Lauren Boebert wins crowded House primary in new Colorado district

Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert emerged victorious in the primary election in her new Colorado district. The controversial congresswoman beat five GOP opponents in a competitive primary in Colorado’s 4th Congressional District and will be the favorite to win the seat in the November general election.

Boebert won with just over 43% of the vote. This was at 8:47 p.m., when 91% of the votes were counted.

In his victory speech in northern Colorado, Boebert wore a Make America Great Again hat and called for a unified GOP and building bridges with other Republicans.

“We need to get involved at the local level and start taking our state back,” she said. “And we need to stay informed and never allow ourselves to be fooled by the enemy again. Don’t ever let anyone say that your voice doesn’t matter, that your vote doesn’t count. Because it absolutely does. “

Boebert currently represents Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District, but made the decision to run in the heavily conservative District 4 after Rep. Ken Buck resigned earlier this year. CD4 includes much of the eastern part of the state as well as Loveland and Windsor (both in northern Colorado) and Douglas County (in the southern part of the Denver metro area). Nearly half of the district’s voters are in Douglas County, where CBS Colorado political pundit Shaun Boyd says Republicans are “less MAGA and more mainstream.” Although there are almost twice as many Republicans as Democrats in the county, former President Donald Trump only won Douglas County by 7 points in 2020. In total, Trump lost Colorado by 13 points in 2020.

Boebert gave up her District 3 seat after nearly losing to Democrat Adam Frisch in 2022. When she announced she would run in another district in January, she said the change was made after “a pretty difficult year for me and my family.” This included divorce.

During her campaign, Boebert touted her support of Trump, something CBS Colorado Democratic political analyst Mike Dino said helped her immensely.

“President Trump’s support cannot be underestimated. It stood her in good stead in the beginning because, you know, it was a big risk for her to leave her comfort — or at least seemingly comfortable — place. the 3rd Congressional District and move to another side of the Continental Divide,” Dino said.

Boebert also spoke at length about immigration issues. a debate on CBS Colorado last month she claimed that undocumented immigrants are overwhelming this country’s systems and services and called for mass deportations.

“Build the wall, expel them all,” she said, in a phrase she repeated throughout her campaign.

CBS Colorado Republican political analyst Dick Wadhams said Boebert’s gigantic fundraising advantage over his many opponents also gave him a big boost.

“Congresswoman Lauren Boebert had two very distinct assets going into this campaign: the money she had in the bank and her notoriety as a sitting Congresswoman. None of his five opponents had anything like either of them,” Wadhams said. “So this wide and scattered battlefield helped her a lot. »

Boebert reminded his supporters Tuesday night that “it’s not over” and that everyone should get involved in the presidential race.

“President Trump needs us more than ever to put him in the race, in the fight, in the White House on November 5,” she said. “We have a lot of work to do, don’t slow down. Don’t let up.”

During the CBS Colorado debate, several of Boebert’s opponents spoke about their farming and ranching backgrounds and, in doing so, indirectly highlighted Boebert’s newcomer status in the district. Only candidate Deborah Flora, a conservative radio host, directly attacked Boebert for his decision, accusing him of having “abandoned his CD3 neighbors.” Flora described the controversial congresswoman as someone who cares more about being in the national spotlight than representing Coloradans.

“We saw how Lauren Boebert would represent us…missing key votes while chasing the cameras and being the center of DC drama instead of offering real solutions to people,” she said.

Flora finished third in the primary with about 13.8% of the vote, and Jerry Sonnenberg finished second with about 14.3%. Mike Lynch and Richard Holtorf each held 11%.

“At the end of the day, (Boebert) didn’t get over 50 percent, and I think that’s important to consider,” Dino said.

Republican Greg Lopez won Tuesday night’s special election in CD4 and will serve out the remainder of Buck’s term.