In an astonishing upset, Democrat Eileen Laubacher is projected to unseat far-right incumbent Rep. Lauren Boebert (R) in Colorado’s most conservative district.
Laubacher, a 34-year Navy veteran who retired as a rear admiral, has never held political office and only recently registered as a Democrat. The congresswoman-elect swapped her party affiliation from Republican to unaffiliated in 2024.
“I have never felt as much of a threat to our country, our Constitution, our very democracy, as I do at this time,” Laubacher said in a statement explaining her decision to run.
“[The people of Colorado’s 4th Congressional District] deserve someone who believes in service before self,” she continued. “Lauren Boebert is not that person.”
The massive district spans most of Colorado’s eastern plains, bordering Nebraska and Wyoming in the north, Kansas to the east, and New Mexico and Oklahoma to the south.
Like so many Republican incumbents in what were thought to be “safe” conservative districts going into the midterms, Boebert seems to have been unprepared for her loss.
9News’ Spencer Soicher spent election night at Boebert’s watch party where she kicked things off with a festive mood.
“She doesn’t seem too worried,” Soicher noted at the time. “She’s walkin around, drinkin a Busch Light.”
“’Merica,” she responded.
As Laubacher’s lead grew, Boebert remained unfazed.
“I was recently dubbed MAGA party girl, whatever that means,” she reportedly told attendees as she danced to honkytonk at 9 p.m. But as more ballots were returned, Boebert’s dancing gave way to doomscrolling.
“That doesn’t look like somebody who’s thrilled with what she’s seeing on whatever she’s refreshing every 10 seconds like the rest of us,” Soicher observed as Boebert glowered at a laptop.
The three-term congresswoman urged attendees to have faith as the night wore on with no sign of quick victory.
“Listen, y’all don’t start trying to sell your houses and move to Florida just yet,” Boebert, who was born in Florida, told attendees. “OK, we still got to count some ballots here.”
When the tide failed to turn, Scott Gessler, a lawyer representing Boebert’s campaign, suggested election fraud may be to blame for her loss. But Gessler provided no evidence outside of a vague claim about “unusual voting patterns.”
Gessler said the campaign expects “a recount, one way or another.”
Boebert’s loss represents the likely end of a wild political career that saw her flee to a safer district in 2023 after getting thrown out of a “Beetlejuice” performance in downtown Denver for vaping, singing and getting handsy with her date.
She also leaked a photo from Hillary Clinton’s closed-door deposition to a conservative YouTuber, spread baseless conspiracy theories, called for the end of the separation of church and state, live-tweeted the whereabouts of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) during Trump’s Jan. 6, 2021, coup attempt and heckled former President Joe Biden during the State of the Union as he talked about his late son who died of brain cancer.
In her prior career as the owner of Shooter’s Grill, a now-shuttered theme restaurant where all of the waitstaff carried firearms, Boebert is best known for accidentally poisoning 80 people at a rodeo after failing to get the proper license to operate a food cart.
Boebert told Scripps News earlier this week that she has no plans to run again in 2028.