Republican U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert won a return ticket to Congress, defeating Democrat Trisha Calvarese in Colorado’s deep red 4th Congressional District, according to the unofficial returns on Tuesday night.
Boebert, who moved into the district after a close call in her old seat, led Calvarese by about 10 points, with 53% to the Democrat’s 43% when the Republicans declared victory just before 9 p.m., after Calvarese conceded the race.
Libertarian nominee Hannah Goodman had 2.3%, and a pair of additional third-party candidates trailed.
The state’s most visible Republican — known for her aggressive advocacy of former President Donald Trump and the MAGA movement — Boebert switched districts at the beginning of the year after nearly losing her bid for a second term in 2022.
First elected to represent the Western Slope-based 3rd Congressional District in 2020, Boebert outpolled challenger Adam Frisch by just 546 votes in 2022, leading the Democrat to almost immediately declare he wanted a rematch in this year’s election.
Boebert announced she was heading east to the safer 4th Congressional District after Frisch shattered fundraising records and on the heels of a scandal that fueled international headlines for months last year, when Boebert and a male companion were ejected from the musical “Beetlejuice” for disruptive behavior.
The 4th CD, which includes suburban Douglas County, Loveland and Colorado’s Eastern Plains, had been represented for five terms by Republican Ken Buck, who first announced he wouldn’t seek reelection and then abruptly resigned from Congress this spring, citing the GOP’s fealty to Trump. Boebert didn’t run in the June special election to fill the remainder of Buck’s term, but she won the concurrent, crowded primary to vie for a full term.
Boebert faced a well-funded challenge from first-time candidate Democrat Trisha Calvarese, a former speech writer for the National Science Foundation who grew up in the district and moved back a year ago to help provide hospice care for her parents, who died within weeks of each other.
After winning her own crowded primary — on the same night she lost the special election to Republican Greg Lopez — Calvarese started pulling in massive small-dollar contributions, pitching herself nationwide as the Democrat challenging the high-profile Boebert.
Although there hasn’t been any polling by neutral parties released in the district an internal survey conducted by Calvarese’s campaign found unusually high negative ratings for Boebert and suggested that the district’s voters were open to voting for her opponent. While Calvarese has outraised and outspent Boebert since the primary, national forecasters haven’t budged, tagging the seat as safe for the Republican.
