February 03, 2026 11:41 AM UTC

Churning and Burning in CO-04

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• by: Colorado Pols

Fundraising numbers from the last three months of 2025 show a common theme in CO-04, where Democrats Eileen Laubacher and Trisha Calvarese are competing for the right to challenge incumbent Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert in November.

The headlines show that both Laubacher and Calvarese significantly outraised Boebert in the most Republican-leaning congressional district in the state (Donald Trump carried CO-04 by 18 points in 2024), but those gaudy contribution totals are misleading. All three candidates are burning through their donations at an unsustainable rate:

As we noted when discussing the numbers from Q3 2025, we’ve been focusing more on cash-on-hand totals when assessing fundraising reports because of the popularity of “churn and burn” digital fundraising strategies. The rise of “churn and burn” efforts targeting smaller contributions from nationwide lists of donors produce gaudy contribution totals but also chew up sizable chunks of revenue — money spent on digital fundraising consultants, purchasing new donors lists, etc. This strategy works best in races with a recognizable opponent like Boebert; small donors across the country probably don’t know squat about CO-04 but recognize Boebert’s name and support her potential ouster.

The result is that candidates can get stuck in a hamster wheel of raising and spending money that obscures the true level of support for their campaign. [Of course, not all of the expenditures listed above are related to fundraising costs, but there would be little reason for a campaign to be spending 70-80% of its contributions on anything else before the calendar even turns to 2026.]

With that caveat in mind, Laubacher still had a great Q4. She pulled in more than $2 million in contributions — which awards her that Denver Post headline above — but Laubacher’s campaign actually added about $573,800 to her warchest. That number by itself is still an above-average fundraising quarter for a congressional candidate.

Calvarese’s net total is much different. On the surface, a $1 million fundraising quarter would put Calvarese’s campaign in the top percentile nationwide. Calvarese’s 84% burn rate, however, means her campaign only netted about $169,638 — which would be a mediocre quarterly total by itself.

The most instructive information from the numbers above might come from the incumbent. Boebert still isn’t making much of an effort to raise money, and she’s not saving much of it, either. Boebert has proved in prior campaigns that she has the ability to raise significant sums of money; the fact that her campaign only has $218,665 in the bank means that they are feeling comfortable with their built-in Republican voter advantage in CO-04.