2026.

Nearly three months after officially launching his congressional campaign, Alex Kelloff capped a five-day tour of southern and southwestern Colorado on July 13 with a visit to Ridgway. The 52-year-old spent roughly an hour introducing himself to about 20 residents who came to Hartwell Park to meet him and discuss issues ranging from rural health care to public lands.

Kelloff’s family’s roots run deep in the 3rd District, a sprawling area that reaches from the far northwest corner of Colorado to the southwest corner of the state, then sweeps east across the San Luis Valley to Pueblo.

His father’s family settled in the Trinidad area in the 1890s, later opening Kelloff’s Food Market, Kelloff Movie Manor and other businesses in the San Luis Valley. His mother graduated from Grand Junction High School and briefly attended then-Mesa State College before transferring to the University of Colorado-Boulder, where she met his father.

Kelloff believes that long family history can work to his advantage in his bid to unseat U.S. Rep. Jeff Hurd, R-Grand Junction, next year.

“I care about this district. I think I know a lot about this district,” he said.

Kelloff, whose family reaches back four generations in Colorado, has spent his entire career in the private sector. He co-founded Armada Skis, then moved into the telecommunications and broadband industries, shepherding investments in information technology and communications infrastructure. He’s spent the last six years as a partner at SDC Capital Partners, a global digital infrastructure investment company.

This is his first run for public office. He cited his dismay with President Trump’s election as the primary reason for running, calling this “a consequential time in our history.”

“I wouldn’t be doing this unless I thought there was a real clear path to flip this seat,” he said.

Kelloff told the Plaindealer he has been registered to vote in Pitkin County since 2021. He said he registered as a Democrat in Colorado earlier this year when “I realized that I was registered as an unaffiliated.”

Kelloff’s party affiliation history isn’t clear. While voter records — including name, address, political party affiliation and date of affiliation — are normally a matter of public record in Colorado, Kelloff’s record in Pitkin County is confidential. Voters who believe they or a member of their household will be harassed or harmed can keep their records secret by filling out a voter confidentiality form from their county clerk and recorder’s office and paying a $5 fee.

Kelloff said he was advised to keep his voter profile confidential to protect his address in light of the shootings of two Minnesota lawmakers and their spouses in their homes last month. His Federal Election Commission paperwork registering him to run for Congress lists a post office box in Snowmass, not his address in Aspen.

Kelloff is well aware that the last Democrat to run for the 3rd Congressional District also hailed from the Aspen area. Adam Frisch nearly defeated incumbent Rep. Lauren Boebert in 2022, losing by less than 600 votes. Frisch ran again in 2024 but lost by 5% to Hurd. Before deciding to throw his hat in the ring, Kelloff said he contacted Frisch to make sure he wasn’t mounting a third campaign for the district seat.

Being from Aspen, “Adam took a lot of flak. I think my Aspen is a little different,” Kelloff said.

He said he bought an apartment in Aspen 10 years ago, moved there permanently five years ago and eventually plans to move to a house he is building in Old Snowmass. He said his parents married in Aspen nearly 60 years ago, and his grandparents lived for a time in Carbondale, about 30 miles northwest of Aspen.

Kelloff is also familiar with Washington, D.C., because he grew up there while his father worked at the National Cancer Institute and his mother worked at the Smithsonian Institution.

Asked by a resident how he will overcome Frisch losing twice, Kelloff said he believes a blue wave will push him and other Democrats into office in next year’s mid-term election.

“I think that will help the campaign,” he said.

He also pointed to the fact that he launched his campaign about 18 months ahead of the 2026 election, giving him time to build name and brand recognition with voters.

Kelloff said the top concern voters have raised with him is the rescission of public services. He criticized Hurd for vowing to protect Medicaid, then turning around and voting for Trump’s budget bill, which is estimated to cut federal Medicaid spending by $800 billion over the next decade, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Nearly one-third of people living in the 3rd Congressional District are on Medicaid, the highest percentage of any of Colorado’s eight congressional districts, according to the state Department of Health Care Policy & Financing.

He said he recently met with an executive from Intermountain Health who told him he’s concerned about the impacts from tariffs on China, noting much of the company’s equipment is manufactured in China. Intermountain Health operates 33 hospitals across the West, including St. Mary’s in Grand Junction.

Kelloff said even though the provision to sell off millions of acres of public lands was removed from the budget bill — a provision Hurd opposed — residents should expect another push to sell land owned by the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management.

“Let’s not let any of us be fooled that just because it got pulled out of the bill that this isn’t still happening and going forward,” he said.

Kelloff is one of two Democrats who have entered the 3rd Congressional District race so far, joining Kyle Doster of Grand Junction, who filed paperwork for a campaign committee in May but does not appear to have a campaign website and has not filed finance reports with the FEC. Republican Hope Scheppelman, a Bayfield resident and a former vice chair of the Colorado Republican Party, has announced she’ll run against Hurd in next year’s primary.

Hurd raised more than $700,000 for his re-election campaign in the first quarter of the year, according to Federal Election Commission records. As of July 15, he had not filed records showing second quarter contributions and expenditures.

Kelloff, by comparison, has received more than $427,000 in contributions since launching his campaign. Of that amount, Kelloff loaned $110,000 to his own campaign.

A Democrat hasn’t been elected to the seat since John Salazar of Alamosa won a third two-year term in 2010. Kelloff’s campaign announced on July 14 that Salazar has endorsed Kelloff.