June 26, 2024 11:37 AM UTC

Lauren Boebert: Yesterday, Today, And Forever

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• by: Colorado Pols

As Andrew Kenney at Colorado Public Radio reports, the last, best chance to put an end to one of the consistently craziest reality TV spectacles in modern American politics died with a whimper last night as calumnious carpetbagging calamity for Christ Rep. Lauren Boebert rolled to victory over five hapless also-rans in the CO-04 Republican primary to succeed Rep. Ken Buck:

The primary was a test of whether voters in this half-rural, half-suburban stretch of the state had an appetite for Boebert’s combination of hardline conservative politics, Christian faith messaging, election denialism and firebrand personal style — and if they were willing to accept a representative with few local ties.

For other ambitious Republicans, the open seat in the Fourth represented a rare opportunity to move up in Colorado politics. Democrats have come to dominate the state’s highest offices over the past decade, but Republican politicians can reign for years or decades in a heavily conservative district like the Fourth.

Also in the race were conservative radio host Deborah Flora; state Reps. Richard Holtorf and Mike Lynch; Logan County Commissioner and former state lawmaker Jerry Sonnenberg; and corporate finance executive Peter Yu.

Boebert’s victory in last night’s CO-04 GOP primary was no surprise, with polling having shown for some months that Boebert was the only candidate in the race with enough name recognition to stand out from the pack. Boebert also brought resources over from her expected costly rematch in CO-03 that allowed her to spend multiples of her opponents on advertising. Of the five candidates who ran against Boebert, former state Sen. Jerry Sonnenberg was the nominal insider favorite, with a long list of local endorsements including former CO-04 Rep. and U.S. Senator Cory Gardner. But in the end, Sonnenberg was unable to either distinguish himself from the other non-Boebert candidates or persuade them to drop out and consolidate the non-Boebert vote. As a result, Boebert slightly overperformed expectations with a plurality of 43% as of this morning–but we’ll never know if the result might have been different had a single challenger been able to gain momentum.

As Ernest Luning writes for the Colorado Springs Gazette’s political blog, Boebert’s initial failure to clear the field of irate challengers perversely became Boebert’s salvation as the large pack of candidates each refused to set aside their own pipe dreams for the greater good:

Instead of clearing the field, however, Boebert’s move was denounced as “carpetbagging” by fellow Republicans, including nearly a dozen who vied along with her to replace Buck in Colorado’s most solid GOP seat. Eventually, six Republicans, including Boebert, made the ballot, but none matched her fundraising lead and high-profile advantage.

In early returns, Boebert jumped out far ahead of her Republican rivals and never relinquished the lead.

When Boebert, reeling from compounding disgraces that came to a head with her ejection from a Denver theater for vaping and lewd conduct with her male companion last September, announced in late December that she would switch districts to run in the crowded CO-04 primary, her decision was widely written off as an act of desperation from a politician circling the drain of an abbreviated career. After falling in line to back Boebert’s primary opponent in CO-03 Jeff Hurd, Republicans looking to end the ongoing damage Boebert does to their brand had a wide-open opportunity to refocus the CO-04 race around a single challenger who could counter Boebert’s built-in advantages.

Former Rep. Scott Tipton and his team of supposedly crack political operatives were blindsided by Boebert in 2020. In 2024, none of Boebert’s opponents had the foresight to realize their campaigns were in the end helping Boebert win. Sonnenberg could only watch helplessly as the opposition to Boebert divided five ways.

Barring some kind of Betsy Markey-style miracle, Lauren Boebert will now occupy Colorado’s safest Republican seat for as long as she wants it–or becomes too toxic even for this demonstrably…forgiving new constituency. This greater security is likely to have the effect of making Boebert even more outrageous in her daily trolling for attention. Boebert hasn’t learned any lessons from the intense criticism she has received for repeatedly claiming credit for programs she voted against, and isn’t likely to now that she’s been rewarded with an even safer seat. Republican primary voters in this deep-red district might have looked past her prodigious baggage this time, but the reality is that Boebert does collateral damage to Republicans everywhere.

It’s not Democrats who will regret this lost opportunity.