{"id":37494,"date":"2022-11-04T10:03:01","date_gmt":"2022-11-04T16:03:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/heres-how-unaffiliated-voters-now-feel-about-lauren-boebert\/"},"modified":"2022-11-04T16:03:01","modified_gmt":"2022-11-04T16:03:01","slug":"heres-how-unaffiliated-voters-now-feel-about-lauren-boebert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/heres-how-unaffiliated-voters-now-feel-about-lauren-boebert\/","title":{"rendered":"Here\u2019s how unaffiliated voters now feel about Lauren Boebert"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"U.S.
U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert waves to the cheering crowd during the GOP assembly at the Broadmoor World Arena on April 9 in Colorado Springs. (Hugh Carey\/The Colorado Sun)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

When Republican Lauren Boebert was first elected to Congress in 2020, unaffiliated voters carried her to victory \u2013 and she\u2019ll need their support again this year to win a second term.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s because 44% of active registered voters in Boebert\u2019s GOP-leaning 3rd Congressional District, which stretches across the Western Slope into Pueblo and southern Colorado, are unaffiliated, while 31% are Republicans and 24% are Democrats.<\/p>\n

In the spring of 2021, The Colorado Sun partnered with news organizations across the 3rd District to interview randomly selected unaffiliated voters represented by Boebert to get a sense of their thoughts on the congresswoman\u2019s performance during her first months in office. As Boebert vies for reelection this year against Democrat Adam Frisch, a former Aspen city councilman, we called back those same voters to hear what they think of the congresswoman now after two years in Washington, D.C., and all the controversies she\u2019s been at the center of.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s what we heard:<\/p>\n

Richard Hirano, 59, Craig<\/div>\n

Hirano, a copier technician, said back in 2021 that he couldn\u2019t remember if he voted for Boebert in 2020, but that he didn\u2019t vote for her Democratic opponent that year. He\u2019s undecided as to whether he will support her in 2022.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t like anybody now,\u201d he said. \u201cI think our freedoms are under attack, I don\u2019t like either party.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hirano said the main issues he\u2019s concerned about are the economy and inflation, and government mandated shutdowns like the ones enacted during the COVID-19 pandemic. He said he also sees abortion restrictions as a limit on freedom.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think Boebert is kind of crazy,\u201d he said. \u201cBut I don\u2019t think the other party has any better options. I\u2019m just tired of them attacking each other. I just wish they would do something for our country.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hirano used to be a Republican but decided to become an unaffiliated voter after the Patriot Act was passed in 2001, he said. The legislation, born out of the Sept. 11 attacks, expanded the ability of law enforcement to surveil people and increased penalties for terrorism and terrorism-related crimes.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just think she\u2019s sometimes off the deep end,\u201d he said. \u201cShe sounds like she\u2019s trying to push that we need to be ruled by religious belief.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cI personally think we need to just clean the slate and try to get better candidates that aren\u2019t so partisan.\u201d<\/p>\n

Joshua Burt, 44, Rangely<\/div>\n

In 2021, Burt, a former oil rig driller, told The Sun Boebert was sometimes \u201ca little too extreme\u201d but he felt she was a good person and that he voted for her in 2020. He said he doesn\u2019t see her as being too extreme anymore.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the whole Republican Party is not extreme enough,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s time to say \u2018no, enough is enough.\u2019 You can\u2019t indoctrinate our children, you can\u2019t push pornography into our schools.\u201d<\/p>\n

Burt also said he likes Boebert\u2019s support for the oil and gas industry and her position on immigration.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s done amazing, I love her stand on our gun rights,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd I love the fact that she keeps calling out these (expletive) morons for what they are.\u201d<\/p>\n

Burt said he\u2019s still an unaffiliated voter, but other than voting for Democratic U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet in 2016, he tends to support Republicans.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope Colorado comes back to the purple where it\u2019s supposed to be,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Marilyn Morris, 70, Pueblo<\/div>\n

Morris voted for Boebert in 2020. This year, she voted for Frisch \u2013 mostly, she said, because he was the only other option.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t like the way she behaves in Congress,\u201d Morris said. \u201cThat is not respectful, and I wouldn\u2019t vote for her for that reason alone.\u201d<\/p>\n

We didn\u2019t talk to Morris as part of our 2021 story about Boebert and unaffiliated voters. We contacted her for this article \u2013 chosen, again, from a list of voters randomly selected from the voter file \u2013 because we wanted to get a voice from Pueblo, one of two population centers in the 3rd District.<\/p>\n

Morris said she voted for about half Republicans and half Democrats on her ballot this year.<\/p>\n

In 2020, Morris said Boebert seemed like the lesser of two evils. But she doesn\u2019t like how Boebert has spent her two years in Washington.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s lying all the time,\u201d Morris said, \u201cso I just don\u2019t trust her.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Rep.
Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., left, and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., right, scream \u201cBuild the Wall\u201d as President Joe Biden delivers his first State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress at the Capitol on March 1 in Washington. (Evelyn Hockstein\/Pool via AP)<\/span>Saul Loeb<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>
Max Lord, 30, Aspen<\/div>\n

Since The Sun last spoke with Lord, a music producer, he decided to go from being an unaffiliated voter to registering as a Republican. In 2020 he voted for Boebert, and he\u2019s already cast a ballot for her again this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cI actually appreciate a lot of the things she\u2019s doing and I\u2019m happy to have her as our representative,\u201d he said. \u201cShe continues to stand up for Second Amendment rights and keeping American traditions and values at the forefront of her campaign.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lord also said he likes that Boebert has fought for water rights for ranchers in the district.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think very highly of Adam (Frisch), I think he\u2019s a great guy,\u201d he said, \u201cbut Lauren represents a lot more of what our district as a whole stands for, not just Aspen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Boebert may not be perfect, he said, but he\u2019s glad to be represented by someone outspoken.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t agree with everything she\u2019s said publicly, but as a whole those negative things are outweighed by the good for me,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Overall, Lord said he\u2019s tired of the two-party system. While he\u2019s a staunch supporter of the Second Amendment, a traditionally conservative viewpoint, he also doesn\u2019t want to see abortion rights taken away.<\/p>\n

Stephanie Cooper, 39, Grand Junction<\/div>\n

While Cooper holds conservative values, she won\u2019t be supporting Boebert this election. (She told us in 2021 that she couldn\u2019t remember whether she backed her in 2020.)<\/p>\n

\u201cI just feel like she\u2019s more focused on attention than getting stuff done,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd rather than take the time to actually come to the table with her constituents or anyone who opposes her\u201d Boebert seems to just want \u201cher voice to be heard.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cCooper said she feels like Frisch has a better grasp on Coloradans\u2019 needs but that his views are still too liberal for her. She plans to write in a candidate to represent the 3rd Congressional District when she fills out her 2022 ballot.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t plan on voting for many Republicans,\u201d she said. \u201cThere are other people out there and other groups out there that I probably align more with. And if I feel stuck on if it\u2019s just between a Democrat and Republican and I don\u2019t agree \u2026 I\u2019m not going to vote.\u201d<\/p>\n

Anthony Medved, 38, Durango<\/div>\n

Medved, a building inspector, told us in 2021 that he couldn\u2019t remember voting in the 3rd District race in 2020, but he definitely is firmly opposed to Boebert in 2022, calling her a \u201cterrible right-wing politician.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think she cares more about her persona than she does actually making a difference in this world,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Medved said he doesn\u2019t believe Boebert represents Colorado and gives America a \u201cterrible look.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cShe needs to be removed from her responsibilities and I will be encouraging anyone I talk to to vote against her and her radical thoughts and actions,\u201d he said.<\/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":"

Residents in Colorado\u2019s 3rd Congressional District were interviewed in spring 2021 and again more recently<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":37495,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[981,233,266,28,1722,367],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-37494","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-colorado-3rd-congressional-district","tag-coloradosun-com","tag-election","tag-headlines","tag-regional-elections","tag-u-s-rep-lauren-boebert"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37494","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=37494"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37494\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37495"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37494"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37494"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37494"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=37494"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}