Colorado Congresscritter Lauren Boebert's brief political career might already be over, if a recent straw poll in her new district is any guide.
Boebert was certainly easy to like when she first got into politics, all the way back in [checks notes] 2020, just two election cycles ago. The young, attractive, married mom of four wasn't merely Trumpian brash, she and her husband even owned a restaurant called Shooters Grill, where the hot waitresses were encouraged to open carry.
Attractive service? Firearms? Fried food? What's not to like?
Plenty, after Boebert got to Washington. I'll admit she was great at making headlines on important issues like our wide-open southern border. But all too often, Boebert was making headlines for all the wrong reasons.
By the time she'd "graced" the pages of the Daily Mail (and not for her legislative acumen) last year, voters in the 3rd were already done with her. She barely won reelection in 2022 against Democrat Adam Frisch, scraping by with a margin of fewer than 600 votes out of 327,110 cast in an R+7 district. The writing was on the wall that Boebert would either draw a primary challenger this year strong enough to knock her off — or lose her red district to Frisch in a rematch in November.
Boebert's solution? Carpetbag her way on over to Colorado's 4th District on the Eastern Plains. Ken Buck (R-Windsor) has represented the 4th for ten years and, conveniently for Boebert, has elected to retire after serving out his current term.
The 4th is even more Republican than the 3rd (R+13 vs. R+7, according to Cook), and there she might hope to squeak her way back into office with a 1,000-vote win instead of 500. But first, she has to make her way past a crowded field of GOP competitors in the primaries — and that's where I expect Boebert to crash and burn.
According to a straw poll taken after a 4th District GOP primary debate, Boebert finished a distant fifth in a field of nine contenders. Colorado Politics reported that Boebert's weak support "surprised some in the room but drew shrugs from others."
Granted, the poll had a very small sample size and wasn't scientific. But it does match a feeling I've had for more than a year now: Colorado is so over Lauren Boebert and her "ME! ME! ME!" antics.
The nicest thing I've heard anyone say about her since her nailbiter 2022 reelection is, "She almost cost us an easy win? She has GOT to go," or words to that effect. I have not heard a single Colorado Republican say a single nice thing about Boebert since long before she made her unabashed political careerism official with her move to the 4th.
Boebert said of her move, "I will not allow dark money that is directed at destroying me personally to steal this seat... It's not fair to the 3rd District and the conservatives there who have fought so hard for our victories...The Aspen donors, George Soros, and Hollywood actors that are trying to buy this seat, well, they can go pound sand."
But we've seen Republicans rally around a similar target — Donald Trump. His support has gone nowhere but up with every politicized indictment against him. The fact is that Colorado Republicans are over their brief fling with Boebert because she represented herself much better than she did the people of her district.
A smart politician knows how to play the game, to maintain the illusion that they're in D.C. representing their district instead of just themselves. But Boebert does not appear to be a smart politician — and shopping around for friendlier voters won't change that.
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