Conservative firebrand Lauren Boebert announced on Wednesday she was switching congressional districts for the 2024 election, after scraping to re-election in 2022 by only 546 votes.
Boebert, a 37-year-old grandmother and mother of four sons, said that she had made the decision to continue her fight against ‘the socialists and communists taking over our country.’
She said there was ‘dark money’ directed at her personally ‘to steal this seat’.
And she said it was a fresh start after her divorce and ‘personal mistakes’.
Boebert made headlines over the summer after she was caught on camera groping a date, vaping and taking selfies at a performance of the musical Beetlejuice in Denver, and then giving ushers the finger when she was asked to leave and declaring: ‘Do you know who I am?’ She also sparked controversy by heckling Joe Biden in his 2022 State of the Union address, and caused anger by making an Islamophobic joke about Ilhan Omar of Minnesota.
Boebert announced her switch of districts in a Facebook video published on Wednesday, saying: ‘I did not arrive at this decision easily.
Lauren Boebert on Wednesday announced that she would not contest Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District – which she narrowly won in 2022. Instead, she will switch to Colorado’s 4th
Boebert is pictured with Donald Trump in February 2022. She remains a staunch supporter of the former president
‘A lot of prayer, a lot of tough conversations and a lot of perspective convinced me that this is the best way I can continue to fight for Colorado, for the conservative movement and for my children’s future.’
She said the Hollywood elites, Aspen money men and George Soros who tried to stop her can ‘go and pound sand’.
The decision makes her re-election chances significantly stronger.
The 3rd District leans 9 percentage points in Republicans’ favor, The Colorado Sun reported – while the 4th District leans 27 points toward the GOP, according to a nonpartisan analysis of election results from 2016 to 2020 by staffers for the Colorado legislature.
She has struggled to fundraise for her 3rd District reelection bid, the paper reported, and Republican donors in western Colorado have lost their enthusiasm for her brand of fiery pro-Trump politics.
Boebert said on Wednesday she would move to the 4th District – even though she does not have to do so to qualify.
At present, she lives in Garfield County, near the town of Silt – hundreds of miles from the 4th District’s boundaries.
The 4th District spans the entire eastern border of Colorado, and all the land east of Denver stretching from Oklahoma in the south to Nebraska in the north, and east to Kansas.
The 3rd District, by contrast, stretched over the western border of the state, encompassing the wealthy mountain towns of Aspen and Telluride.
The 4th District is currently represented by Ken Buck, but Buck announced in November he would not run for re-election in 2024.
Buck, 64, said he considers himself a conservative aligned with Ronald Reagan, and adheres to individual liberty and economic freedom. He said he was stepping down partly in dismay at his colleagues’ refusal to accept the 2020 election result, and partly because Congress was no longer able to get anything done.