{"id":26958,"date":"2024-06-25T20:26:49","date_gmt":"2024-06-26T02:26:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/lauren-boebert-wins-six-way-primary-in-colorados-4th-congressional-district\/"},"modified":"2024-06-26T02:26:49","modified_gmt":"2024-06-26T02:26:49","slug":"lauren-boebert-wins-six-way-primary-in-colorados-4th-congressional-district","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/lauren-boebert-wins-six-way-primary-in-colorados-4th-congressional-district\/","title":{"rendered":"Lauren Boebert wins six-way primary in Colorado\u2019s 4th Congressional District"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Rep.
Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., arranges a Make America Great Again hat and a pair of gold Converse All-Stars basketball shoes on the stage at her primary election watch party Tuesday, June 25, 2024, in Windsor, Colo. (Hart Van Denburg\/Colorado Public Radio via AP)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

WINDSOR \u2013 U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert decisively won the six-way Republican primary Tuesday night in Colorado\u2019s 4th Congressional District, making her reelection to Congress highly likely despite nearly two years of embarrassing personal and political turmoil.<\/p>\n

The race was called by The Associated Press at 7:21 p.m., shortly after polls closed at 7 p.m., when Boebert had 43% of the vote.<\/p>\n

None of Boebert\u2019s five Republican primary opponents were coming close to beating her. Conservative commentator Deborah Flora was in second with 17% of the vote.<\/p>\n

Supporters at Boebert\u2019s watch party at a Windsor restaurant cheered loudly when Fox News, being broadcast on large TVs at the venue, announced Boebert\u2019s victory. The congresswoman, wearing a MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN hat signed by Donald Trump and clad in the former president\u2019s branded sneakers, gave her mother a big hug.<\/p>\n

Relief washed across her face.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know we are going to have a landslide victory on Nov. 5 in CD4,\u201d she said as she declared victory in the primary.<\/p>\n

Boebert vowed to unite Republicans, including her primary opponents, around her general election campaign.<\/p>\n

Because of how favorable the 4th District is to Republicans, Boebert is the overwhelming favorite to win in November. Former U.S. Rep. Ken Buck, a Republican, won his last two elections in the GOP stronghold, which includes Douglas County and Loveland and sweeps across the Eastern Plains, by a whopping 23 percentage points each.<\/p>\n

Another sign the district is unlikely to back a Democrat over Boebert: Republican Greg Lopez on Tuesday easily won the special election in the district to serve out Buck\u2019s term. (The congressman resigned on March 22.)<\/p>\n

The large primary field split the anti-Boebert vote, and none among the group could match Boebert\u2019s fundraising ability and name recognition among voters. As a result, Boebert dominated the airwaves while her opponents fumbled to find a breakthrough message. The five seemed to struggle to decide if they should attack Boebert or each other or rise above the drama.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can do better than Lauren Boebert,\u201d former state Sen. Jerry Sonnenberg, one of the Republican primary candidates in the 4th District, said in the lone TV ad he could afford to air. \u201cI will not embarrass you with scandals.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sonnenberg had initially promised not to attack his opponents during his campaign, but ditched that plan in the home stretch as Boebert appeared to be running away with the race.<\/p>\n

\u201cBoebert won because there was such a crowded primary and she has universal name ID,\u201d said former state Sen. Greg Brophy, a Republican who was supporting Sonneberg. \u201cHad Boebert had a head to head with almost any of the other five, she would have lost.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lori Weigel, a Republican pollster in Colorado, agreed that the large primary field and Boebert\u2019s name ID played to her advantage. But Weigel said Boebert\u2019s opponents also struggled against her star power.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we are in a topsy-turvy world where it\u2019s an attention economy,\u201d she said. \u201cAs we\u2019ve seen at the presidential level, it\u2019s hard to stop an attention-demanding candidate. You can have great policy ideas, but we live in a world where drama demands attention.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"U.S.
U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert speaks to voters in Douglas County on Feb. 23. (Olivia Sun\/The Colorado Sun via Report for America)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

In the end, the 4th District proved a soft landing spot for what seemed like Boebert\u2019s free fall after her 546-vote win in 2022 over Democrat Adam Frisch in the 3rd Congressional District, which is mostly on the other side of the state.<\/p>\n

After narrowly winning reelection two years ago, Boebert divorced her husband, Jayson, and tried to moderate her pistol-packing, burn-it-down image. That fell apart after she was ejected in September from a performance of the musical \u201cBeetlejuice\u201d in Denver after vaping and groping with a male companion. Her behavior, which she initially lied about, was captured by surveillance cameras and rebroadcast across the country. She became a national punchline.<\/p>\n

In December, with her reelection campaign in the 3rd District still limping from the Beetlejuice drama and her political prospects shakey, Buck\u2019s decision to leave Congress offered an off-ramp. She switched her reelection campaign to run in the more Republican 4th District instead, shocking the political world with her unorthodox decision.<\/p>\n

Boebert moved with her youngest children to Windsor from Rifle at the beginning of the year and told voters that while the crops were different where she came from, the values were the same. She was endorsed by Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson.<\/p>\n

While Boebert\u2019s carpetbagging was met with condemnation and skepticism from power players in the 4th District, voters \u2013 based on Tuesday\u2019s results \u2013 clearly felt differently.<\/p>\n

Dan Stephen, who lives in Elbert County and is the manager at Franktown Firearms Shooting Center, told The Colorado Sun after the congresswoman visited the store in late February that he didn\u2019t mind that she had recently moved into the district.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything I\u2019ve seen with her and read about her \u2013 I just think she\u2019s a strong force,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s something that we need. She seems like just a very real person. It\u2019s not really even a competition in my mind.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cIt\u2019s time for change across the board. I think that she\u2019s going to be a very welcome change to the district.\u201d<\/p>\n

As of 7:30 p.m., heres how Boebert\u2019s other Republican opponents in the 4th District primary were faring:<\/p>\n

Sonnenberg, who is currently a Logan County commissioner \u2013 11%<\/p>\n

State Rep. Richard Holtorf \u2013 9%<\/p>\n

State Rep. Mike Lynch \u2013 12%<\/p>\n

Mortgage broker Peter Yu \u2013 8%<\/p>\n

This is a developing story that will be updated.<\/p>\n

The Colorado Sun is a reader-supported, nonpartisan news organization dedicated to covering Colorado issues. To learn more, go to coloradosun.com<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Congresswoman is overwhelming favorite to win in November, too<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26959,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[266,28,367],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-26958","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-election","tag-headlines","tag-u-s-rep-lauren-boebert"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26958","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26958"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26958\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26959"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26958"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26958"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26958"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=26958"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}