Conservative firebrand wins House primary after switching districts after narrow 2022 win
Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., emerged victorious in her congressional re-election primary campaign Tuesday night, following her switching districts to a more Republican-heavy area after narrowly winning in 2022.
Boebert advanced past a six-way Republican primary in Colorado’s 4th Congressional District in a race to replace outgoing Republican Rep. Ken Buck.
The Colorado Republican said she made the switch to CO-04 to ensure another Republican could win her old district, which she nearly lost in 2022 and had blamed outside groups for targeting her. But Boebert left the district having already become a fundraising magnet for the likely Democrat candidate, who has pulled in millions that may help him flip a district that has leaned Republican in recent years.
Boebert is expected to claim the seat in November in the heavily conservative 4th Congressional District, which sweeps across a wide expanse of ranches, ghost towns and a conservative metropolitan area that make up Colorado’s western plains. Its voters overwhelmingly backed former President Trump in 2020.
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The seat opened up after Buck resigned from Congress. A special election is also being held Tuesday to fill the remaining months of Buck’s term, with Republican candidate and former Mayor Greg Lopez expected to beat a Democrat and third-party candidates.
Buck cited the divisiveness of today’s politics and his party’s devotion to Trump in explaining his decision to resign. That division remains a factor in the race and is also on display in yet another Republican primary for a U.S. House seat in Colorado Springs, about an hour's drive south of Denver.
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Boebert, a staunch supporter of former President Trump, sparked controversy and drew national headlines last September after she and a male companion were escorted out of a Denver theater's production of the "Beetlejuice" musical for causing a disturbance that involved laughing, singing, recording and vaping.
Boebert acknowledged the "unwanted attention" she received after her appearance at the venue and insisted that her words and actions that night had not been meant to be "malicious" or to "cause harm."
"The past few days have been difficult and humbling, and I'm truly sorry for the unwanted attention my Sunday evening in Denver has brought to the community," Boebert wrote in a statement. "While none of my actions or words as a private citizen that night were intended to be malicious or meant to cause harm, the reality is they did and I regret that."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.