Rep. Lauren Boebert wins GOP primary for Colorado’s Fourth District

Updated at 10:28 p.m. on Tuesday, June 25, 2024

The Associated Press has called the GOP primary in Colorado’s 4th Congressional District for Rep. Lauren Boebert. As of 8:45 p.m. she had 43 percent of the vote, while none of the other five candidates had more than 15 percent.

These results mean Boebert will be a Republican candidate for Congress for a third time, this time representing a new part of the state.

Boebert is currently the congresswoman for the 3rd Congressional District, covering the Western Slope and southern Colorado. But she recently moved to the eastern side of the state and is now running in the 4th Congressional District.

On Tuesday night, she faced the biggest hurdle in that political odyssey: She had to win the Republican primary election so she could move on to the general election in November. The district leans heavily Republican, so the winner of the primary has a strong chance of moving on to the U.S. House of Representatives.

Boebert declared victory just minutes after the first results were released, with cheers echoing through her party at The Grainhouse in Windsor.

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“2024 is when we take Colorado back. It’s when we take our nation back and we set a path on a new trajectory for conservative values, for Christian morals, that we would be a righteous nation recognized throughout the world once again,” she told supporters in her first victory speech of the night.

The victorious Boebert promised to close the southern border, to put an end to “indoctrination and critical race theory and comprehensive sex ed,” and to support former President Donald Trump. 

After the initial results rolled in, Boebert put on reflective gold high-tops stamped with a T, for Trump, and mingled with supporters.

Even in a new district, Boebert’s popularity and reputation overshadowed the race.

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“She has a history. She’s definitely a bulldog in terms of trying to get things done. She’s doing the right things to help our country,” said Gene Shields, 62, outside a polling station in Windsor. He saw Boebert as the surest bet to counter the “intentional downfall” of the country.

The primary was a test of whether voters in this half-rural, half-suburban stretch of the state had an appetite for Boebert’s combination of hardline conservative politics, Christian faith messaging, election denialism and firebrand personal style — and if they were willing to accept a representative with few local ties.

For other ambitious Republicans, the open seat in the Fourth represented a rare opportunity to move up in Colorado politics. Democrats have come to dominate the state’s highest offices over the past decade, but Republican politicians can reign for years or decades in a heavily conservative district like the Fourth.

Also in the race were conservative radio host Deborah Flora; state Reps. Richard Holtorf and Mike Lynch; Logan County Commissioner and former state lawmaker Jerry Sonnenberg; and corporate finance executive Peter Yu.

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Ralph Zentz, 64, preferred Sonnenberg because of his generational ties to northeastern Colorado.

“It was because of his roots in Colorado and ranching, and I think he understands the balance between urban and rural really well,” the Loveland Republican said.

An unexpected move pays off

The move between districts was meant to save Boebert’s political career. In 2022, she nearly lost her re-election bid in her original district.

Democrat Adam Frisch came within 546 votes of unseating Boebert, arguing that voters back in the Third District should reject her brand of “anger-tainment.” Frisch soon launched another campaign to unseat Boebert, and by last fall, he was raising more money than her. Boebert also faced a primary opponent, with many of her former supporters backing the challenger.

Facing those challenges, Boebert made a change. In late December 2023, after Rep. Ken Buck revealed he was not running again, Boebert surprised the political world by announcing she would switch to the 4th Congressional District, where Republicans are significantly stronger.

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Besides moving for a political advantage, Boebert also says she wanted to distance herself from the end of her marriage to Jayson Boebert. In victory, she noted she grew up in Aurora.

“I was a flatlander once I’m back, but thank you. Thank you for welcoming me,” she said.

The race here in eastern Colorado was full of viral moments. Before she switched districts, Boebert was escorted out of a performance of Beetlejuice at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, where night-vision cameras captured her vaping and appearing to fondle her date.

At a debate in January, she was one of four of the current candidates who raised their hands to admit they had previously been arrested, leading to cheers and laughter from the audience.

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Boebert also faced some opposition from outside the Republican Party. In Colorado’s primary system, unaffiliated voters can participate in party primaries. Joyce Durol, 72, of Windsor says she usually leans Democratic but decided to vote in this primary because she dislikes Boebert so much.

“I think she’s outrageous. She’s the last thing we need. I don’t have much faith in her ability to represent the interests of the people in District Four,” said Durol, who voted for Yu.

Throughout the race, Boebert was the main target for her opponents. She was the political and financial juggernaut in the race, with far more money and clout than any other candidate. (Boebert has been a prolific fundraiser, with much of her campaign haul came when she was still running for reelection in the 3rd District. But her fundraising also slowed as the scandals piled up.)

“Can you give the definition of ‘carpetbagger?’” Lynch asked Boebert at one debate, a jab about her move to a new political district. Most of the other candidates have been in the Fourth for years or decades.

Boebert has acknowledged the political strategy behind her move, although she also said that it was motivated by her contentious divorce from Jayson Boebert.

On several issues, Boebert maintained positions to the right of the other candidates. She and former candidate Trent Leisy were the only ones to say, falsely, that the 2020 election was stolen.

“There was definitely election interference,” she said at the debate.

Boebert takes a hard line on immigration, including through a bill she titled “Build the Wall and Deport them All.”

Hart Van Denburg/CPR News

Still, Boebert has tried to project a less bombastic image this year. Voters in 2022 appeared to have soured on her caustic style, which included heckling President Joe Biden as he talked about soldiers poisoned by burn pits during the 2022 State of the Union address. In 2024, she participated in far more mainstream media interviews and focused more on constituent services and trying to win earmark funding for the district — the more mundane work of Congress.

Boebert also passed one of her first successful pieces of legislation, the Pueblo Jobs Act,  which was included in the annual defense authorization bill, in 2023, her third year in office. Colorado’s senators offered the same language in the Senate version of the NDAA.  Still, Boebert has blamed her lack of legislative achievement on the fact that Republicans were in the minority in her first term and now must contend with a Democratic-controlled Senate.

In the district’s Democratic primary, it’s not entirely settled who Boebert’s Democratic opponent will be. As of 10:30 p.m., the returns show Trisha Calvarese slightly ahead of Ike McCorkle, 45 percent to 41 percent. A third Democrat, John Padora Jr. trails with 14 percent.