U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert beat five competitors in the Republican primary to represent her newly adopted eastern Colorado district Tuesday night, winning a contest that was set to determine the firebrand conservative’s future in Congress.
She was leading with 50,634 votes, or 43% of the total, in results posted to the Colorado secretary of state’s website as of 10:48 p.m. Boebert was followed by Logan County Commissioner Jerry Sonnenberg, with 14.5%; Deborah Flora, with 13.8%; state Rep. Richard Holtorf, with 10.83%; state Rep. Mike Lynch, with 10.62%; and Peter Yu, with 7%.
The Associated Press called the race for Boebert at 7:22 p.m. She will face Democrat Trisha Calvarese in the November election in the Republican-favored district.
“2024 is when we take Colorado back and when we take our nation back,” Boebert said from a small stage inside The Grainhouse restaurant at the RainDance National Golf Course in Windsor, where she moved earlier this year from the Western Slope. “We know our rights come from God and not from corrupt politicians.”
The AP called the three-way Democratic primary for Calvarese, a labor advocate, at 11:33 p.m. Tuesday. She was up by more than 1,900 votes over next-best opponent Ike McCorkle.
“Our win tonight shows that our district wants a representative that is a champion for working families, not the dysfunction Lauren Boebert has brought to Congress,” Calvarese said in a statement. “She moved here because she thought she could win in this district, but that’s before I got into this race. From Yuma to Highlands Ranch, we know folks want more than chaos. They want someone who represents their values.”
Boebert, wearing a black dress and cowboy boots emblazoned with an American flag motif, said she had heard only whispers about her early lead from people in the room and did not claim victory from the stage at first. She issued a plea for voters to support former President Donald Trump in November.
“President Trump needs us now more than ever,” she implored.
A cheer broke out in the room when Fox News, playing on giant screens in The Grainhouse, declared the race for Boebert. The congresswoman changed into golden sneakers and a white Make America Great Again ballcap for her victory speech.
“We know we’re going to have a landslide victory in November in CD4,” she said to loud applause.
In recent weeks, signs on the Republican side have pointed to a likely Boebert victory, given the crowded field and her name recognition. Earlier this month, a poll showed her leading all other candidates by at 35 percentage points, but with a hefty share of voters undecided in the sprawling 4th Congressional District. It includes much of the Eastern Plains as well as south suburban Denver’s Douglas County.
There has also been an active race in the Democratic primary, but the road to the Nov. 5 general election will be an uphill climb for whoever wins that nomination in a congressional district that ranks as Colorado’s most Republican. The district, which runs from the Nebraska state line to the Oklahoma border and from the Front Range to the Kansas state line, shows a 20-point advantage among Republicans over Democratic registered voters, though more than 40% of its electorate is unaffiliated.
A Democrat hasn’t won in the 4th Congressional District since Betsy Markey did 16 years ago. Still, Democrats hope to seize on Boebert’s polarizing history to beat the odds.
The race for the 4th District was upended last fall when incumbent Ken Buck said he wouldn’t run to defend his seat in 2024. He later resigned his seat, in March, resulting in a separate special election Tuesday to fill the seat for the rest of this term.
That opened up the race to more than a dozen candidates on both sides of the political aisle — including Boebert, who in the waning days of 2023 said she would abandon a run for reelection in the 3rd Congressional District and try her chances in the more conservative 4th.
The two-term congresswoman was facing bleak prospects in her original district, which she won in 2020, due to the fundraising prowess of her Democratic opponent, Adam Frisch, who nearly beat her in 2022 despite the Western Slope-anchored district having a solid red tint.
Her behavior at a performance of the Broadway touring musical “Beetlejuice” in Denver in September, which generated national headlines, prompted some prominent Colorado Republicans to walk away from her.
Boebert, who has the endorsement of Trump, the soon-to-be Republican presidential nominee, was immediately hit with the accusation of being a carpetbagger for her sudden district switch. But she dominated the fundraising game and was able to capitalize on her sky-high name recognition over her five remaining Republican foes.
Some of her primary opponents have long called the 4th District home, most notably Sonnenberg, also a former state lawmaker. Holtorf runs a cattle ranch near Akron and Lynch lives in Wellington.
Flora, a former radio host, placed her bets on the district’s most populous county, Douglas, where she has lived for a half-dozen years. Yu, a Weld County business owner, is the final Republican in the race.
Democratic primary results
On the Democratic side, repeat candidate McCorkle faced off against political novices Calvarese and John Padora. On Tuesday, Calvarese was leading with 20,300 votes, or 45% of the total, followed by McCorkle at 41% and Padora at 14% as of 10:48 p.m.
Calvarese was also running in the district’s special election. Her Republican opponent was former Parker Mayor Greg Lopez, a Republican, who did not run in the primary for the next term. Lopez held a nearly 24-point lead over Calvarese and had been declared the winner by the AP.
McCorkle, who was trounced by Buck in 2020 and 2022, scored big money in the latest fundraising cycle. From April 1 to June 5, he collected more than $460,000 from contributors — topping Boebert in the money game by more than $100,000. He overshadowed his two Democratic opponents combined by a 3-to-1 margin in fundraising for the most recent reporting period.
McCorkle served 18 years in the U.S. Marine Corps before retiring in 2014. He has previously told The Denver Post that he would continue to run for the 4th District seat until he prevailed.
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