Representative Lauren Boebert, who is vying for a new district seat in Colorado, is favored by local Republican leaders.
Currently representing Colorado’s 3rd District, where she would face a tough reelection campaign, Boebert announced in December that she will run for Representative Ken Buck’s soon-to-be-vacant 4th District seat.
Boebert, a staunch Donald Trump supporter, has been endorsed by the former president, who in March called her a “trusted America First fighter.” Her new eastern district is the most Republican in the state, with a 2023 Cook Partisan Voting Index giving it a R+13 rating.
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Although Boebert remains a controversial figure due to some of her policies and reputation—including a night in September 2023, when she and a companion were ejected from a performance of Beetlejuice at a Denver theater after guests complained they were disruptive—she leads the five other Republican candidates.
A May 31 poll by Kaplan Strategies of 343 registered likely voters shows she is supported by 40 percent of likely primary voters, she has a 47 percent favorability rating, and a positive rating of her character increased to 41 percent. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.3 percent.
Newsweek reached out to Boebert’s press team via email on Sunday for comment.
With the district’s primary on June 25, and ballots already printed and reaching voters, local Republican leaders like Douglas County Republican Party chair Steve Peck told Newsweek in an email that “through the purest form of grassroots involvement, our delegates spoke, catapulting Lauren Boebert to the top of the ticket.”
He added that “Kaplan’s recent polling confirms what many of us in the community know: that Lauren Boebert has extensive name recognition, and resonates with many voters based on her tenacity and fearlessness to not only champion Republican causes and principles, but repel the encroachment of Democrat policies,” and went on to detail immigration, drug, economic, and crime issues.
Peck emphasized Boebert’s connection to the former president and presumptive GOP presidential nominee, Trump, telling The Denver Post: “The base of the Republican Party has been demanding change for a long time, and we don’t feel like we’ve been heard. People like Lauren Boebert and Donald Trump acknowledge the base. They hear the base. They don’t say one thing and do the other.”
“However, as Chair of our Douglas County Republican Party, I respect the will of our Republican voters to decide their preference on who will represent us beginning in January,” Peck told Newsweek, adding, “I look forward to Republicans uniting behind our candidates to make their case to the electorate as to why it will be the Republican Party that provide solutions to our nation’s ills and our elected Republicans will lead us into the future.”
Denver-based GOP strategist and political analyst Kelly Maher, told the Post “I don’t see a path for anyone else,” implying that Boebert will win the upcoming primary.
While Douglas County Commissioner George Teal, who initially did not back Boebert, said “Four of every 10 Republicans I’m talking to love Lauren,” noting that “It’s not a majority, but it’s an absolute plurality.” He told The Denver Post that “Lauren—they love what she says, they love the issues she’s willing to die for. They want a fighter.”
Update 06/12/24, 9:15 a.m. ET: This article was updated to include comment from Steve Peck.
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
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