Rep. Lauren Boebert, who is likely to lose her Colorado seat following the recent mid-term election, refused to heed the call for her party to move toward the political center in light of the Republican wave of losses, arguing that the GOP is actually too moderate.
Boebert is likely to lose the 4th Congressional District of Colorado, which is one of the most Republican seats, to Democrat Eileen Laubacher, a retired Navy rear admiral who ran on affordability. This was part of a larger surge in favor of the Democrats that saw Republican seats lost in Kansas to Texas and gave the Democrats control of the House.
In an interview after the election, Boebert blamed the losses on messaging issues, lack of legislation, and defeat of both conservatives and moderates, and not on the party’s ideology.
“A lot of it was the Senate, so I mean there’s a lot of variables here,” Boebert said.
When the reporter asked, “Do you think the party needs to moderate at all?” Boebert replied, “No, we’re definitely moderate enough.”
The reporter followed up. “I mean, you guys lost from Kansas to Texas,” the reporter noted, then asked, “Wait, do you?”
Boebert replied, “Yeah, there are a lot of different kinds of Republicans that lost. So, I mean, you’ve got a lot of ultraconservatives, and then you’ve got the Fitzpatricks and the Lawlers that are all, so.”
This comment referred to Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania and Mike Lawler of New York, two Republicans with moderate voting records who represented swing districts. Fitzpatrick lost to Democrat Bob Harvie in the 1st District of Pennsylvania, and Lawler lost to Democrat Cait Connelly in the 17th District of New York.
“Wait, it sounds like you think you guys were too moderate. That’s why you are,” the reporter said.
“I always think we’re too moderate,” Boebert replied.
When asked, “Do you think you’re too moderate on Iran?” Boebert said, “I was very frustrated with the war.”
At the televised debate during the campaign in October, Boebert criticized President Donald Trump’s war with Iran but consistently voted against attempts to end the war in Congress, dismissing those votes as symbolic. Laubacher, on the other hand, said these votes ignored constituents who wanted to see the war ended.
CNN projected Laubacher the winner on Monday, following the days-long inability to declare a winner. With about 98 percent of the vote counted, Laubacher had 48.8 percent compared to Boebert’s 47.9 percent, a margin of about 3,200 votes. Libertarian Douglas Mangeris had about 3 percent of the vote.
Boebert’s campaign lawyer, Scott Gessler, said the campaign was looking into “some very unusual voting patterns,” although he did not elaborate on what those voting patterns were.
Laubacher, 58, served 34 years in the Navy and retired as a rear admiral in 2024. She later served on the National Security Council under former President Joe Biden and was once a Republican.
Boebert gained national prominence as a Trump supporter after she first won her seat in 2020 in the 3rd Congressional District of Colorado. She retained her seat in 2022 by a margin of 546 votes and moved to the more Republican 4th District in 2024. She won the 4th District by about 11 percent that year, while Trump won it by over 18 percent.
