DENVER (AP) – Colorado’s 3rd congressional district, a stretch of ski resorts, national forests, farms, coal towns, and desert plains the size of Pennsylvania, has long spawned quiet politicians.
Voters have shifted a bit to the right, appreciating practicality, and for years rewarded representatives for achievements that fall under the national radar, such as the Hermosa Creek Watershed Act, an award from the former Republican Rep. Scott Tipton.
Until now.
The district’s newest representative, Republican Lauren Boebert, is an insolent, social media-savvy loyalist to former President Donald Trump who, like her fellow Georgia GOP representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, is stirring controversy with her far-right views. and challenging actions. But unlike Greene, Boebert is not from an overwhelming GOP, safe district.
That makes Boebert a test case for whether even a small partial advantage will inevitably amplify the most extreme elements of a party. The question posed by strategists in Colorado and elsewhere in this divided country is whether Boebert is a fluke – or the future.
“Are we so locked up, so partial that it overshadows everything, even in these nearby neighborhoods?” asked Floyd Ciruli, an experienced Colorado pollster. “Turning off such controversial forces and taking out an incumbent operator was not dangerous even in such a district.”
Boebert, 34, who owns a gun-themed restaurant in the town of Rifle, immediately started making waves. In her first month in office, she filmed a video claiming to carry a gun in violation of the District of Columbia’s anti-gun laws, advocated the right to bring firearms to the floor of the House, voted to vote for the election of President Joe Biden and tweeted about the whereabouts of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Jan. 6, leading to allegations – which she vehemently denies – that she was helping Trump loyalists who attacked the U.S. Capitol.
Her first foray into politics came in response to polarization across the aisle. In 2019, former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke, who was vying for the Democratic presidential nomination, promised to ban assault weapons. He held an event in the Denver suburb of Aurora, near the site of the Aurora Theater massacre in 2012.
Boebert made a four-hour drive from her home in Rifle to confront O’Rourke with his claim that he was taking “fucking” AR-15s. “Hell, no, you’re not,” she said.
Cristy Fidura, 43, who owns a trucking company in the former steel town of Pueblo with her husband, a former oilfield worker, never got involved in politics – until she saw that confrontation. She immediately became one of the first supporters of Boebert.
“I could deal with her like President Trump. He’s not a politician and she’s not a politician, and running this country is a business, ”said Fidura. “I feel like so many people are convinced that the government should make decisions for them and I think that’s sad, that’s scary.”
Marla Reichert, the outgoing president of the Pueblo County GOP, said voters in the district have long wanted someone who would vote for them in Washington and tell Democrats “hell, no” to overreach.
Tipton, a sitting president of five office-holders who upset Boebert in last year’s GOP primaries, “voted in the right way. People just felt he wasn’t there to fight the Democrats. He wasn’t on Fox News, reluctant, ”said Reichert.
In an interview, Boebert said the district’s voters would like to be disrupted. “My constituents are tired of getting along, as we often see with politicians,” she said.
Boebert insists she and the rest of the freshman lawmakers are the future, even in districts like hers.
“It’s the America First movement that you see nationally and certainly in my district,” she said.
Josh Penry, a veteran Republican strategist who represented the area in the Colorado state house, is skeptical that Boebert’s style will stick.
“There are very real limits to that shtick in rural Colorado, and so she only won by 51%,” said Penry. “When the hiss subsides, there are large blocks of voters who will be completely up for grabs and want to know that their congressman is trying to be part of the solution among the hits of the TV news broadcast.”
Boebert beat her Democratic opponent 51% to 45% in November. More Republicans than Democrats are registered voters, although the largest block is unaffiliated and the district is getting retirees and refugees from urban areas leaning to the left.
Democrats list potential challengers for 2022. While the Republican State Party has embraced Boebert, some in the GOP are whispering about a possible primary challenge.
Perhaps the biggest threat is redistribution. By 2022, an impartial committee will have redrawn the boundaries of Boebert’s district, which could become more Democratic or more Republican with the addition of a few neighboring communities.
Boebert’s first bills as a congressman – opposing Biden’s mandate to wear a mask on federal property and withholding funds for reentering the Paris climate accord and the World Health Organization – will go nowhere. But her disapproval of Biden’s pause at oil and gas drilling on federal lands, which covers 55% of the district, has been embraced by industry-dependent voters.
Republicans here have both praise and warnings for the Congressman.
Scott McInnis, a former six-term Republican congressman from the district, said high voltage partisan warfare is not getting results for the region’s voters. “You need to have good communication with the local communities so that you can quickly get what they need from the federal government, whether it’s a livestock grazing permit or a ski permit,” he said.
Janet Rowland, a Mesa County commissioner who advised Boebert on her campaign, said Boebert must continue to fight the Biden government’s efforts to suspend drilling on federal lands. She praised Boebert, but said the new congressman should work with Biden’s government if she can – and oppose it when she has to.
“Our residents are tired of ongoing attacks on both sides,” said Rowland. ‘Biden has won. He is our president. Let’s move on.”