Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) has reportedly decided not to resign her current post in the U.S. House ahead of an anticipated special election in Colorado’s 4th Congressional District set to follow the abrupt departure from Congress of Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colo.). Since you can’t hold two seats in Congress at the same time, that decision by Boebert presumably takes her out of the running to be the party’s pick for the special election, a nominee that reportedly will be decided by a local GOP committee rather than voters.
Boebert has been targeting the seat, having opted for an attempted district switch ahead of elections later this year after Buck announced earlier that he was leaving Congress in what was previously billed as a retirement at the end of his current term. But now, the stronger electoral position of nabbing local Republicans’ selection for the special election is left to some other Republican, setting Boebert back.
In her original district, which is Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District, Boebert was facing another campaign from Democratic candidate Adam Frisch, who nearly defeated her in the midterm elections in 2022, losing by merely hundreds of votes out of hundreds of thousands. The 4th District leans heavily Republican, meaning whoever comes out on top in the GOP’s candidate selection process seems likely to then win the general election, nabbing the sought term.
There will still be a regular electoral process held alongside the special election whose winner will complete Buck’s current term, though timing could mean that Republicans are voting in the primary for those regularly scheduled elections before the special election is officially won… though after local Republicans make their pick to run in the race. So whoever gets the nod could have an advantage of a nomination while lacking incumbency.
In theory, Buck could have meant to create some of these headaches for Boebert. Though he’s known as very conservative, he’s spoken out recently against moves like the House GOP’s impeachment ambitions targeting President Joe Biden and Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas. Buck voted against the latter prospect, which the GOP-controlled House ultimately approved.
