Lauren Boebert Says Bye Bye to Her Current Swing District and Hello to Colorado’s 4th

In a move that surprised exactly no one, Lauren Boebert has again demonstrated just how few fucks she gives about her constituents in her district (one she held by less than a point in 2022) and announced she will run to represent Colorado’s far more conservative 4th House CD. 

Ken Buck, a member of the Freedom Caucus (who tried, and failed, to sidestep the House Speaker fray this fall) is leaving the seat open after he announced that he’s stepping down in November. 

While it remains clear to anyone with an above-average intelligence and a pulse why she’s avoiding the district this cycle (Adam Frisch), Boebert instead blamed “Hollywood elites” and “dark money” as fueling her decision to step down. To be fair to Boebert, I wouldn’t want to run against the same guy a second time who was outpacing me in fundraising in a district he lost by just north of 500 votes, either. (There are a lot of things that I wouldn’t do that Boebert seems happy to do, like help sponsor a coup.) That goes double if I had an option to run in a far, far less competitive election.

So, how competitive is it? “It will be extremely difficult for Democrats to flip this R+27 district. She is jumping into a very crowded primary field, so it should be fun to watch,” said my colleague and pal Sean Diller, a Denver-based campaign strategist. 

I asked him further about what her chances are being that she’s about as MAGA as MAGA gets. “If you’re a Republican who wants to beat Boebert in a primary, even if she’s switching districts, you’re going to have a tough go,” he continued. “Dr. Oz probably lost because he was a carpetbagger and Fetterman was exceedingly well-positioned in PA in 2022. So if you apply that logic, Dr. Oz would win CD-4 by approximately 20 points if he moved out here and gave it a shot.”

For my part, as repugnant as Ken Buck was (and is), like other ultra-conservatives in today’s GOP, you have to at least look like you’re bear hugging some populist issues. Buck (while I think his motivations were often wrongheaded and misguided), made some big moves against Big Tech. Sure, his machinations went exactly nowhere. But he did help foster a legislative environment where the next generation of innovators (I’m thinking of AI specifically) won’t face the same warm embrace from Democrats as they did earlier this century. 

Buck, who voted to oust speaker Kevin McCarthy, had the stones to chastise an extremist party he helped build. In his statement:

“Too many Republican leaders are lying to America, claiming that the 2020 election was stolen, describing Jan. 6 as an unguided tour of the Capitol and asserting that the ensuing prosecutions are a weaponization of our justice system. These insidious narratives breed widespread cynicism and erode Americans’ confidence in the rule of law.”

The Hill

(More meat in Buck’s irony sandwich: He voted to install Speaker Mike Johnson, who voted against certifying the 2020 election results.) 

Despite all of this, is a democrat in the 4th totally (and probably) out of the question? Per Sean. “The district is just so far-right. I feel like her first event on the east side of the state is going to be a barn-burner but I could be wrong. That’s what I’ll be watching for though. We know she has a ton of cash already, so the reaction of the grassroots will be super interesting to see.”