Conservative firebrand Rep. Lauren Boebert is running for Congress in a new district to replace outgoing Rep. Ken Buck, but she is embracing the uphill battle.
Boebert is working to rally motivated MAGA conservatives to join her campaign for Colorado’s 4th district, after moving east to more conservative pastures from her current 3rd district position.
Boebert’s decision shook up the race, but despite her popularity in the MAGA community it’s not a guaranteed victory in her newly adopted district.
Republicans in the district are suspicious about Boebert’s motivations for switching districts, viewing it as a politically expedient decision, and not all are satisfied with her messy family drama.
Candidates who had already announced their campaigns in the district were exasperated when Boebert decided to jump into their district.
Boebert’s decision shook up the race, but despite her popularity in the MAGA community it’s not a guaranteed victory in her newly adopted district.
Boebert explains that switching districts offers her and her family a chance for a ‘fresh’ start, making the case that her messy divorce with her ex-husband Jayson Boebert is behind her
But Boebert embraces the term ‘carpetbagger,’ a derogatory term first coined after the Civil War to describe northerners moving south for political and economic expediency.
‘Weren’t the carpetbaggers the good guys?’ she mused during an interview with the DailyMail.com on the phone. ‘Didn’t they like bring industry, innovation, prosperity?’
She acknowledged that voters in the district have a lot of questions and says she is ready to have those conversations as the June 24 Republican primary approaches.
‘I understand this move came as a shock to many and so it’s natural for there to be some apprehension,’ she said.
That keeps her motivated, as she crisscrosses the districts meeting with as many Republicans as she can. She says there is ‘no question that is off-limits’ during her conversation with voters.
‘My approach has always been the same, I am approachable to people, I want to communicate with them, I want to connect with them, I want to earn their trust,’ she explained. ‘I find the more people I connect with personally, the apprehensions quickly fade away.’
She’s happy to talk about her new home in Windsor, Colorado, revealing that her sons are learning to appreciate the number of available activities, such as golfing, skiing, and bike riding and even joining their mom from time to time on the new campaign trial.
‘They are very happy where we are. It’s a difficult decision but we are in Windsor, they’re very happy there’s a lot of activities for them,’ she said.
Boebert explains that switching districts offers her and her family a chance for a ‘fresh’ start, making the case that her messy divorce with her ex-husband Jayson Boebert is behind her.
On Monday, Boebert withdrew her request for a permanent restraining order against her ex-husband Jayson Boebert, telling the judge she had come to some ‘pretty strict agreements’ with Jayson that would hopefully prevent her from seeking additional restraining orders.
It’s the latest example of Boebert’s list of statements surrounding her and her family’s drama making headlines during her political career.
As a carpetbagger, Boebert is bringing a lot of personal baggage to the 4th district, where some Republican voters are just not thrilled with the idea of having her represent them.
Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) is embracing her move to Winsor, Colorado to run in a new district
This image provided by the City of Rifle Police Department shows Tyler Jay Boebert, arrested Tuesday, Feb. 27, 2024
Earlier this month, her oldest son Tyler was arrested by police, facing four felony counts of criminal possession of identification documents and one felony count of conspiracy to commit a felony. He faces 15 additional misdemeanor and petty offenses.
According to the police affidavit, investigators say they identified Tyler with a group of friends using stolen credit cards to purchase fuel and food at local gas stations, McDonald’s, and Starbucks, which coincided with a series of vehicle break-ins.
Police identified Tyler wearing a Shooters Grill hooded sweatshirt, a gun-themed restaurant his mother owned when she first ran for Congress.
Boebert reminded her constituents that her son Tyler had been through ‘very difficult public challenges’ as a result of her political position, becoming ‘the subject of attention that he didn’t ask for.’
Her ex-husband was arrested for third-degree assault, prohibited use of weapons, obstructing a peace officer, harassment, disorderly conduct, and third-degree trespassing. Jayson was also charged after he allegedly attacked his son Tyler while allegedly intoxicated.
Her difficult divorce, Boebert said, was partially to blame for the incident at the Denver theater where she and a date were kicked out of a September performance of the Beetlejuice musical for vaping and disrupting the show.
After denying she was vaping, the theater released footage of the couple showing Boebert not only vaping but she and her date groping each other in the darkened theater.
Reports said Boebert asked the theater staffers, ‘Do you know who I am?’ and threatened to ‘call the mayor’ as they demanded that she leave.
It was a ‘challenging personal time’ Boebert admitted in a lengthy statement apologizing for her actions, telling voters ‘I simply fell short of my values’ which was ‘unacceptable and I’m sorry.’
Democrats keeping a list of her family’s rap sheet remind voters of her tumultuous personal history, which she addresses at length in her 2022 book detailing ‘My American Life.’
‘I address it head on. I always have. My personal life has been an open book on the table. I don’t shy away from that,’ she said in an interview.
Boebert acknowledges her personal failures, pointing to her faith and trust in God for helping her navigate the stormy waters of her personal life while serving as a representative in the United States Congress.
She points to the chapter of Hebrews 11 in the Bible in a local radio interview to explain how her faith keeps her in the fight.
‘I have my trust in him, and so that is how I remain strong in Washington, D.C., it’s not without flaw,’ she said in an interview with the Jeff and Bill Show on Denver News/Talk 710 KNUS. ‘A lot of God’s people who accomplished really big things had flaws.’
God, she explains, even chose murderers, adulterers, and prostitutes, to do his will despite their personal issues. Even a Biblical hero like Gideon, she explains was ‘pretty depressed’ and a ‘whiney little guy’ before God made him a man of valor.
‘God chose not to edit his children’s stories, I believe, to encourage each and every one of us that our mistakes and flaws do not define us, he can still work mighty things through us,’ she said.
For voters in the 4th district, Boebert’s personal drama is a step too far.
‘I’ll be surprised if she gets it. A lot of controversy, she’s kind of ruined it,’ one voter, Eddie from Ft. Morgan Colorado told me as voters went to the polls for the Republican presidential primary.
Other voters were more cynical about her political chances.
‘She’s not going to get it. No way,’ one voter named Ken said. ‘Eastern Colorado, no way.’
During conversations with voters I spoke to in the 4th District out in the Eastern plains of Colorado, the Beetlejuice theater incident is the first thing they volunteer when asked if they plan to support her.
‘She pulled some things in the last couple of years,’ a voter in Ft. Morgan told me, citing the incident in the Denver theater.
‘That was not very professional at all,’ a voter, Jeff, from Byers, Colorado said about it.
‘I’m not impressed with what she did,’ his wife, Kim agreed. ‘And that’s unfortunate because that does play a part, especially with traditional conservative values.’
Jeff indicated the incident was a sign that Boebert was out of touch with voters in Colorado.
‘I think she let her position go to her head, so she kind of thought she could just do whatever she wanted,’ he said, adding with a chuckle, ‘Of course a lot of them do that.’
Other Republicans said they grew tired of Boebert’s antics on Fox News and other news networks, as it seemed she was more interested in being a MAGA media star than representing them in Congress.
Boebert is irritated by that portrayal, blaming Democrats and the media for cultivating that image of her.
‘I’m not here for show, or you know just to be loud and get on the news,’ she told the DailyMail.com. ‘I’m doing real work, and that’s not something that’s portrayed all the time in print.’
She was not impressed by an attempt by the Washington Post to brand her as a ‘MAGA Mean Girl,’ earlier this month referring to the aggressive posse of villainesses in the defining high school comedy film Mean Girls.
‘I don’t have a reaction to that,’ she said shortly. ‘I am a MAGA Constitutionalist, I’m here to preserve our constitutional republic so whatever it takes to get the job done.’
Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) is running on her record as a fighter
Boebert said she hoped Biden’s State of the Union address this year would be his last, predicting a win for former President Donald Trump
Despite famously heckling President Biden during his 2022 State of the Union speech she opted not to interrupt the president last week.
‘It was painful,’ Boebert admitted. ‘I was more excited by the thought that this would be the last State of the Union speech that he was giving.’
After holding her fire during the speech, Boebert appeared on former Trump senior advisor Steve Bannon’s War Room show the following day to launch a new deportation and border security bill titled the ‘Build the Wall, Deport Them All’ act.
‘Buses brought these illegals into our country and buses can bring them out,’ Boebert stated. ‘They all gotta go.’
Bannon has branded his followers and listeners as a ‘posse,’ a highly motivated group of activists who are deployed across the country to fuel the populist political movement.
‘I got to give a shoutout to the posse here. Steve Bannon is loved all throughout America. I travel all the states, and I hear about you. But, in eastern Colorado, you are their superstar,’ she said.
Boebert told the Daily Mail she and Bannon are organizing an event in Colorado to boost her campaign in the 4th district.
The most energized supporters will help win the Republican primary in the district and Boebert has the fundraising numbers and the name recognition to drive her campaign forward.
Boebert is the most recognized candidate even though her unfavorable ratings are high, according to a Kaplan Strategies poll of 558 likely Republican primary voters in the district.
Boebert leads the pack of Republican candidates, the poll shows, with 32 percent support. The rest of the candidates are in the single digits.
The poll also shows that a higher percentage of voters soured on the idea of voting for someone who just moved into the district and expressed reservations about Boebert’s character and judgment.
Boebert is the frontrunner, most local Republicans admit, but believe she has enough negatives to make voters look at other candidates.
‘I don’t think it’s by any means a given for Congresswoman Boebert,’ Weld County Commissioner Scott James told me during a visit in Colorado about local politics. ‘I don’t know that I’d call it a slam dunk.’