Colorado congressman Ken Buck, presiding over a very safe Republican district, planned to retire this fall and hand his seat to someone just like him. Unfortunately, embattled Colorado congresswoman Lauren Boebert, expecting to lose to a Democrat in her less-safe district, announced she was moving to Buck's district and muscled in on the GOP primary there. Last week, Ken Buck retired early, forcing an immediate special election and ruining Boebert's plan.
It triggered a special election in his district that will take place on 25 June and left Boebert with two equally unappealing choices. She could resign her post to run in the special election, giving Democrats the chance to flip her current seat. Or she could stay where she is and gamble on trying to unseat an incumbent in the 5 November general election.
She chose the latter. "I'm not leaving my constituents," she said in a statement that failed to acknowledge she had already decided to walk away from them in November. "I will not imperil the already very slim House Republican majority by resigning my current seat."
The statement also expressed anger at Buck, who outmaneuvered her and left her facing a seemingly narrow path to being a member of the next Congress. She accused Buck of "forcing an unnecessary special election on the same day" as Colorado's presidential preference primary, predicting that it would "confuse voters, result in a lame duck congressman on day one, and leave the fourth district [being vacated by Buck] with no representation for more than three months".
Boebert's disordered life—divorce, sex play with a date in the presence of children, half her family facing charges of one kind or another—guarantees attention but not necessarily success.
Previously: "I just kind of think of her as a lowlife" Colorado GOP voters reject Lauren Boebert
