A District Designed for a Fight
The year 2002 was the first for Colorado's 7th Congressional District, created after the 2000 census granted the state an additional seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. While most congressional districts are drawn by state legislatures, often to protect one party, the 7th District's boundaries were decided by a court. The result was a political unicorn: a true swing district. Carved out of the suburbs north and west of Denver, including parts of Adams, Arapahoe, and Jefferson counties, it was almost perfectly divided between registered Republicans, Democrats, and unaffiliated voters. Both national parties saw it as a must-win battleground in the fight for control of the House.
The Contenders: A Farmer vs. a Legislator
The Republican candidate was Bob Beauprez, a dairy farmer,
community banker, and the former chairman of the Colorado Republican Party. He campaigned on a platform of smaller government and tax cuts. His Democratic opponent was Mike Feeley, a respected former state Senate minority leader. Feeley focused his campaign on kitchen-table issues like affordable healthcare, prescription drug costs, and protecting Social Security. With the district being a toss-up, the race attracted national attention, with high-profile figures like President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney campaigning for Beauprez.
An Election Night That Never Ended
As the polls closed on November 5, 2002, the race was too close to call. The initial vote count showed Beauprez with a razor-thin lead over Feeley. As the night wore on, that lead fluctuated, but neither candidate could pull away. The final unofficial tally put Beauprez ahead, but by a margin so small it was well within the half-percent threshold required by Colorado law to trigger an automatic recount. The fate of the district, and a small piece of the national political puzzle, would hang in the balance for weeks as election officials prepared for the meticulous process of recounting every single ballot.
The Recount and the Final Verdict
The mandatory recount stretched into December. Election officials in the three counties painstakingly reviewed roughly 164,000 ballots. The process revealed the intricacies of the vote itself: Feeley had won among those who voted in person on Election Day, but Beauprez ultimately prevailed thanks to a strong Republican effort to bank absentee ballots. When the recount was finally certified, Bob Beauprez was declared the winner by a mere 121 votes. The margin was less than one-tenth of one percent, making it the closest congressional race in the entire country for the 2002 election cycle.
Legacy of a Squeaker
Beauprez went on to serve two terms in Congress before an unsuccessful run for governor in 2006. The 7th District, designed to be a battleground, slowly trended more Democratic in subsequent years, with Ed Perlmutter winning the seat in 2006 and holding it for over a decade. But the 2002 race remains a powerful lesson in American politics. It serves as a stark reminder that even in a contest with tens of thousands of participants, the outcome can hinge on a handful of votes, turning a political cliché into a documented historical fact.
