U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert was on track to beat five competitors in the Republican primary to represent her newly adopted eastern Colorado district Tuesday night in a contest that was set to determine the firebrand conservative’s future in Congress.
She was leading with 29,700 votes, or 43% of the total, in early results posted to the Colorado secretary of state’s website as of 7:27 p.m. Boebert was followed by Deborah Flora, with 16%; state Rep. Mike Lynch, with 12%; Logan County Commissioner Jerry Sonnenberg, with 11%; state Rep. Richard Holtorf, with 9.9%; and Peter Yu, with 8.2%.
The Associated Press called the race for Boebert at 7:22 p.m.
Democrat Tricia Calvarese, a labor advocate, was leading that party’s three-way primary. (See more on that race below.)
In recent weeks, signs on the Republican side have pointed to a likely Boebert victory, given the crowded field and her name recognition. Earlier this month, a poll showed her leading all other candidates by at 35 percentage points, but with a hefty share of voters undecided in the sprawling 4th Congressional District. It includes much of the Eastern Plains as well as south suburban Denver’s Douglas County.
There has also been an active race in the Democratic primary, but the road to the Nov. 5 general election will be an uphill climb for whoever wins that nomination in a congressional district that ranks as Colorado’s most Republican. The district, which runs from the Nebraska state line to the Oklahoma border and from the Front Range to the Kansas state line, shows a 20-point advantage among Republicans over Democratic registered voters, though more than 40% of its electorate is unaffiliated.
A Democrat hasn’t won in the 4th Congressional District since Betsy Markey did 16 years ago.
The race for the 4th District was upended last fall when incumbent Ken Buck said he wouldn’t run to defend his seat in 2024. He later resigned his seat, in March, resulting in a separate special election Tuesday to fill the seat for the rest of this term.
That opened up the race to more than a dozen candidates on both sides of the political aisle — including Boebert, who in the waning days of 2023 said she would abandon a run for reelection in the 3rd Congressional District and try her chances in the more conservative 4th.
The two-term congresswoman was facing bleak prospects in her original district, which she won in 2020, due to the fundraising prowess of her Democratic opponent, Adam Frisch, who nearly beat her in 2022 despite the Western Slope-anchored district having a solid red tint. Her behavior at a performance of the Broadway touring musical “Beetlejuice” in Denver in September, which generated national headlines, prompted some prominent Colorado Republicans to walk away from her.
Boebert, who has the endorsement of soon-to-be Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, was immediately hit with the accusation of being a carpetbagger for her sudden district switch. But she dominated the fundraising game and was able to capitalize on her sky-high name recognition over her five remaining Republican foes.
Some of her primary opponents have long called the 4th District home, most notably Sonnenberg, also a former state lawmaker. Holtorf runs a cattle ranch near Akron and Lynch lives in Wellington.
Flora, a former radio host, placed her bets on the district’s most populous county, Douglas, where she has lived for a half-dozen years. Yu, a Weld County business owner, is the final Republican in the race.
Democratic primary results
On the Democratic side, repeat candidate Ike McCorkle faced off against political novices Calvarese and John Padora. In early results, Calvarese was leading with 15,945 votes, or 46% of the total, followed by McCorkle at 41% and Padora at 13%.
Calvarese was also running in the district’s special election. Her Republican opponent was former Parker Mayor Greg Lopez, a Republican, who did not run in the primary for the next term.
McCorkle, who was trounced by Buck in 2020 and 2022, scored big money in the latest fundraising cycle. From April 1 to June 5, he collected more than $460,000 from contributors — topping Boebert in the money game by more than $100,000. He overshadowed his two Democratic opponents combined by a 3-to-1 margin in fundraising for the most recent reporting period.
McCorkle served 18 years in the U.S. Marine Corps before retiring in 2014. He has previously told The Denver Post that he would continue to run for the 4th District seat until he prevailed.
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