Retired Rear Adm. Eileen Laubacher, a Democrat, will flip Colorado’s 4th District, CNN’s Decision Desk projects, ending conservative Rep. Lauren Boebert’s term in Congress.
Boebert’s defeat comes after she chose to run in a more conservative district last cycle in an effort to preserve her political future. But Laubacher, who served more than three decades in the Navy, capitalized on national headwinds against the GOP and focused his campaign on affordability issues.
The victory deprives Boebert, an ally of President Donald Trump and one of the most vocal conservatives in the House Republican conference, of a fourth term. Boebert was first elected in 2020, after upsetting a fifth-term Republican incumbent in a primary.
During this period, she became one of the most recognizable, and sometimes polarizing, faces of the MAGA wing of the Republican Party, attracting attention from Democrats and Republicans alike. Former President Joe Biden, whom she heckled during his 2022 State of the Union address, once introduced her as “one of the leaders of this extreme MAGA movement.” The 39-year-old has also been a source of frustration for Republican Presidents Kevin McCarthy and Mike Johnson.
Trump endorsed Boebert days before the election, praising her in a Truth Social article as a “MAGA warrior, who has been with us from the very beginning.” But the two men also disagreed at times. She drew the president’s ire earlier this year when she campaigned with one of his most vocal Republican critics in the House, Thomas Massie of Kentucky, during his primary. The appearance prompted Trump to call her “stupid” and “feeble-minded” and he threatened to withdraw his support.
Boebert also crossed paths with Trump and House Republican leaders last year when she joined a Democratic campaign to force the release of Jeffrey Epstein’s files, resisting White House efforts to influence her vote. At the time, Republican Party leaders opposed the release of the files, citing the potential disclosure of the names of Epstein’s victims.
This was not the first time Boebert faced a tough re-election fight. She won re-election in 2024 by more than 11 points, but nearly lost her race in another district in 2022. She defeated Democrat Adam Frisch by just 546 votes.
Gn headline
