When politicians lose support from local news outlets in their home district it is cause for concern. Colorado Congresswoman Lauren Boebert is increasingly getting negative press attention – this time from a Grand Junction newspaper – and others in her home state. Local outlets have noted the firebrand conservative is not raising enough money compared to her 2024 House of Representatives opponent.
Concerning Fund Raising Total for Lauren Boebert
In another display that Boebert is vulnerable in this election cycle, the candidate she barely beat in 2022 is putting away more dollars in his campaign coffers. The first fundraising quarter in 2023 has ended and Democrat businessman Adam Frisch has $257,000 more cash on hand than Boebert. He outraised Boebert by nearly a million dollars in the latest reporting period.
Could She Be Beaten?
National Democrats are likely celebrating the totals and believe that Boebert can be beaten in 2024. Frisch lost by only 546 votes in the 3rd Congressional District of Colorado in 2022. Boebert may have another barnburner on her hands that could send her political career into a tailspin.
This may be one of the most competitive races in the nation in 2024. Frisch raised $1.7 million and Boebert only $764,000 in the first three months of 2023. This is a drop from the $846,000 she raised in the first quarter of last year. Frisch banked $1.7 million from January to March this year and he has $1.3 million cash on hand in April.
Frisch Has the Edge With Low Dollar Donors
Sixty-one percent of Frisch’s donors were small-dollar donors – a signal that he has many grassroots supporters. By comparison, only about 40 percent of Boebert donors gave $200 or less. Both candidates raised most of their money from donors living in Colorado. Predictably, people in Red and Blue states chipped in both campaigns. Boebert received the highest numbers from people living in Texas and Florida, while Frisch took in money from more donors in California and New York.
A poll released on April 11 from a left-leaning research firm showed that the two candidates are neck-and-neck. The Global Strategy Group’s Mountaineer poll revealed that both received 45 percent of support while 10 percent of those surveyed said they will support someone else or are undecided.
It’s a Republican Leaning District
This spells trouble for Boebert because Donald Trump won her district by six points in 2020 and a question answered by respondents revealed they would support a generic Republican in the race by 11 points, so the district leans Republican, but not necessarily in favor of Boebert.
Democrat pollster Andrew Baumann believes that she is “focused on promoting herself and defending Donald Trump — not on the issues that matter to them,” he said in a statement.
Boebert seems to be reserving more interview time for commentary about happenings outside Colorado. For example, she recently castigated Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg for a train wreck in Maine. She also focused much attention on voting against Representative Kevin McCarthy’s quest for Speaker of the House. In addition, she wanted to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.
In the several months prior to the fundraising totals and polling, I have often written that Boebert needs to focus on the home district and moderate her conservative policy stances to win in 2024. She responds to national media coverage and sometimes neglects to tend to her district. This outlook often turns off voters who wish their representatives to focus on matters that are closer to home.
In the poll referenced above, Boebert only scores a 42 percent approval rating. Boebert’s camp likely believes the left-leaning pollster may have under-sampled Republicans skewing the poll toward Democrats, but this is not a positive development for Boebert. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee will likely analyze this poll and pour resources into the district as they smell an upset. Thus, Boebert has work ahead of her if she is to convince some in her district that she cares about issues close to them.
Author Expertise and Experience: Serving as 19FortyFive’s Defense and National Security Editor, Dr. Brent M. Eastwood is the author of Humans, Machines, and Data: Future Trends in Warfare. He is an Emerging Threats expert and former U.S. Army Infantry officer. You can follow him on Twitter @BMEastwood. He holds a Ph.D. in Political Science and Foreign Policy/ International Relations.
