DENVER — Democrat Eileen Laubacher defeated Rep. Lauren Boebert for a Colorado U.S. House seat Friday, ousting a three-term Republican and staple of conservative media.
Laubacher is a former Navy rear admiral. Her win in the 4th Congressional District race brought about just one of several surprising Republican losses in what’s shaping up to be the most lopsided election in half a century.
Boebert has embodied the Republican politics of the last decade. The telegenic owner of a gun-themed restaurant named Shooters Grill in the western Colorado town of Rifle, she catapulted to notoriety alongside President Trump’s “Make America Great Again” movement.
Once elected to Congress in 2020, she refused to pass through metal detectors at the U.S. Capitol and taunted Rep. Ilhan Omar, sometimes in Islamophobic terms, as when she referred to the Minnesota Democrat as part of the “jihad squad.” After barely surviving her first reelection campaign four years ago, Boebert moved across Colorado to a more Republican district.
Republicans carried the 4th District by more than 11 percentage points in 2024. But even that wasn’t safe for her in this year’s midterm election.
Boebert acknowledged the widespread losses as she returned to the Capitol this week, saying, “We collectively failed.”
“It’s very clear,” she said. “The American people let us know we have failed in this governing experience for this Congress.”
In a video posted on her social media account Friday, Boebert said she called Laubacher to congratulate her on her victory and thanked the district’s residents.
Riccardi writes for the Associated Press.
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