April 17, 2026 09:12 AM UTC

Eileen Laubacher Shovels Cash While Boebert Phones It In

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• by: Colorado Pols

As we continue to digest the fundraising reports for Colorado candidates in the first quarter of 2026, as Colorado Public Radio’s Caitlyn Kim reports, both the biggest haul and the widest disparity between contenders occurred in Colorado’s deep-red Fourth Congressional District, held by Colorado’s premier celebrity carpetbagger Rep. Lauren Boebert, where Democratic challenger Eileen Laubacher is raising so much damn money it’s an legitimate question what she plans to do with it:

The largest fundraising haul this quarter came, again, from former Adm. Eileen Laubacher. She’s a Democrat challenging incumbent GOP Rep. Lauren Boebert in the 4th Congressional District. She raised over $2.1 million in her bid to flip the state’s reddest district. More than $1.4 million came from small donors. Laubacher has almost $3.1 million cash on hand.

By contrast, reports Axios’ John Frank, it looks like Rep. Boebert has let Jesus take the wheel of her fundraising operation:

U.S. Rep Lauren Boebert raised a paltry $90,000 in the first three months of the year and reported just $219,000 in the bank ahead of the November election.

Why it matters: The Windsor Republican’s fundraising is by far the weakest of any Colorado congressional incumbent, according to an Axios Denver analysis of new campaign filings.

It’s not just a paltry number, it’s a result that invites legitimate questions about Boebert’s competence as a candidate for Congress. The trust she is putting in the Republican voters of CO-04 to turn out for her with basically no operational re-election campaign is, to put it in the kindest possible terms, not rational. Republicans are expecting heavy losses in the upcoming midterm elections, potentially cutting deep into red territory. Combine that with Boebert’s history of underperformance in every race she’s run relative to the district’s composition, and you’re talking about a risk we would not take with our career.

On the other hand, Eileen Laubacher is reaping the rewards of continued nationwide disdain for Boebert, and has effectively capitalized that sentiment with a huge number of small donations to her campaign–over 390,000 according to their release, with an average of less than $22 each. This gives Laubacher, who is now free of a primary challenge after opponent Trisha Calvarese withdrew from the race, the largest war chest of any candidate in either party except incumbent Democratic Sen. John Hickenlooper.

The question now, and we’ll open the floor to readers to answer, is what Laubacher should do with all that money to actually defeat Boebert in the November elections? It’s a tall order any year in Colorado’s reddest district. The last time it happened was in 2008, when Betsy Markey knocked out Marilyn Musgrave in a Democratic wave year. To even think about turning this into a serious race, a Democratic candidate needs to bring something extra to the table–even in an election where all the proverbial stars align.

Laubacher raising millions while Boebert phones it in could be that something extra.