U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn, a Colorado Springs Republican, will be on the GOP’s June primary ballot, Secretary of State Wayne Williams’ office said Thursday after determining that the six-term incumbent submitted enough valid signatures on nominating petitions.

Lamborn said he’ll pass on seeking delegates’ support at Saturday’s party assembly.

Lamborn is facing four GOP challengers: El Paso County Commissioner Darryl Glenn, state Sen. Owen Hill, former Green Mountain Falls Mayor Tyler Stevens and retired Texas judge Bill Rhea. Glenn already has submitted petitions and qualified for the ballot.

Candidates can get on Colorado’s primary ballot by gathering petition signatures, going through the parties’ caucuses and assemblies, or both.

For congressional candidates, it takes 1,000 signatures from fellow party members to make the ballot. Lamborn submitted 1,783 signatures, and 1,269 were ruled valid, election officials said.

A Lamborn campaign spokesman said the congressman has authorized delegates supporting his nomination to vote for whomever they want at the assembly.

“Because Congressman Lamborn has qualified for the ballot by petition and because he wants as many people on the ballot as possible, he will not be going through the assembly,” campaign spokesman Dean Miller told Colorado Politics. “Congressman Lamborn has released his supporters to vote so as to get one or more additional names on the ballot. Who they are does not matter; the more the merrier.”

In an email to supporters, Lamborn spelled out his strategy more explicitly, saying that, while he had considered going through the assembly, “it is in the voters’ interest and my own interest to have as many names on the ballot as possible.”

Hill is the only announced Republican candidate going through the congressional district assembly, where it will take the support of 30 percent of the delegates to land a spot on the June 26 primary ballot. Stevens and Rhea have turned in petitions, which are under review by state officials.

A Hill campaign spokesman taunted Lamborn for skipping the assembly in the wake of voting for a harshly criticized $1.3 trillion spending bill signed last week by President Donald Trump.

“Given his unwillingness to face Republican Party faithful after his disastrous omnibus vote, I’m not surprised Congressman Lamborn has chosen to duck the assembly,” Hill strategist Lucius O’Dell told Colorado Politics. “The fact that he feels he needs to buy his way on to the ballot is indicative of his lack of support within the rank and file of the Republican Party.”

Since winning election to Congress after a bruising, six-way primary in 2006, Lamborn has won re-election once without having to get past a primary. Two years ago, he nearly lost the nomination outright at the GOP district assembly when activist Calandra Vargas held Lamborn to 35 percent. He won the primary handily, however, with 68 percent of the vote.

Lamborn petitioned onto the primary ballot in 2008, in his first bid for re-election. He castigated 2012 primary challenger Robert Blaha, however, for petitioning into the primary, claiming the move demonstrated Blaha’s weakness among party loyalists and adding he doubted “the people of Colorado can be bought so easily.”

Democrats Betty Ann Field, Stephany Rose Spaulding and Marcus Murphy are seeking the nomination in the 5th District.