February 03, 2021 02:03 PM UTC

Kerry Donovan to Run Against Lauren Boebert

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• by: Colorado Pols

Congresswoman Lauren “Q*Bert” Boebert has generated a significant amount of attention since winning election in Colorado’s third congressional district. Much of that attention has been, well, less than flattering, but it has nevertheless made her into a social media curiosity and a familiar name to politically-interested observers around the country.

A handful of mostly-unknown people have voiced their intent on Twitter to challenge Boebert in 2022. This sort of announcement generates significant social media interest, largely because so many people are annoyed by Boebert, but none of the floated names have thus far seem to be particularly serious challengers.

Until now.

State Senator Kerry Donovan (D-Vail) has filed paperwork to run in CO-3 and is rumored to be making an official announcement soon. Donovan is serving her second term in the State Senate after winning re-election in 2018. She is also a rancher whose family has called Eagle County home for generations.

Donovan is unquestionably one of the stronger candidates that Democrats could hope to put forward in CO-3, although the results of redistricting will go a long way in determining how much of a challenge Boebert might truly face in 2022. Boebert defeated Democrat Diane Mitsch Bush by seven points in November, and the geographically-enormous CO-3 district has been a reliably-red district for the last decade. It will be hard for any Democrat to be successful here if the voter makeup of CO-3 doesn’t significantly change as a result of reapportionment. There is also the possibility that Donovan’s residence could be drawn into a different district — CO-2, perhaps — though there is no residency requirement to run for Congress.

In the meantime, there’s not a lot of political downside for Donovan in making this decision. She’s term-limited in 2022, so she wouldn’t have to risk her current seat, and it probably won’t be all that difficult to raise money as a viable Boebert opponent. With as much interest as Boebert has drawn in Colorado and nationally, anybody looking at a serious bid for CO-3 probably needed to jump sooner rather than later.

The Colorado legislative session kicks off on Feb. 16, so Donovan is going to be putting a lot of miles on her car. Probably not drive-around-the-earth type of miles, but she’s going to be plenty busy.