(The Washington Times)
HIGHLANDS RANCH, Colorado — Rep. Lauren Boebert’s lead-up to her 2024 reelection campaign was nothing short of disastrous, and yet the pistol-packing, theater-vaping, district-hopping Republican is still the candidate to beat.
A poll released earlier this month by Florida-based Kaplan Strategies shows 40% of voters surveyed plan to support Ms. Boebert in the June 25 primary race to represent Colorado’s 4th Congressional District. None of her five GOP rivals drew more than 5%.
Dick Wadhams, former Colorado Republican Party chairman and a GOP political consultant, said he believes the congresswoman’s actual support may be slightly below 40%, but that she’s still the clear frontrunner.
“I don’t know if it’s 40, but I do believe she’s at least in the 30s, and in that large field — there are six candidates total — it really does work to her favor with her name-ID advantage,” Mr. Wadhams said. “And she’s got a pretty big financial advantage, too. I think those two things really benefit her.”
Given that the CD4 is the most conservative in the state — 58% of the district voted for Republican Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential race versus 39% for Democrat Joe Biden — the winner of the GOP primary becomes the instant favorite to win the general election in November.
That Ms. Boebert leads the field just months after moving to the new district — and after a year of calamitous headlines centered on her personal life — speaks to the power of name recognition and fundraising in a crowded field, as well as the willingness of voters to forgive and forget.
Ms. Boebert announced in December that she would switch from the 3rd to the 4th Congressional District after eking out a meager 546-vote win in 2022 against Democrat Adam Frisch, who has raised a whopping $13 million in his bid to capture the Western Colorado seat in November.
She moved 230 miles from Rifle to Windsor to run for the seat vacated by Republican Ken Buck, who retired in March.
Trailing Ms. Boebert was skepticism over whether her cowgirl-in-heels image would translate to the CD4, which includes the rural Eastern Plains but also the prosperous suburbs of Douglas County and sections of suburban Weld and Larimer counties.
The Kaplan poll also found that 40% of Republican and unaffiliated voters are undecided, meaning that her opponents have a path to the nomination if they can distinguish themselves as her chief rival, something none of them has so far been able to do.
Also seeking the GOP nod are Logan County Commissioner Jerry Sonnenberg; former state House Minority Leader Mike Lynch; state Rep. Richard Holtorf; former talk-show host Deborah Flora; and conservative activist Peter Yu.
Mr. Sonnenberg, who served previously in the state legislature, won the coveted endorsements of former Republican Sens. Cory Gardner, Wayne Allard and Hank Brown, but Ms. Boebert snared the biggest of all, that of former President Donald Trump.
Her opponents have taken shots at her effectiveness in Congress and her district-switching in recent televised debates, as well as incidents in her personal life.
“We’ve seen how Lauren Boebert would represent us, abandoning her neighbors in CD3, missing key votes while chasing cameras, and being in the center of D.C. drama instead of delivering real solutions for the people,” said Ms. Flora, former conservative talk-show host on KNUS-AM and founder of Parents United America, at the May 29 debate on CBS4.
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