{"id":28460,"date":"2024-03-30T21:17:10","date_gmt":"2024-03-30T21:17:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/republican-greg-lopez-selected-in-colorados-4th-cd-to-replace-ken-buck\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T06:29:57","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T06:29:57","slug":"republican-greg-lopez-selected-in-colorados-4th-cd-to-replace-ken-buck","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/republican-greg-lopez-selected-in-colorados-4th-cd-to-replace-ken-buck\/","title":{"rendered":"Republican Greg Lopez selected in Colorado\u2019s 4th CD to replace Ken Buck"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Greg
Greg Lopez mingles with the crowd in Hugo, Colo., Thursday, March 28, 2024, before a panel of Republicans selected him to run in a special election to serve out the final months of U.S. Rep. Ken Buck\u2019s term. Buck left the U.S. House early, citing many in his party who refuse to accept the results of the 2020 presidential election and to condemn the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. (Thomas Peipert\/The Associated Press)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

HUGO \u2013 A Republican vacancy committee late Thursday selected former Parker Mayor Greg Lopez to be the GOP nominee for the June 25 special election that will determine who serves out the term of U.S. Rep. Ken Buck in Colorado\u2019s 4th Congressional District.<\/p>\n

Lopez\u2019s surprise victory all but assures he will become a member of Congress.<\/p>\n

Lopez, a two-time failed gubernatorial candidate with a history of run-ins with law enforcement, will run June 25 against whomever Democrats select next week to be their nominee for the special election in the 4th District, which includes Douglas County and Loveland and spans the Eastern Plains.<\/p>\n

But because the district is so favorable to Republicans \u2013 Buck won his last two elections by at least 23 percentage points \u2013 Lopez is effectively a shoo-in to win.<\/p>\n

Buck, a Windsor Republican, resigned from Congress on Friday. His term was supposed to end in January 2025.<\/p>\n

Lopez beat out eight candidates to secure the nomination after six rounds of voting over nearly six hours. In the final round, Lopez bested former state Sen. Jerry Sonnenberg.<\/p>\n

The final vote was 51 votes for Lopez and 46 for Sonnenberg.<\/p>\n

Candidates had to win a majority of the delegates\u2019 support to secure the nomination. Low vote-getters dropped out as the rounds continued.<\/p>\n

Lopez, a former Democrat who served two terms as Parker\u2019s mayor in the 1990s, has promised to only serve out the rest of Buck\u2019s term and not run in the crowded Republican primary election to replace Buck long term.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m going to go there and do the best job that I can and represent this state to the best of my ability,\u201d Lopez, who lost the Republican gubernatorial primary in 2018 and 2022, told reporters after the final vote tally was announced. He said he was surprised by the results Thursday.<\/p>\n

\"Greg
Greg Lopez speaks in Hugo, Colo., Thursday, March 28, 2024, before a panel of Republicans who selected him to run in a special election to serve out the final months of U.S. Rep. Ken Buck's term. Buck left the U.S. House early, citing many in his party who refuse to accept the results of the 2020 presidential election and to condemn the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. (Thomas Peipert\/The Associated Press)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Lopez\u2019s run-ins with law enforcement have been well documented and he has openly talked about them.<\/p>\n

In 1993, he and his wife were both cited in a domestic violence incident in which he was accused of pushing his wife, who was six months pregnant, to the floor and kicking her after she hit him on the top of his head. The Denver Post reported in 1994 that both Lopez and his wife pleaded guilty to a single charge of harassment.<\/p>\n

Lopez was also accused, in a separate case, of driving under the influence.<\/p>\n

Then, in October 2020, Lopez settled a lawsuit filed by federal prosecutors alleging that after he left the Small Business Administration, where he was the Colorado district director from 2008 to 2014, Lopez violated federal law by attempting to improperly influence actions of the agency.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors alleged Lopez \u201cattempted to influence the SBA\u2019s handling of its loan guarantee\u201d to Morreale Hotels, which was owned by Lopez\u2019s friend.<\/p>\n

Lopez paid $15,000 to resolve the case and \u201cacknowledged that the United States could prove the facts alleged in the civil action by a preponderance of the evidence,\u201d per a news release from the Trump administration\u2019s Justice Department.<\/p>\n

Lopez said he wasn\u2019t aware at the time that he did anything wrong. He also said prosecutors brought the case just days before the statute of limitations expired. \u201cThey wanted $157,000 for a phone call and an email,\u201d he said. \u201cI settled for $15,000.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Rep.
Rep. Lauren Boebert chats with customers and staff at Franktown Firearms Shooting Center, Feb. 23, 2024, in Franktown. The Republican congresswoman is campaigning throughout Colorado\u2019s 4th district after she narrowly won the 3rd District by less than 600 votes in 2022. (Olivia Sun\/The Colorado Sun via Report for America)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Colorado\u2019s Trump-appointed U.S. attorney at the time, Jason Dunn, framed the case differently.<\/p>\n

\u201cMr. Lopez\u2019s attempts to exert improper influence over a federal agency on behalf of his friend were serious violations of the rules for former federal officials,\u201d Dunn said in a written statement. \u201cThe American people deserve to have confidence that the federal government runs its programs without favoritism toward former officials.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lopez on Thursday night, when asked by reporters about his legal history, said that \u201cpeople have already heard about it.\u201d He declined to speak about the settlement with federal prosecutors, saying \u201cthe record speaks for itself.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lopez\u2019s wife later lambasted a group of reporters for asking her husband about the domestic violence case.<\/p>\n

In the past, Lopez has said he thinks abortion should be outlawed without exception and that climate change isn\u2019t caused by human behavior. He has also said that Donald Trump was the true winner of the 2020 election, which is false.<\/p>\n

The 98 delegates \u2013 local Republican leaders and state lawmakers who live in the district \u2013 who voted to select the GOP\u2019s special election nominee in the 4th District represent 0.01% of the roughly 722,000 people who live in the district. (One delegate didn\u2019t vote in the final round, but cast ballots in five prior ones.)<\/p>\n

If Lopez is elected June 25, he would help shore up Republicans\u2019 razor-thin majority in the U.S. House, which has shrunk because of resignations and the ouster of then-U. S. Rep. George Santos.<\/p>\n

Primary on the same day as the special election<\/div>\n

The June 25 special election in the 4th District will be held the same day as the state\u2019s primaries.<\/p>\n

There are about 10 Republicans running to represent the 4th District, including Sonnenberg and U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert, who in December switched congressional districts to protect her political future. She didn\u2019t seek the GOP nomination for the special election because she complained that it was a process rigged against her by Buck and others. \u201cThe uniparty is trying to do everything that they can to stop my candidacy, to rig the election in Colorado,\u201d Boebert said in a video posted after Buck announced his decision.<\/p>\n

Republicans aligned with Donald Trump often use the \u201cuniparty\u201d label to insult members of the party they think aren\u2019t conservative enough or work too closely with Democrats.<\/p>\n

Buck, who had not endorsed a successor, has denied that his resignation was timed to hurt Boebert, calling the accusation \u201cridiculous.\u201d<\/p>\n

Conservative commentator Deborah Flora, who is also running in the Republican primary in the 4th District, also decided not to seek the special election nomination, calling the process opaque.<\/p>\n

Lopez\u2019s victory came after Boebert encouraged delegates to vote for a candidate who wasn\u2019t also running in the GOP primary in the 4th District.<\/p>\n

Boebert wrote in a letter to delegates Thursday morning that they should pick a placeholder to \u201cavoid giving an unfair advantage to any one particular candidate \u2026 already in the primary race, as well as avoid confusing Coloradans who will have both races on their ballot.\u201d<\/p>\n

Boebert\u2019s campaign manager, Drew Sexton, attended the vacancy committee meeting Thursday night. Flora\u2019s campaign manager attended the meeting, too.<\/p>\n

In the fifth round of voting, the three candidates left were Sonnenberg, Lopez and former state Sen. Ted Harvey. Harvey got the fewest votes and was eliminated.<\/p>\n

Harvey endorsed Sonnenberg for the sixth and final round, asking his supporters to back Sonnenberg. Harvey said picking Lopez \u2013 a placeholder \u2013 would be a threat, and he accused candidates who weren\u2019t running for the special election nomination of trying to prop up Lopez to help themselves.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo suggest that we send a placeholder to Washington, D.C., to represent 800,000 people is irresponsible,\u201d Harvey said to a smattering of boos. \u201cIt is irresponsible and it is dangerous.\u201d<\/p>\n

His supporters didn\u2019t uniformly listen, however, narrowly handing Lopez a victory that seemed highly unlikely when the vacancy committee meeting began.<\/p>\n

Lopez didn\u2019t announce his intention to run for the nomination until last week.<\/p>\n

Read more at The Colorado Sun<\/div>\n

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

the former mayor of Parker. He lost two Republican gubernatorial primaries in Colorado and has a history of run-ins with law enforcement<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28461,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[266,28,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-28460","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-election","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28460","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=28460"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28460\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":80424,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28460\/revisions\/80424"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28461"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28460"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28460"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=28460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}