GOP firebrand Congresswoman Lauren Boebert was among the MAGA-backed candidates to enter Congress even as former President Donald Trump was sent packing after the 2020 election.
She soon proved to push an extreme right-wing hardline agenda – seeing the culture war as the greatest threat facing the country, while downplaying the need to provide any support to Ukraine.
Yet, it could be clear that her MAGA policies are too extreme, as she narrowly eked out a victory over her Democratic challenger in the 2022 election. Boebert received just 546 more votes than rival Adam Frisch, despite coming from a district that was seen as safe for the GOP.
Frisch is already preparing for a 2024 rematch.
Lauren Boebert: Her Political Rise
Boebert’s political rise had been compared to that of Democratic Socialist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York after the Colorado native defeated the five-term Republican incumbent Scott Randall Tipton in the 2020 primary. Boebert, who had previously run a pro-Second Amendment-themed restaurant with her now-estranged husband, first gained national attention after she confronted then-Democratic presidential hopeful Beto O’Rourke at a 2019 town hall meeting over his calls to ban AR-15 rifles.
She launched her bid to represent Colorado’s 3rd congressional district in the United States House of Representatives in December 2019, and she made national headlines by criticizing the aforementioned Ocasio-Cortez and other members of “The Squad.”
Boebert positioned herself as a conservative alternative and became the first primary challenger to defeat a sitting U.S. representative in Colorado in 48 years. She went on to defeat Diane Mitsch Bush, a former Democratic state representative, in the 2020 general election.
Boebert was a staunch ally of Trump and a harsh critic of President Joe Biden during her first term. However, her hardline policies may have been seen as too extreme as she was only narrowly elected for a second term.
Can She Win a Third Term?
Boebert could already be facing an uphill battle for 2024. She was among the holdouts who almost derailed GOP leader Kevin McCarthy’s bid to become speaker in a dramatic standoff in January. She also “accidentally” missed the vote to raise the debt ceiling that she opposed.
She has also openly clashed with her one-time ally turned enemy Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia over the direction of the GOP. Their arguments have been public and loud and even resulted in Greene’s dismissal from the far-right Freedom Caucus.
Though Lauren Boebert remains on the caucus, her antics haven’t gone unnoticed, and she is unlikely to get enough support as she faces reelection next year.
Follow the Money
To date, Boebert has reportedly pulled in around $818,000 in fundraising during the second quarter of 2023 – building her war chest to around $1.4 million. That might seem like an impressive figure, but Adam Frisch has already raised more than $2.6 million, which may be a signal that voters have also had enough.
The two were in a virtual tie in a poll conducted this spring.
That could put Colorado’s 3rd District in play, even as it is not one that is considered a swing district.
The issue is made worse by the fact that she’s become a culture warrior who is also engaged in battles over the direction the GOP needs to take rather than about her own district.
“The perception, whether it’s fair or not, is that Congresswoman Boebert has paid more attention to fighting these battles within the Republican Party than she has paid attention to the district,” D. Wadhams, the former chairman of the Colorado Republican Party from 2007 to 2011, told NBC News. “Now, I’m sure her office would refute that. The trouble is it gets obscured by how she conducts herself. And that’s what she’s battling right now.”
Lauren Boebert will likely remain in the headlines, but only because she is just one of several Republicans that are in districts that could flip blue in 2024. Whether she wins or loses, Boebert is likely to remain a headache for House Speaker McCarthy.
Author Experience and Expertise
A Senior Editor for 19FortyFive, Peter Suciu is a Michigan-based writer. He has contributed to more than four dozen magazines, newspapers, and websites with over 3,200 published pieces over a twenty-year career in journalism. He regularly writes about military hardware, firearms history, cybersecurity, politics, and international affairs. Peter is also a Contributing Writer for Forbes and Clearance Jobs. You can follow him on Twitter: @PeterSuciu.
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