Rep. Lauren Boebert, the Republican congresswoman representing a huge swath of western and southern Colorado, announced Wednesday that in the 2024 election, she plans on changing districts.
Boebert said in a Facebook video that she intends to seek office in Colorado’s 4th Congressional District, which covers the Eastern Plains, currently represented by Republican U.S. Rep. Ken Buck. Buck said last month that he won’t seek reelection in 2024, due to the Republican Party’s support of former President Donald Trump and, what he called an embrace of conspiracy theories. He’s represented the district since 2015.
“I wanted to let you, my constituents and supporters, hear directly from me about my plans for the 2024 election cycle and the importance of maintaining a conservative voice for Colorado in Congress as well as keeping our Republican House majority,” Boebert wrote in the caption of that Facebook video.
“I cannot put into words how grateful I am for everyone who has steadfastly stood alongside me over the past year and beyond,” she continued. “I am going to do everything in my power to represent the 3rd District well for the remainder of this term as I work to earn the trust of grassroots conservative voters in the 4th District to represent them in 2025.”
The full video can be seen here.
Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District, which Boebert currently represents, covers the northwest corner of the state south through Grand Junction to the southeast corner, east to Pueblo and the southern central portion of the state. That district has had both Democratic and Republican representatives over the past few decades.
The 4th Congressional District includes most of the eastern half of the state, as well as Douglas County and Greeley. Aside from one-term Democratic Rep. Betsy Markey, who served from 2009 to 2011, the district hasn’t seen a Democratic representative since 1973.
Boebert won her 2022 bid for reelection against Democratic challenger Adam Frisch by just over 500 votes with over 300,000 ballots cast. The race was so close it triggered an automatic recount. Frisch said he’s planning to run for that district again.
It’s unclear how many people will run for that seat in total, but Republicans Russ Andrews, Jeff Hurd and Curtis McCrackin announced their intent to challenge Boebert in the primary for the 3rd Congressional District. Democrats Anna Stout and Adam Withrow, along with Frisch, as well as three third-party candidates said they’ll be seeking that seat too.
In 2022, Buck won reelection handily with over 60% of the vote. Boebert will face a crowded field in the primary election with six other Republican candidates having announced their intent to run. Whoever wins that bid will then face the winner of the Democratic primary; three people have announced their intent to seek the Democratic nomination.
In a statement, Boebert said she’ll continue her efforts fighting for conservatives in Colorado and the U.S. and against “Democrat socialists and communists” and “Hollywood elites and national progressive groups.”
Boebert was first elected to her seat in 2020, beating 10-year incumbent Scott Tipton, who Trump endorsed at the time.
Boebert lives near the western end of the state in Garfield County, hundreds of miles from the 4th Congressional District. If elected to represent the 3rd Congressional District, she said she would relocate to that district. Members of Congress are not required to live in the districts they represent, only in the same state.
Colorado Democratic Party Chair Shad Murib called Boebert “cowardly” for “abandoning” her constituents, in a statement.
“Lauren Boebert can run, but she can’t hide,” Murib said, in part. “The good people of Western and Southern Colorado didn’t wait for an election to beat Lauren Boebert — we scared her straight and chased her out of her own district. With this carpetbagging move, Lauren Boebert has shown herself to be everything she claims she isn’t: a typical swampy politician looking for a reason to call Washington D.C. home. She’s a loser in CD3, and she’ll be a loser in CD4.”
Trent Leisy, who’s running for the seat Boebert is now seeking, criticized the move from a strategic standpoint.
“Lauren Boebert has officially given the Democrats a Congressional seat by switching districts to run in my race,” he tweeted Wednesday. “This move would give the Democrats control of the House. Lauren should be a fighter and keep her district red! In Congress, I would NEVER vote to expand FISA and am running in a district that I actually live in.”
