Representative Lauren Boebert (R-CO) is one of the most colorful members of the House GOP - and we are putting it nicely. Known for sporting her firearm, using extreme gestures to make political points, and for happily declaring that she’d be voting to take America off the economic cliff this summer by refusing to raise the debt ceiling, one wonders how Boebert even won her election.
After all, she hails from a state, Colorado, that is increasingly Liberal. In fact, she won her last election bid by a mere 546 votes—the closest congressional race in the country in 2022.
How long can she actually last?
Lauren Boebert Gets Targeted
With such a small number of votes standing between Lauren Boebert and defeat, the Democrats have identified her district—Colorado’s Third—as being ripe for change.
Rocky Mountain Values, a highly effective Colorado-based Democratic Party advocacy group that made headlines in 2020 for going after Sen. Cory Gardner, has been relaunched under new management. Their sole purpose is to unseat Lauren Boebert in the next election cycle.
The controversial Colorado conservative, Boebert, has made headlines and gotten many followers on Twitter for her opposition to things like student debt relief, cutting Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid benefits, and refusing to raise the debt ceiling.
Yet, all politics is local.
And while national issues have increasingly dominated the discourse on the Right since the rise of Donald Trump in 2016, the Democrats have spent the last few years refocusing their attention on winning the oft-forgotten, though critical, local and state elections.
Just look at the way that the Democrats’ fixation on winning local prosecutor’s races has hurt the Republicans.
Does anyone really believe that, without the Democratic Party’s commitment to putting their preferred candidates in the prosecutor’s office in Manhattan, for example, that former President Trump would have been indicted as he was earlier this week?
Rep.
Boebert has forgotten (if she ever knew) this fact. To gain notoriety
and clicks, she has attached herself to some of the most controversial
national policies and politicians. Boebert’s defense of Trump borders on sycophantic.
Her commitment to ending the Big Three welfare programs and refusing to
countenance student debt relief, has placed her on the wrong side of
the elderly and the young. Since she is from a very Liberal state, her
ultra-conservative social policies have alienated many voters in her district.
No One Likes Her
Even among Republicans, Boebert is not popular.
Yes, she has the “MAGA” crew on her side. But they only account for maybe 42 percent of the Republican Party base. A majority of Republican voters still do not consider themselves “MAGA”. They view themselves as “conservative”. They’ll support their party’s nominees, yes, but if they are unenthused about those candidates they might not turn out in the requisite number to stop the Democrats from winning.
Demoralization is the key here. The Rocky Mountain Values, and other Democratic Party backed groups like theirs, understand this fact. If these groups can demoralize enough Republican voters in Boebert’s district (and they wouldn’t need much to demoralize them), the Democrats can take Boebert’s critical district.
What Lauren Boebert should be asking is why is she hanging by a thread?
Of course, she’s one of the least self-aware people in elected office presently (which is a big achievement). Therefore, Boebert will remain blissfully ignorant, pushing down hard on those controls, thinking she’s saving the day but actually damning herself and the GOP.
The Republicans really need to break themselves of the cult of grievance and rage. It will lead only to their ultimate downfall. There are many problems facing this country and many of those problems have viable, even easily attainable solutions. What is needed is sane and stable leadership; adults need to be placed in the room and the plucky bartenders of the world need to be kept on the backbench until they can prove their mettle.
Boebert the Bombastic, Boebert the Loser?
Boebert’s district is going to be lost at this rate in the next election cycle because Boebert is really bad at her job. We have the largest number of retirees getting ready to pull on welfare benefits that Boebert gleefully calls for cutting.
Our economy is hanging by a thread and if the nation defaults on its debt because Congress and Biden cannot come to an agreement on raising the debt ceiling, it’ll be Boebert’s constituents most hurt. Does she think they’ll stand by her as their pensions are cut, the value of the dollar in their pocket plummets, and the already high interest rates go stratospheric?
Lauren Boebert is a portent of things to come unless the Republicans start getting serious about power and policy. She’s an albatross around the House GOP and everyone knows it. Even Marjorie Taylor-Greene thinks she’s nuts.
Author Expertise and Experience
A 19FortyFive Senior Editor, Brandon J. Weichert is a former Congressional staffer and geopolitical analyst who is a contributor at The Washington Times, as well as at American Greatness and the Asia Times. He is the author of Winning Space: How America Remains a Superpower (Republic Book Publishers), Biohacked: China’s Race to Control Life (May 16), and The Shadow War: Iran’s Quest for Supremacy (July 23). Weichert can be followed via Twitter @WeTheBrandon.
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