DENVER (AP) — Democrat Eileen Laubacher defeated Rep. Lauren Boebert for a Colorado U.S. House seat on Friday, ousting a three-term Republican and staple of conservative media.
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Laubacher is a former Navy rear admiral. Her win in the 4th Congressional District race is just one of several surprising Republican losses in what’s shaping up to be the most lopsided election in half a century.
Boebert embodied this decade’s version of Republican politics. The telegenic owner of a gun-themed restaurant named “Shooters Grill” in the western Colorado town of Rifle, she catapulted to notoriety alongside President Donald Trump’s “Make America Great Again” movement.
Once elected to Congress, she became a staple on conservative media, refused to pass through metal detectors at the U.S. Capitol and taunted Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar as part of the “jihad squad.” After barely surviving her first reelection campaign, Boebert moved across Colorado to a more Republican district.
Republicans carried the 4th District by more than 18 percentage points in 2024. But even that wasn’t safe for her in this year’s midterm elections.
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.”
