Lauren Boebert loses Colorado fourth district race to Democrat Eileen Laubacher
Republican representative Lauren Boebert has lost her bid for a fourth term in Colorado’s fourth congressional district to Democrat Eileen Laubacher by a margin of less than 1%, according to the Associated Press. The eastern-plains seat is among Colorado’s most conservative and had long been a Republican stronghold. Laubacher, a retired two-star Navy rear admiral who served in Afghanistan and later on the National Security Council under the Biden administration, registered as a Democrat only in 2025, telling Boebert in a debate that the Republican party had become “nearly unrecognizable.” She centered her campaign on decades of military and national security work. In a statement she said she was honored by the district’s trust, that the race was about putting people first rather than party labels, and that she would fight as hard for those who did not vote for her.
Both candidates had only recently moved into the district. Boebert, who barely won in the third district previously, relocated in 2024 and accused Laubacher of moving and switching parties in order to run; she blamed “dark money” from Hollywood, citing donations by Barbra Streisand and Ryan Reynolds, for trying to “steal” her former seat. Boebert’s three terms were marked by controversy: she called the 2020 presidential election rigged, sought to carry a handgun on the House floor, tweeted “Today is 1776” on the morning of January 6 (later condemning the Capitol attack), was filmed in 2023 groping a date, vaping and being escorted from a Beetlejuice musical in Denver—prompting an apology and her divorce—and faced a pre-election ethics complaint alleging sexual relationships with three staffers and payment for silence, which she denied as politically motivated. A Maga loyalist who nonetheless pressed for release of the Epstein files, she drew Donald Trump’s scorn as a “carpetbagger” and “dumb”; his first veto of his second term killed her unanimously passed bill to fund drinking water for about 50,000 people in south-east Colorado. Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee chair Suzan DelBene said Boebert’s “sideshow is over.”
Continue in the app — vote & join in ➔